Antichambre (Flow Festival 2015)

The chambre is filled with intimate obstacles: the soundscape consists of noise, sounds, beeps, and occasionally, resonances of piano string machinery.

 Diamond needle of the LP player carves record made out of stone. The sound of silence, the diorite dust amplified through a sound system in Laura Könönen's (b. 1980) Only One and All produces a meditative soundscape around kinetic sculpture from year 2010. "Time is a destructive force of existence. Stone as a material sets the illusion of stability in being in time and space, it is the most extreme silence in the world. There's nothing less than infinity and void, love and death." Könönen graduated as MFA from Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2012, and has been exhibiting in most prominent exhibitions in Finland, as well as been nominated as Ars Fennica candidate in 2015.

A box with it's wooden structures painted with bright colours is ringing synthesized psychedelic noises, accompanied with an animation of the painting process from the screen. The box with the sounds of it's own painting hails the spirit of Eastern European animation with their imaginative soundtracks. Alexei Gordin is a multidisciplinary artist born in 1989 in Tomsk, Russia. He recieved his BA in Estonian art academy in 2011 and currently doing his MA in Kuvataideakatemia, painting department.   His art is mostly characterized by ironic way of expression, inspired by conditions of contemporary liberal society. 

ZERO OK, a human-sized "0" with led light constellation forming letters "OK" above it. Kristina Sedlerova is interested in the inconsistency of the human nature, the attraction of the mankind towards building systems, creating concepts and the need to believe in them. The nocturnal star constellation of led lights emphasize the aesthetics of tribalistic night life that gathers in clubs and other venues around the frequencies that move the mind, the body and the soul. Kristina Sedlerova (b.1987) is currently studying in the MFA program of the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki in the Sculpture department. Kristina enjoys working both with small- and large scale projects, moving from spacial design to making small-scale kinetic sculptures.

Installation with a speakers, electronics and 35mm optical film loop is hanging on the ceiling. The loop is in motion, rotating and creating an animated form. There is no visual projection of the film but a direct translation of the visual information into sound. The method of this transformation is optical sound, a analog technique used in film projectors to playback soundtrack that has been optically stored on the film. Optical soundtrack is located on the edge of film, besides the visual image. In this installation film loop is flowing freely and gently touching the ground. It is being exposed to air currents, dust and other interactions. This freedom in movement and the exposure of the film material expands the translation outside the original optical soundtrack. Film frames,  perforation, optical soundtrack, scratches and dust take all equally part into creating a changing soundscape. Tero Niskanen, artist and experimental musician, and Jani Purhonen, artist focusing on sound and new media, realised they might share a small part of their brain. They began working on installations using uncontrollable film loops, entities created for further explorations in spacetime.

"Cheeks" - Strangely familiar, skin coloured shape out of silicone is set on a black sculpture stand. It is reacting to bass frequencies from concerts and performances of the exhibition by shaking and vibrating its carnal shapes made out of silicone. The work unites innovatively different materials into an elegant composition of forms, adding an up-to-date layers to the tradition of contemporary sculpture. Electronically prepared butt visualizes the physical force of sound and reminds the spectator where the groove is supposed to hit: shake that thing!  Emma Jääskeläinen is studying the sculpture deparment of the University of the Arts. Her work can be described as playful, physical and to the point. 

In contrast, from the ceiling there is hanging a pendulum made out of iron letters. "Random Letters Found from a Dumpster" - Emptiness, insignificance, decorativeness, hoax, self-deception, ponderous words… A composition out of iron and light, based on more or less nihilistic approach of producing art work. Latin letters can after all be understood continuing the foinicean tradition of notating sound, speech, and in Byström's case, silent exclamation of a young contemporary artist in the spirit of Munch and others. Otto Byström is an artist studying MFA in Finnish Academy of Fine Arts whose works, in his words, "tingle the outstretched and fragmented bubble bobble where you and I unconsciously fumble."

There is also piano, inviting the musical talents to touch it's keys... But one needs not to touch it to play it: Kytömäki's "Untitled" sculpture is a piano prepared with DC motors that is triggered by the precence of the viewer, filling the space with its intervening resonances . The piece playfully comments on the tradition of western avantgarde compositions, automatic music or even the saloons of western films, as well as extends the auditive possibilities of traditional instrument anchored to 12-tone harmonic systems.  Antti Kytömäki is a Helsinki based artist who votes for the Finns Party and makes works about loneliness, politics and the triviality of the art world. He is interested about sound and movement as elements of sculptures.

The sounds of the exhibition are not restricted only to soundwaves! Erno-Erik Raitanen's "Finlandia" is a FM-transmission at 98,0 Mhz, that visitors can listen also through their own cellphone radios. Raitanen has combined interpretations of Finladia symphone from around the globe and mixed them together into a collage that does not sound the original at all, but emphasizes the differences in interpretations. The different tempos result in atonalic masses that carry very different kind of patriotic associations, if any at all. Erno-Erik Raitanen is an artist and photographer. At the moment Raitanen works with sound, installations, sculptures and radios. He is born in Lahti, having studied in the UK and USA before enterint the master program in Time and Space Arts department. Raitanen has participated in various exhibitions e.g. in Helsinki, Pori, Lontoo, San Fransisco and Japan.

Finally, in the back room of the space,  a double-channel video installation, showing a giant loop of students works from Time and Space study program / Prof. Caspar Stracke. ”Macroscapes” by Josefina Nelimarkka, ”On Proposals” by Andrey Bogush, ”Allday Everyday” by Jana Slaby, ”Nausea” by Ilkka Pitkänen and other works by Otto Bystr, Minna Kallinen, Ristomatti Myllylahti, Josefina Nelimarkka,  Erno-Erik Raitanen, Tuukka Salonen and Aarni Vaarnamo occupy the room offering a compilation of artist's moving image from the young talents of the Academy of Fine Arts.