Palmgren’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is inspired by the river Kokemäenjoki which runs through his hometown of Pori where he made boat trips with his brother´s yacht in his boyhood. Palmgren was inspired by the movements and rhythms of the various parts of the river; its rapids, shores and descent into the sea.

Palmgren’s experience of the river’s movement, both aesthetic and emotional, and its subsequent transformation into his musical composition, serves as an interesting starting point for a contemporary visualisation work that expands thematic exploration into the intricate and increasing effects of human activity on rivers and their delicate ecosystems.

While rivers have always been a crucial enabler of various human cultures throughout history, their exploitation has grown exponentially throughout the industrial and postindustrial eras. Further uninhibited over-utilisation and reckless environmental damage to these ecological lifelines will eventually endanger the continuity of most human habitats, and the living environments of countless species.

The visualisation does not aim to depict rivers as the idealised "nature", as an object to admire and as such something that can easily be categorised as the "mythical other”. We aim to encourage a view that sees rivers as an organic part of humanity, and a hope for sustained co-existence of all cultures, human and non-human.