For Hanna Haaslahti, the face is both a protective mask of social life and a one-of-a-kind living trace of ancestry. As she explains: “Every face symbolises an ancient family tree, people and beings from the past who find their current form in me. My face is their gift to me.”

Ancestors is an immersive installation in which visitors become progenitors of a virtually generated family. Audience members’ faces merge to create unique virtual descendants, carrying the lineage forward in digital form.

The experience begins with a startling encounter: meeting one’s digital doppelgänger. This virtual double, produced with a new type of imaging device, acts as a portal between the physical and virtual realms. Passing through this threshold, viewers are drawn into the narrative as active participants, transformed into protagonists whose virtual proxies continue the unfolding narrative.

Hanna Haaslahti (b. 1969) is a Helsinki-based media artist who explores interactivity as a central element of her practice. Advances in digital technology have broadened her toolkit and opened fresh directions for her work, which often takes the form of immaterial projections that come to life through audience interaction, creating moments of shared experience.

N.B. You are welcome to experience the work without sharing your face. If this is your choice, please refrain from entering the portal.