Jaakko Pietiläinen

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  • What goes up and never comes down (2023)

    Stoneware, glazing, stainless steel, water pump

    A fountain sculpture exhibited at Solar Noon group exhibition at Taattisten tila 19 July – 19 Aug 2023. Exhibition curated by Riikka Thitz.

    Installation photos: Aukusti Heinonen

  • Sentences (2023)

    UHD, duration 20:00

    Initially exhibited at the Architectural Digest solo show at gallery Sinne 15 Apr – 21 May 2023.

    Currently showing the exhibition Feels Like Home at Museum of Contemporary Arti Kiasma, Helsinki 12 Jan 2024 – 12 Jan 2025.

    Sentences is a 20-minute architectural journey into the interiors of late capitalism. The film follows the POV of a protagonist on their passage through an endless building complex. The protagonist is a spectre imprisoned in their home like the Minotaur in its labyrinth. Despite them being able to walk freely through walls and jump between floors the building is ultimately inescapable. It sentences the protagonist – and the viewer – into an eternal looping journey. By its vast, chaotic and eclectic setting, Sentences places the viewer into a state of constant liminality. A passage leads nowhere except into another passage, another intermediate state. The film studies dissociation and disorientation within contemporary capitalism composed of digital labour platforms, social media and algorithmic surveillance. Drawing on the aesthetics of computer games, the at times eerily realistic Sentences also touches on the ambiguity of the photographic image in a time of an increasingly automated image production.

    Author, director, editor: Jaakko Pietiläinen
    Singers: Helsinki Chamber Choir / Eleriin Müüripeal, Keri Kallio, David Hackston, Martti Anttila, Riku Laurikka 
    Sound design: Tatu Nenonen
    VFX: Olli Leppänen
    Color Grading: Jonatan Sundström

    Installation view from the exhibition Feels Like Home at Kiasma, Helsinki 2024. Photo © Pirje Mykkänen / Finnish National Gallery

  • I Love new (2021)

    Glove, down jacket, aluminum, steel, plastic, electric motor

    Exhibitied initially at Ebb and Flow, Kuva/Tila Inaugural Exhibition, Helsinki, Finland, Winter 2021–22, curated by Riikka Thitz.

    Viisikerroksinen, nelikerroksinen, kuusi kerrosta. Toteava, ei liian keikaroiva, aavistus teollisuusromantiikkaa. Hämmentyneet, onnelliset, pyörryttävän upeat.

    Halla, Haavoittunut enkeli, Hyökkäys, Kullervon kirous ja Sammon taonta. Ei liian valmista, ei liian sliipattua.

    Viisikerroksinen, nelikerroksinen, kuusi kerrosta. Punatiilinen muuri. Vailla kattoa oleva keskiaikainen rauniokivikirkko. Tai raunioluostari.

    Inspiroiva massiivinen näköala. Laaja ulkoterassi, avarahkot ikkunat. Ajan hampaan iskemät. Vanhimpaan kerrostumaan.

    Viisikerroksinen, nelikerroksinen, kuusi kerrosta. Kulttuurikeskittymät tekevät kaupungeista houkuttelevia paikkoja luoville ja lahjakkaille ihmisille, jotka sitten edistävät monin tavoin kaupunkien menestystä.

    Ihanaa palautetta.

    Cut-up artikkelista Jukka Perttu: “Pyörryttävän upeat tilat”. Helsingin sanomat 7.9.2021

    Five stories, four stories, six stories. Descriptive, not too dandy, a touch of industrial romanticism. Confused, happy, dazzlingly spectacular.

    The Frost. The Wounded Angel. The Attack. Kullervo Cursing. The Forging of the Sampo. Not too finished, not too polished.

    Five stories, four stories, six stories. A red-brick wall. The ruins of a medieval stone church with no roof. Or the ruins of a monastery.

    An inspiring, massive landscape. A large open deck, fairly extensive windows. Hit by the ravages of time. Up to the oldest layer.

    Five stories, four stories, six stories. Cultural hubs in cities attract creative and talented people, who will then promote the cities’ success in many ways.

    Wonderful feedback.

    A cut-up from Jukka Perttu’s article: “Pyörryttävän upeat tilat” (‘Dazzlingly spectacular premises’). Helsingin Sanomat 7 Sep 2021

  • Home Alone (2021)

    Two-channel video installation, UHD/HD, duration 10:00

    Exhibitied initially at Easy Fit!, group exhibition, Sörnäisten Rantatie, Helsinki 13–29 Aug 2021

    Part 1

    Part 2

    Installation images: Bryan Saragosa

  • Lar (2020)

    Digital image triptych

    Exhibited at Goblin doors, special group presentation organised by Sakari Tervo, hosted by Ofluxo.

    “All artists were commissioned to produce an artwork inspired by the Christmas decor ‘Tonttuovi’ (Elf door). In addition, a writer was asked to produce a text with similar inspiration. Photos were taken at the end November 2020, at the strategy consulting company Noren’s office, Helsinki, Finland.”

  • Shrouds have no pockets (2020)

    HD video, duration 29:40

    Exhibited initially at Kuvan Kevät, Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts MFA Degree Show 2020

    N.N. is on a holiday. He’s enjoying a complimentary stay at a premium hotel accompanied by a curated menu of equally complimentary experiences. In return, N.N. is asked to take a daily trip with the iGum – a proprietary, smartphone operated device, capable of accessing, altering and recording the consciousness of its user through dental nerve access. 

    Shrouds Have no Pockets is a post-cinematic sequel of Chris Markers La Jetée. Combining 3d-animation and filmed POV-footage it studies the relation of an assumed immediate reality and mediated experiences such as dreams, memories, games or films. Shrouds Have no Pockets shares its key themes of time, perception and memory with La Jetée and relocates them into contemporary contexts of late capitalism, ubiquitously circulated images and an increasingly automated visual production.

    Director: Jaakko Pietiläinen
    Cinematography: Jonatan Sundström
    Sound Editing: Tatu Nenonen
    Visual Effects: Olli Leppänen
    3D Scanning: Antti Puomio 
    Actors: Jaakko Pietiläinen, Elina Vainio (voice), Dan Davis (voice), Elena Leeve, Olli Kontulainen, Leena Nordberg, Eric Christison (voice), Maija Timonen (voice), Henna Vainio (voice)

    Installation view from the exhibition In Search of the Present at Emma Espoo Museum of Modern Art, 27 Aug 22 – 15 Jan 23. Photo © Paula Virta / EMMA.

  • Kasa (2020)

    Performance

    Working group: Hanna Ahti (convener), Maija Mustonen, Jaakko Pietiläinen, Masi Tiitta and Riikka Thitz

    Performed 2–3 Oct 2020 at Titanik gallery, Turku, 16–17 Oct 2020 at Mad House, Helsinki, 8 Sep 2021 at Monitoimitila O and 11 Sep 2021 at Fiskars Onoma 25th anniversary exhibition.

    Mound is a performance that explores affinity, touch, proximity, and distance as embodied experiences. The working group approaches the project by examining the fluidity and friction pertaining to coming together. It poses the question, how can we live and be together, accepting our similarities and differences as equally important modes of being and interacting. Mound strives for a world in which things are not separated and categorized. It is a performance, happening, a collection of passing moments, shapes, and transformations, which move fluidly in the inbetweenness, call uniformity into question, and make new suggestions.

    Production: Mad House Helsinki, Ehkä-tuotanto, Arte ry

  • Invited guests (2019)

    Steel, Phosphorescent paint, plaster, concrete

    Permanent public sculpture in Nikkilä former psychiatric hospital area, Sipoo, Finland

  • Housing fair (2018)

    3 channel HD video, stereo audio, duration 10:50

    Voices: Anna-Mari Karvonen, Samuli Niittymäki and Elina Vainio

    Initially exhibited at Sorbus Gallery, Helsinki, 13 Oct–14 Nov, 2018

    “Housing Fair is an annual event held in varying locations around Finland. These fairs are set up in different areas where actual houses are built and decorated for the audience to visit. After each fair, people will move in and start living at the area, but Jaakko Pietiläinen’s Housing Fair is a rather different experience. In this computer generated three-channel video, we are faced with a typical residential area with common-or-garden houses, but not all is what it seems. The new residents have evaporated, but all the houses and robot lawn mowers, the whole infrastructure, is continuing like nothing ever happened.”

  • PET (2017)

    Performance

    06–13 Dec 2017 at Kiasma Theatre, in conjunction with the exhibition ARS17 – Hello World!, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

    Working group: Mikko Hynninen, Eeva Muilu, Jaakko Pietiläinen, Jani-Matti Salo, Antti Salminen, Riikka Thitz, Masi Tiitta & Elina Vainio