Two-channel video installation, 2026
Anna Knappe & Amir Jan
Future Conditional is a two-channel video installation about family time and the conditions under which a future can be imagined. The work sets parents’ future-oriented wishes alongside children’s present-tense thoughts, creating a split between adult projection and the everyday present of the child.
Filmed with Afghan families in Finland, the installation moves between winter playgrounds and domestic interiors. Parents speak in public outdoor spaces associated with children, visibly exposed to cold and snow. Children appear indoors, surrounded by the warmth, objects, and rhythms of everyday life. The contrast gives the work a physical structure: the future is spoken from a place of exposure, while the present unfolds inside domestic space.
The families’ lives are shaped by residence permits, employment contracts, family ties, and shifting migration categories. These conditions enter the work through speech, gesture, place, weather, and the pressure placed on the future. Future Conditional treats the family image as a site where care, uncertainty, expectation, and continuity are held together.
