LOST AND FOUND: Juha Maki-Jussila / Anne Siirtola / Milja Viita 6.8. – 28.8. 2010
Gallery Suomesta, Potsdamer Strasse 91, Tiergarten – Berlin
Lost and Found is the theme that brings together works of three Finnish video and installation artists; Juha Maki-Jussila, Anne Siirtola and Milja Viita. The open-ended narratives of Maki-Jussila explore the themes of disappearance and structures of remembrance. The black and white 16mm film of Milja Viita is based on the lost letters written during the WWII, which now are memorised in her poetical documentary film. The main character in Anne Siirtolas’s montage Circle seems to be sometimes lost in her crazy garden while trying to follow the course of the seasons.
Works in exhibition:
Juha Maki-Jussila: Night train (video)
Night train is an uncanny semi-abstract montage: something strange happens on a train journey through the dark landscape.
Juha Maki-Jussila: Well (video)
Well is a bubbling plunge into the deep waters of the subconscious, from where the forgotten memories rise to the surface.
Still image from Night train
Anne Siirtola: Circle (video)
In my video work I use the garden as a metaphor for the female mind and body. I have filmed events in my garden and greenhouse all the way from the spring until the late fall: weeding, caring, garden pests, ripening and wilting. The garden exposes different kind of faces: Mellow and blooming, but also cruel and macabre.
Anne Siirtola: Room of Growth (Installation with moving picture)
I have darned together worn and patched-up pieces of clothing, full of holes. They form the well-worn walls, or the skin of the work. The materials have been collected from many persons and generations. The wear and tear and patches illustrate the numerous decades the clothes originate from. Each garment has been softened by life. The events inside the room are reflected on the walls as silhouettes, lighting up the work.
Room of Growth
Milja Viita: Missing Letters 1939- 1945 (16 mm bw-film/dvd)
Missing Letters is based on the the lost correspondence between my grandparents Aino and Allan Rusinen during the WWII. The original letters were hidden after the war years and never found again. This film is based on the memories and visions of the nine children of Aino and Allan´s who rewrote (and read) the correspondence on the name of their parents. The original letters remain missing. Work is in the collection of Finnish National Gallery/Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma. Shooting format 16mm B/W-film, dur: 22min. Year released 2008. Dialogue in Finnish with English subtitles.
Missing Letters
Artists info
Juha Mäki-Jussila
Born in 1967 in Ilmajoki, Finland, and currently resident in Karkkila, Juha Mäki-Jussila’s media are video and short film combined with sculptural oddities. In his recent video works Mäki-Jussila has applied frame-by-frame technique to create “movement of illusion” rather than illusion of movement. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki in 1997 and has since participated in several exhibitions and video festivals in Finland and abroad.
Anne Siirtola (born 1967, currently lives and works in Karkkila, Finland)
In my installations I am using various techniques, combining moving picture and sound. For the past few years I have been involved in community art. I have recorded my own and other people’s lives and asked what is important and worthy in life. I often use found, second-hand or thrown-away items as material. Traces of decay and change – processes that take place in human mind and matter – are present in my work.
Milja Viita (born 1974, lives and works in Karkkila, Finland)
I am a visual artist who works with moving image and sound. My main interest has been on memories and stories, but also on the connection between humankind and nature, the speechless communication between a man and his surrounding.
Welcome to the opening reception on Thursday, 5.8. 2010, 6 pm.!
