Herttoniemenranta, april 2020 / Photo: Yehia Eweis/Helsinki City Museum
The strangeness of everyday life is revealed and the line between fact and fiction is blurred when spaces and the people in them are examined from a different perspective or focusing on the smallest details. The Everyday Strangeness online exhibition opens the collection activities of HAM Helsinki Art Museum and Helsinki City Museum to the public through a common theme. The exhibition features the video art compilation Observe the moment from HAM’s collection and photographs documenting Helsinki during the coronavirus outbreak from the City Museum’s collections, collectively titled Silent City. Employing a similar tone, the video pieces and photographs challenge viewers to look beyond routines.
Observe the moment
Iiu Susiraja: Red cheeks, 2017 / Photo: Iiu Susiraja
HAM’s media art collection includes approximately two hundred works, of which nine were selected to feature in this exhibition. The featured video pieces subtly test the boundaries of reality, highlighting details that are usually ignored or depicting the activities of those we live with in an incongruous and comical way.
Johanna Ketola’s three-channel installation offers views of the city’s outdoor and indoor spaces where a stationary camera has recorded possible, but in some way strange everyday occurrences. Anssi Pulkkinen’s seemingly still indoor image depicts a surprising transformation. Anneli Nygren replicates Japanese artist Yoko Ono’s (born 1933) performance piece from 1963. In the video, a woman entertains her guests by showing off the contents of her laundry basket. Iiu Susiraja’s three videos are portraits in which the artist’s stare entrances the viewer in the middle of situations that challenge the norms of being. Pasi Autio utilises the combined effect of image and sound to underline the subtle details of street views. In Olli Keränen’s piece, an everyday trip to the grocery shop expands to become a choreography of gestures and movement. Pilvi Takala sits the viewer behind a hidden camera to watch what happens inside public transport vehicles. Genuine reactions mix with character performances, making a suspicious situation seem believable.
00:18 Johanna Ketola: There Is No Snake in Our Forest (part 2); 12:07 Anssi Pulkkinen: Nothing Ever Happens; 15:22 Anneli Nygren: Laundry Piece; 18:45 Iiu Susiraja: Red cheeks; 20:45 Iiu Susiraja: Mirror; 22:45 Iiu Susiraja: Vitrine; 24:05 Johanna Ketola: There Is No Snake in Our Forest (part 2); 31:04 Pasi Autio: Crossroads; 34:52 Olli Keränen: Sac; 43:37 Pilvi Takala: Easy Rider; 48:20 Johanna Ketola: There Is No Snake in Our Forest (part 2)
Silent City
Helsinki City Museum has been recording the lives of the residents of Helsinki and contemporary phenomena for over a hundred years. City Museum photographer and winner of the 2016 Fotofinlandia award Yehia Eweis started documenting the ways in which the state of emergency caused by the coronavirus is reflected in the cityscape in March 2020. At first, his photographs depicted the city devoid of people and the phenomena that arose as a result of quarantine measures, such as the rise in outdoor activities and staying home. However, his range of subject matter has since become broader: distance learning and the end thereof, teddy bears in windows and other visual messages, safe distances, the city orchestra’s streaming activities, public transport, the closing of libraries, health care, mask use, the easing and re-tightening of restrictions. The coronavirus pandemic will ultimately be recorded in hundreds of photographs that will become part of Helsinki City Museum’s collections, many of which are featured in this exhibition.
Central Railway Station metro station, April 2020Narinkkatori square, April 2020Tennispalatsi, April 2020Baana, April 20205. Kansalaistori square, April 2020Central Railway Station, April 2020Central Railway Station, April 2020Herttoniemi metro station, April 2020Coronavirus testing station at Laakso Hospital, April 2020Coronavirus testing station at Laakso Hospital, April 2020
Erätori square in Herttoniemi, March 2020Palm Sunday in Herttoniemi, April 2020Sahara, Taka-Töölö, April 2020A distance learner on break, Herttoniemi, April 2020Distance daycare children playing outdoors, Herttoniemi, April 2020Töölö, April 2020Mannerheimintie, Taka-Töölö, April 2020Iso-Roobertinkatu, April 2020Erottaja, April 2020Esplanadi, April 2020
Senate Square, April 2020Purolahti bird watching tower, Viikki, April 2020Herttoniemenranta, April 2020Herttoniemenranta, April 2020Fastholma, Herttoniemi, April 2020Herttoniemi, March 2020Herttoniemi, April 2020Herttoniemi, April 2020Herttoniemi, April 2020Suvilahti, April 2020
REDI shopping centre, Kalasatama, April 2020REDI shopping centre, Kalasatama, April 2020Herttoniemi, April 2020Alppila, April 2020Herttoniemenranta, April 2020Kallio, April 2020University of Helsinki, April 2020Senate Square, April 2020Herttoniemenranta, April 2020A fourth grader presenting his homework during distance learning, Herttoniemi, April 2020
A five-year-old showing off her recently fallen-out tooth to her grandparents during a video call, Herttoniemi, April 2020Herttoniemi, April 2020Herttoniemi, April 2020Herttoniemi, May 2020Kallio, May Day Eve 2020A metro train in Kalasatama, May Day Eve 2020Sörnäinen metro station, May Day Eve 2020Helsinki Cathedral, May Day Eve 2020Helsinki Cathedral, May Day Eve 2020Havis Amanda, Market Square, May Day Eve 2020
Kaivopuisto park, May Day 2020Kaivopuisto park, May Day 2020Kaivopuisto park, May Day 2020Jari Koponen dressed as the Pink Panther in Kaivopuisto park, May Day 2020Kaivopuisto park, May Day 2020Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra preparing for the streaming of their May Day concert at Musiikkitalo, May Day 2020Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra preparing for the streaming of their May Day concert at Musiikkitalo, May Day 2020Deputy Mayor Nasima Razmyar’s speech at the start of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s streamed concert, Musiikkitalo, May 2020Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s streamed concert at Musiikkitalo, May 2020Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s streamed concert at Musiikkitalo, May 2020
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s streamed concert at Musiikkitalo, May 2020After Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s streamed concert at Musiikkitalo, May 2020Rautatientori square, May 2020Käpylä, May 2020Vallila, May 2020Vallila, May 2020
Herttoniemi, May 2020Return to contact teaching, Kallio, May 2020Käpylä Library, May 2020Central Library Oodi re-opens its doors after the lockdown, May 2020Central Library Oodi re-opens its doors after the lockdown, May 2020Central Library Oodi re-opens its doors after the lockdown, May 2020Central Library Oodi re-opens its doors after the lockdown, May 2020Central Library Oodi re-opens its doors after the lockdown, May 2020Kivinokka public beach, May 2020Suvilahti, June 2020
Herttoniemi allotment garden, June 2020Herttoniemi allotment garden, June 2020Herttoniemi allotment garden, June 2020Herttoniemi, June 2020Etelä-Kaarela school, June 2020Kivinokka public beach, June 2020Linnunlaulu, June 2020Katri Valan puisto park, June 2020Tullisaari, August 2020A hen night party, Kaivopiha, July 2020
Tavonlahti, with Koirasaari in the background, August 2020Play area at Tripla, Pasila, August 2020
Storm Liisa, Koivusaari, November 2020Ruoholahti metro station, November 2020Kulosaari, August 2020Kyläsaari reuse centre, TV and computer repair, September 2020Kyläsaari reuse centre, donation desk, September 2020Kyläsaari reuse centre, shop, September 2020Hernesaari coronavirus testing station, January 2021Hernesaari coronavirus testing station, January 2021Löyly Helsinki, Hernesaari, January 2021Oravapuisto park, Herttoniemi, January 2021
Oravapuisto park, Herttoniemi, January 2021Herttoniemi sports park, January 2021Itäkeskus coronavirus testing station, January 2021Itäkeskus coronavirus testing station, January 2021Itäkeskus coronavirus testing station, January 2021Itäkeskus coronavirus testing station, January 2021Itäkeskus, January 2021Itäkeskus metro station, January 2021Itäkeskus metro station, January 2021Herttoniemi ski jumping hill, January 2021
A metro train in Eastern Helsinki, January 2021Itäkeskus, January 2021Kaisaniemi, January 2021Kaisaniemenranta, January 2021Merilahti lower stage comprehensive school, Meri-Rastila, January 2021