English Information：Salla Tykka and others: Finnish Video Art
Salla Tykka and others: Finnish Video Art
A survey of contemporary artist moving image from Finland will be screened at the Maison Franco-Japonaise tomorrow. Eight artists’ work will be presented, courtesy of AV-arkki, a non-profit film distributor established in 1989 to promote the international presence of some 180 filmmakers. As well as including Iraqi-Finnish artist Adel Abidin’s humorous film depicting a light-sabre battle in a workplace (that was included in Iraq’s pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale), the screening will feature two films by Salla Tykka.
Salla TYKKÄ, Giant／2014
Tykka is based in Helsinki and makes photographic series as well as delicate moving image work exploring spaces as diverse as gymnasiums, caves, and zoos. Interested in the psychological and emotional power of places, Tykka’s films encourage us to think about how spaces and places make us feel.
In ZOO (2006) a woman takes photographs of animals caged in a zoo, but soon her position becomes complicated, and it is almost as if she has empathized so much as to have metamorphosed into their position.
Giant (2014) transports us to Romania, and the old fashioned gymnasiums of two boarding schools in which young gymnasts are training. Interviews with some of the gymnasts form the calm and quietly stilted soundtrack. Shots in the gymnasiums are precisely framed, the focus moves in and out of depth, and the chalky colors of the gymnasium’s mats and trampolines add to the film’s slightly otherworldly atmosphere.