Fix: Care and Repair / Artists
For the exhibition FIX: Care and Repair, four new contemporary art pieces were commissioned through an open call. These works provided the impetus for curating other exhibition content. The selected artists are:
Jessica Andrey Bogush
Jessica Andrey Bogush (b. 1987) resides in Helsinki, Finland, and Berlin, Germany. They work with images and installations in which the fantastic and the familiar are indistinguishable.
Using circular materials and flaky compositions, Jessica tackles the contemporary state of images and objects, offering actions of interspecies appreciation. Their approach combines surprise and grotesque with care and consideration, focusing on the intersection of life and death, particularly within queer community and More-Than-Human Others.
In the FIX: Care and Repair exhibition Jessica Andrey Bogush welcomes you to explore the museum collections through an installation, focusing on the themes of care, exclusion and invisibility. Featuring contributions from curator and researcher Max Hannus and artist Ville Laurinkoski Jessica’s proposal explores the gesture of an invitation, bringing the question of what is to queer an archive and how caring for one often leads to the death of another.
Sini Henttu
Artist Sini Henttu (b. 1988) primarily works with video art, installations, and performances. In her works, Henttu explores the intersections of society and subjectivity through multimateriality. Often, the focal points of her pieces are the body and the various dimensions of touch. She is particularly intrigued by how materials affect us and how the affective experiences produced by objects feel in the body. Through her art, she aims to create spaces that examine different ways of experiencing.
In Henttu’s works for the FIX: Care and Repair exhibition, art and design seamlessly intertwine. Henttu’s video series Fantasman sylissä (In Phantasma’s Arms) invites imagining alongside chairs borrowed from the museums’ workspaces. The focal point of the piece, besides the objects themselves, is the sounds they produce and the affective experiences felt in the body.
Henttu graduated in 2022 from Aalto University with a master’s degree in Contemporary Design. The artist has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, residency programmes, as well as community-based and interactive performance work. Additionally, she has appeared as a video artist in various events, including Zodiak, Kiasma, Ateneum, as well as festivals.
Liisa Ryynänen
Liisa Ryynänen (b. 1994) is an architect focused on the history and theory of architecture, as well as being engaged in the field of visual arts. She explores and develops experimental presentation methods in architecture, and is interested in how they can aid in conceptualizing and sensing the environment in new ways. Ryynänen teaches architecture at Aalto University and has previously worked on architectural historical research projects in architectural firms. She graduated as an architect from the School of Arts, Design, and Architecture at Aalto University in 2020. Currently, she is pursuing a master’s programme in Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki.
In the FIX: Care and Repair exhibition Liisa Ryynänen’s piece Inventaario (Inventory) challenges us to reflect on our relationship with everyday office aesthetics, shabbiness, and wear and tear. Ryynänen asks how we could openly approach suspended ceilings or low-quality wall-to-wall carpeting added to the spaces by their users.
Helmi Kajaste ja Petra Vallila
Architect and musician Helmi Kajaste (b. 1986) is currently a doctoral researcher at Aalto University. Kajaste’s doctoral dissertation in architectural theory explores the concept of boundaries through the lens of cinema. Previously, she has addressed architecture and film in articles and in her book ‘Rakenna, kärsi ja unhoita’ [Build, Suffer, and Forget] published in 2020. Kajaste is also known as Draama-Helmi in the music scene. In 2023, she won the Teosto Prize for her album ‘Draama-Helmi kuistilla’.
For the FIX: Care and Repair exhibition Helmi Kajaste and poet Petra Vallila create a site-specific Siivousmusiikkia (Cleaning Music) sound installation for the museum space, combining spoken poetry and concrete (cleaning) music. The piece explores what sound constitutes interference and what belongs to the space.
Petra Vallila (b. 1983) is a poet, writer, and corporate communicator. For her, poetry serves as a research method to seek experiences and meanings that have not yet been articulated in factual texts. Through poetry, she aims to find freedom in negotiating things that are usually contractually defined. Vallila’s debut book ‘ehkä’ [Perhaps] was a nominee for the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize in 2022. The work shapes poetry around existence in a commercial company and a slightly unstable gaze built upon corporate language. Vallila graduated with a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2021. Leveraging her earlier master’s degree in political science, Vallila has for an extensive period held communication expert roles in multinational companies both in Finland and abroad.
‘FIX: Care and Repair’ is open at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum from April 26th to December 31st, 2024. Photos: Anni Koponen