MAIN EXHIBITION
“SOMPIO’S BYGONE WAY OF LIFE THROUGH THE EYES OF ANDREAS ALARIESTO”

The exhibition ”Sompio’s bygone way of life through the eyes of Andreas Alariesto” gives a glimpse to the centuries of Sompio Lapland’s history. Andreas Alariesto (1900–1989) depicts in his works how the first inhabitants, the forest Sámi, lived, how the first Finnish people settled to the area and what was the reindeer herding Sámis way of life. Reindeer herding Sámis, reindeer nomads, moved to Sompio at the end of the 19th century.
Author Rauni Kivilinna has described that Andreas Alariesto was a collector and a conservationist. Kivilinna writes: ”Andreas says his calling in life is to record the bygone way of life, not as a scientist would, no, Andreas recalls from memory. – – In his paintings true events, memories, stories, books and a life’s wisdom combine with the addition of a sprinkling of lore and beliefs, ancient sentiments and feelings.”
Sompio, as Alariesto knew it, is no more. Also the old way of life has disappeared. Large parts of Sompio were drowned under the Lokka basin. Riesto village where Andreas Alariesto was born, lies at the very bottom of the basin. We can see the lost world through the eyes of Andreas Alariesto, in his paintings.