INDEPENDENCE THROUGH THE LENSES Juha Arvid Helminen Sara Hornig Jaakko Kahilaniemi Riitta Päiväläinen Harri Pälviranta Juha Suonpää Juuso Westerlund
Independence Through the Lenses
Catalogue
www.backlight.fi/independence-through-the-lenses
Photographs: © Juha Arvid Helminen, Sara Hornig, Jaakko Kahilaniemi, Riitta Päiväläinen, Harri Pälviranta, Juha Suonpää, Juuso Westerlund
Organizer: Backlight Photo Festival / Photographic Centre Nykyaika In collaboration with: Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center (Budapest, HU), FLUSS – Society for the promotion of photo- and media art / Lower Austria (Wolkersdorf, AU), Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography (Ljubljana, SLO), Photography Association Organ Vida (Zagreb, CRO), M. Žilinskas Art Gallery (Kaunas, LTU), Latvian Museum of Photography (Riga, LAT), Photoport (Bratislava, SVK), Photography museum in Šiauliai (Šiauliai, LTU) Curator: Tuula Alajoki Producers: Tuula Alajoki and Janne Kaakinen Exhibition Logistics: CHS / Heikki Mattola
Texts: Tuula Alajoki and artists Proof reading: Anna Sääskilahti Graphic design: Johanna Havimäki Printing: Pauker Holding Nyomdaipari Kft., Budapest 2017 Edition: 500 Paper: Multioffset 250 and 140 g/m² ISBN: ISBN 978-952-99626-7-9
INDEPENDENCE THROUGH THE LENSES Independence Through the Lenses is an exhi bition tour of seven contemporary Finn ish photographic artists: Juha Arvid Hel minen, Sara Hornig, Jaakko Kahilaniemi, Riitta Päiväläinen, Harri Pälviranta, Juha Suonpää, and Juuso Westerlund. Independence and the sense of belong ing generate comfort and refuge, creating both an emotional bond and an idea of a place you can always return to. The expe rience of independence, cultural traditions and memories shape our ways of seeing and looking at ourselves as well as others. National identity can meld us into familiar characterisations while it also gives us mo mentary uniqueness. Autonomy and free dom of expression enable multi-layered national and individual identities, which
always encapsulate the individual’s essence and immanent value system. Bearing in mind our own involvement in both form ing the image of a nation and being among its closest viewers, one may wonder how it is possible to describe independence, homeland, and nationality when common values are getting harder and hard to de fine. Independence Through the Lenses is realized together with the Backlight Photo Festival and its international partners in Hunga ry, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Latvia as part of the Pro gramme on the centenary of Finland’s in dependence in 2017. Curator Tuula Alajoki
JUHA ARVID HELMINEN The Invisible Empire Juha Arvid Helminen (b. 1977, Hel足 sinki) graduated from the Lahti Insti足 tute of Design in 2010. His art deals with the misuse of power through the aesthetics associated with it. The care足 fully composed, subtle photos with covered characteristics raise ques足 tions on what it is to be an individual. The artworks of Helminen have been featured in galleries and publications worldwide.
The Cabinet, 2014
JUHA ARVID HELMINEN The Invisible Empire
The Postman, 2011 Humanity, 2013
We want people to be free and independent but it is hard to understand that, for many, freedom still means to be just like others – especially in rough times. Independence is delightfully diffi cult to define. Humans are social animals who learn by mimicking each other. The Invisible Empire consists of armies, royalty and both religious and mystic movements. These are not usually associated with independence but with its polar opposite: tradition, individual as part of conti nuity and a tightly formed group. Authoritarian movements have often gained power by empha sizing both national and personal independence. This pattern familiar from the 1930’s totalitarian regimes seems to be slowly repeating itself. Indi vidual independence stands for the freedom of speech, expression, religion and sexual orienta tion. Still, others’ lives are controlled by populist and xenophobic movements which are growing in popularity. To be able to hold on to the rights we have gained and to guarantee them also to the ones still lacking them, we have to continue the dialogue. This photo series is part of the dis course.
SARA HORNIG Our Daily Bread Sara Hornig (b. 1984, Augsburg, Germany) studies in her final year of photography at the Lahti Institute of Design and Arts. In her work, she addresses political and social matters by means of documentary photogra phy. She is interested in portraying timeless themes that occur in modern times. Hornig also has a BA degree in Social Services, and these two in terests, photography and social work, complement each other. With both mediums, she has the opportunity to get a closer understanding of huma nity.
Our Daily Bread, 2014
SARA HORNIG Our Daily Bread In Finland, there are more than 20,000 people who receive food from bread line every week. Over 90% of them would not make do without food aid. After monthly expenses, 50% of the people who receive aid get by with 100 euros or less. Food aid was thought to be a tem porary solution for poor people in Finland in the 1990s. Now it’s a per manent and continuing phenomenon all over the country. At first, most of the people receiving food aid were single solitary men. Today those in need come from various backgrounds; there are people from mothers to students and immigrants, and even working people may be in need of aid. All the bags were shot on location at Myllypuro breadline in Helsinki, Fin land. Our Daily Bread, 2014
JAAKKO KAHILANIEMI 100 Hectares of Understanding Jaakko Kahilaniemi (b. 1989, Toija la) is currently studying for an MA in Photography at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architec ture in Helsinki. Recent exhibitions include the solo shows 100 Hectares of Understanding at The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, FI, 2016), and Tapiola–The First Act at Gallery Titanik (Turku, FI, 2014). Further more, his work has been exhibited in art fairs like Vienna Contemporary (Wien, AT, 2016) and Paris Photo ’16 (Paris, FR, 2016). Kahilaniemi is represented by Gallery Taik Persons in Berlin.
Picked Fragments, 2016
JAAKKO KAHILANIEMI 100 Hectares of Understanding 100 Hectares of Understanding is Kahila niemi’s attempt to understand the 100 hectares of forest he owns. His work ing method is based on open-minded experimentalism. His photographs are testimonial, traces of his striving for understanding and awareness. Kahilaniemi’s project 100 Hectares of Understanding includes both tangible and intangible approaches and visu alizations of what forest and forestry mean to him, and how the unknown can become familiar. His work reflects and studies what nature has to offer to urbanized people, and it is an attempt to create new ways of think ing as well as experiencing and feeling the forest. 100 Hectares of Understanding brings together the found objects, photographically recorded actions, sculptures, and visual secrets he has created. Located Fragments, 2016 Imaginary Borderline, 2015
RIITTA PÄIVÄLÄINEN Imaginary Meetings Riitta Päiväläinen (b. 1969, Maanin ka) graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 2002. She is one of the most international ly recognized Finnish contemporary photographic artists. She has held nu merous solo exhibitions in Finland, other Nordic countries, Europe and Japan. Her work is included in several major public and private collections both in Finland and abroad.
Nest, 2005
RIITTA PÄIVÄLÄINEN Imaginary Meetings The art of Riitta Päiväläinen has often been called ”everyday archaeology” or ”unwritten history”. She is interested in the silent history of old and used clothes and fabrics, which is present and absent at the same time. It stimulates her curiosity to realize that one can never really know what the history of a piece of clothing or fabric holds, or who has worn it. The theme develops and transforms into new inter pretations and directions, series by series. The land scape, disappearing or already gone traces and different phenomena in nature, such as ice and wind, are central themes in the art of Päiväläinen. She makes installations of clothes and fabrics that blend into the scenery. Those installations radiate with the artist’s subjective experience of nature and landscape.
Twine, 2014
In the River Notes series, several meters of ribbon make up different formations in the scenery and create nets, webs, nests and bridges. Water and re flections refer to the subconscious, memory and the past. With the ribbons, Päiväläinen creates a begin ning of a story, and the viewer can continue it by piecing together his or her own visions and emotions based on the image.
HARRI PÄLVIRANTA With Guns One Can Harri Pälviranta (b. 1971, Finland) is a photographic artist. He holds a Doctor of Arts degree in photograp hy from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki (2012). His works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in ternationally, the latest group shows being held at Tenerife Espacio de las Artes in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain; Metropolitan Arts Center in Belfast, Northern Ireland; and Fo tografie Forum Frankfurt, Germany. Solo shows have been held at Gallery H2O in Barcelona, Spain; CFF gallery in Stockholm, Sweden; and Tampere Art Museum in Finland. In 2007, Pälviranta won the prestigious PHo toEspaña Descubrimientos award.
News Portrait # 4 – School shooter Kretschmer, Germany, 2013
HARRI PÄLVIRANTA With Guns One Can
News Portrait # 6 – School shooter Cho, USA, 2013 Imprint # 15, 2011
With Guns One Can presents photo graphic, post-documentary works from the series News Portraits, Imprint and Touch. By combining these recent series (2010–2014) Harri Päl viranta faces various, overlapping violent realities: the fascination with firearms, the act of shooting as such, school shootings as a global pheno menon, and the mediatization of vio lence. News Portraits depicts the perpe trators of some of the most fatal school shootings in the world. Each portrait is comprised of gun and shooting re lated local news, containing 1,050 different news headlines. Imprint se ries, on the other hand, approaches violence and shooting from a material and performative perspective. Touch, on its part, visualizes the relationship between a man and a gun. Togeth er the series constitute an open, yet varied approach to gun violence.
JUHA SUONPÄÄ Holy Melancholy Juha Suonpää (b. 1963, Helsinki) is a photographer, filmmaker, researcher and teacher. He graduated in educa tion from the University of Tampere and gained a doctorate in fine art pho tography from the University of Art and Design, Helsinki. Suonpää lectures on photography, writes academic papers on related to pics and arranges regular photo graphic exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Juha Suonpää is currently the Head of the Fine Art Programme at Tampere University of Applied Sci ences.
Santa Ophelia, 2009
JUHA SUONPÄÄ Holy Melancholy Holy Melancholy critically studies the national stereotypes, the canons of Western art expres sion and visual mannerisms. The artworks of Holy Melancholy are inspired by Michel Fou cault’s critique of knowledge and the definition of pastiche by Richard Dyer. The art pastiches created through borrowing, exaggeration and indirect humour work as both an artistic re search as well as a critique of the formation of national identity. Juha Suonpää has identified a certain artistic “hit recipe” based on the artistic research of form analysis. In the works of the project, he applies this recipe with dark-humoured seriousness. The starting point of Holy Melancholy’s artworks are the paintings familiar from art history and Finnish romantic nationalism.
Holy Melancholy (video still), 2010 Curse, 2009
Holy Melancholy looks at fine art with tongue in cheek. Santa Claus is seen as an allegory for be ing Finnish, and through him national stereo types are dismantled – including the melancholy nature of Finns.
JUUSO WESTERLUND Jackpot Like the heat when entering a sauna, Juuso Westerlund’s (b. 1975, Helsinki) images are overwhelmingly intense and weird, sometimes grimly cold, yet warm. It is the rare kind of photogra phy where you just have to see anoth er, and another, and when you think you recognize something you are only thrown into another scene from daily life that you most likely haven’t seen before, at least not photographed. Not like this. The photographs reveal a never ending curiosity and love of people, joy of the absurd and surreal. Never boring.
Jackpot, 2010–2016
JUUSO WESTERLUND Jackpot “I was born into 1970’s Finland. At the time, children were taught that to be born in Fin land equals winning the lottery. Jackpot – that is what Finland was. One of the most educated, most equal, most democratic, least corrupted and most emancipated countries in the world. We are finding ourselves on the boundary of two worlds. On one hand, we are brought up in a stern, Lutheran, straightforward northern cul ture. On the other hand, we are part of a com plicated and often frightening, globalized world. ‘One leg in a barn, the other on a tennis court.’ Finns are doing the same as many other nationa lities: curling up inwards, fearing the outside world. Nationalism is rising, and suspicions against foreigners are becoming more com mon among ordinary citizens. Jackpot presents the images of a northern backyard and natio nal characteristics with a strange quality. People whose jackpot has gone out of date.”
Jackpot, 2010–2016