Reciprocities

The Reciprocities exhibition artists shine a critical light on society’s structures and on the values that define them. The exhibition continues Artsi’s exhibition series on societal issues and is on display 12.2–30.5.2021.

Reciprocity is based on mutual interaction in which both sides respect and treat each other the same way. Artsi’s exhibition brings together contemporary artists and works that deal with power relations, practices and systems in society. These structures categorize groups of people or individuals according to how well they match the prevailing norms.

The exhibition’s themes can be found in various parts of people’s lives, for example, in health care, in work, and in everyday routines. Who do we depend on? Who has the power to decide on the issues that affect us, and how do those decisions influence our lives? What is a norm? The exhibition is set against the current exceptional situation, which has made these questions more relevant than ever.

Caroline Suinner’s object installations consist, for instance, of syringes, tablets, rhinestones, and pills. Combined with utility objects, such as a shoe, the artworks express the everyday activities and feelings of a person when illness is at the centre of their life. How do we find ways to be and to live when our body’s ability to function is maintained with the aid of medicines?

Antti Eskelinen’s drawings delve into the everyday life of the unemployed person and into rehabilitative work. How are the mechanisms of society set in motion when the individual is not productive in the eyes of society, in other words does not correspond to the norms of the worker? Nayab Noor Ikram’s interactive installation mimics an open-office cubicle, and lets exhibition visitors converse with an artificial intelligence.

Harold Hejazi’s hip-hop fantasy adventure is about the life of a fictive, Helsinki-resident character Harriharri. Harriharri is a newcomer to Finland, and he arrives here with high hopes. Despite his earnest efforts, he encounters obstacles to integration into Finnish society. To win the most challenging levels of the game Harriharri has to battle against bureaucracy and exclusion.

In her lecture performance and installation Sepideh Rahaa, too, draws on everyday life and her journey in Finnish society. Rahaa combines her Iranian heritage with her nearly one decade lived experience in Finland. Using poetry, storytelling and languages (Farsi, Finnish and English) the performance will be an investigation into norms, structures and borderlines in pursuit of a place called home.

The exhibition is given a historical perspective by Lauri Astala’s installation that draws on pseudoscience and by Ali Akbar Mehta and varialambo’s (Varia Sjöström and Hatz Lambo) work, which deals with exceptional periods from 3000 BCE up to the present day.

The majority of the works in the exhibition are new. The artists are: Matti Aikio, Lauri Astala, Jessie Bullivant, Antti Eskelinen, Harold Hejazi, Nayab Noor Ikram, Ali Akbar Mehta and varialambo (Varia Sjöström, Hatz Lambo), Aleksi Pietikäinen, AnnaLeena Prykäri, Sepideh Rahaa, and Caroline Suinner.

Performances in the exhibition:

• Ali Akbar Mehta and varialambo 14.4. (CANCELLED), 16.5.2021 (CANCELLED)

• Harold Hejazi 24.4.2021 (POSTPONED TO 25.9.2021)

• Sepideh Rahaa 15.5.2021 (CANCELLED)

Exhibition online