Maria Koskivirta: The Universe Is a Machine

Maria Koskivirta's new film The Universe Is a Machine (2025, 8 min 25 s) is free to watch at Forum Box gallery from 7-30 August 2026, Tuesday-Sunday 12-17.

The work explores the idea of reality as mechanical, automatic, and perhaps indifferent. It questions the perception of the universe as alive or spiritually meaningful, presenting it instead as cold and predetermined - like a machine operating without feeling or significance.

The film builds through slowly unfolding, fragmented visual sequences: liminal architectural voids, skin torn apart under macroscopic scrutiny, and a scanning, misaligned light beam. The collected images dismantle elements and illuminate the dispersal of body and space, along with the notion of disappearance.

The film's language moves between prayer, warning, and submission, drawing from personal loss and collective tragedy.