Visual artist Jenni Toikka. Photo by Paula Tella.
The open search of the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture AVEK, AV-arkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO) and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma ended on 20 January 2020, and a work by visual artist Jenni Toikka (b. 1983) was selected. A total of 139 submissions were received. A production budget of €20,000 has been allocated for the production of the new work, funded by AVEK and Kiasma.
Toikka says that one important starting point for the conception was the context of the work, in which the work is presented in an urban space on Musiikkitalo Media Wall before the concerts of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
‘When I started forming ideas for my work for Visual Overture, I found it important that the work would be connected to Musiikkitalo, music, sound and music performance,’ Toikka says. ‘On the other hand, an interesting challenge for me is that the video will be silent in this context. I am interested in sound as a part of building a narrative of moving image. As sound cannot be used in this context, I had to ponder how it could be represented by moving image alone.’
The work is strongly connected to music
Jenni Toikka is a visual artist based in Helsinki who focuses particularly on video art in her artistic work. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts from the study programme in Time and Space Arts in 2012.
The jury commends the way that Toikka’s work submission examines the relationship between different art forms and is strongly connected to its location.
‘The work aims to interact with the viewer, opening up the experience of music and the inner world of making music through audiovisual means,’ the jury describes in its justification statement.
The work will be on display before each concert of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra during November–December 2020. In addition to this, the work will be included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma / Finnish National Gallery.
The jury consisted of Aleksi Malmberg (HPO), Milla Moilanen (AVEK), Kati Kivinen (Kiasma), Satu Oksanen (Kiasma) and Hanna Maria Anttila (AV-arkki).
Musiikkitalo Media Wall is a 170 m² digital screen situated in the heart of Helsinki, with approximately 400,000 potential viewers per week.
Visual Overture is a media art project launched by Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Kiasma and AV-arkki in the autumn of 2018, providing a new forum for video art while inducting the audience to the concert of the evening. Previously, the works have been selected from Kiasma’s collections or AV-arkki’s distribution archive.
Additional information:
Milla Moilanen, AVEK, member of the jury
tel. +358 (0)40 900 9199, milla.moilanen(at)avek.kopiosto.fi
Jenni Toikka, visual artist
tel. +358 (0)40 077 0064, jenntoik(at)gmail.com
http://jennitoikka.com/