Events

Welcome to join artist Perttu Saksa, author Anni Kytömäki and futurist, co-founder at Demos Helsinki Roope Mokka at the gallery on Wednesday, 30 November at 5.30pm for a conversation around the ideas and background of Saksa’s current solo show´Atmosphere’. The discussion will focus on the themes of Saksa’s new works, nature observation, temporality, and the relationship of human and environment, and the photographic book Dawn Chorus, which includes texts written by Kytömäki.

The event (held in Finnish) is open to all, and the duration of the event is around 1 hour.

Saksa’s fourth solo exhibition at Helsinki Contemporary, Atmosphere, presents a photography series that has been done in the artist’s neighbourhood in Hankoniemi. Monochromatic studies of rock hollows, shorelines, and fleeting horizons appear abstract and minimalistic in the gallery space. Large scale prints of natural stone surfaces are scaled to human-size. They attract the viewers’ attention, help them focus on the inconspicuous, and force them to face what is in front of them. The experience of nature is still strongly present in the rugged images. The exhibition’s name refers to Emanuele Coccia’s text, which argues that philosophical thought is everywhere, like an atmosphere.

Perttu Saksa (b. 1977) graduated (MFA) in fine arts from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and photography (BA) from the LAB University of Applied Science and studied arts at the Iceland University of the Arts (1999). Saksa is a recipient of the Fotofinlandia Prize (2014), the most important photography award in Finland. In 2019, he was awarded the Pro Finlandia medal. Saksa has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums around Europe, including Stadtgalerie Kiel, Felleshus Berlin, the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki City Art Museum HAM and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. His works are included in a number of public collections, e.g. Espoo Museum of Modern Art EMMA and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. Saksa was nominated for the Ars Fennica Prize in 2017.  His proposal won the design competition for President Mauno Koivisto's burial monument in 2018.

Thank you to The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Kone Foundation and Finnish Cultural Foundation for supporting the artist’s work.