spotted!




What:Art event;opening evening, videowork at MediaBox, Forum Box, Helsinki
Who: Fanni Niemi-Junkola
Where:Forum Box, Ruoholahdenranta 1, Helsinki
When:2.10.2014







03.10.2014 - 26.10.2014 

Koulutie / Way to School (2014)


Fanni Niemi-Junkola | FINLAND |3.08 mins loop | 2014
3.10.2014 - 26.10.2014

Video installation
3.08 min loop of 30 mins
Music: Es, comp., adapt. Sami Sänpäkkilä, Fonal Records

Cinematographer: Turkka Tervonen
Editor: Ville Hakonen, Wacky Tie Films
Actor: Juha Niemi-Junkola
Production: Fanni Niemi-Junkola
Funders: AVEK The Promotion Centre for AV Culture, TAIKE Arts Promotion Centre of Finland, City of Tampere

A young school boy is running away. The camera focuses on the person and the images are slowed down. Niemi-Junkola is interested in social power relations and the borderline between private and public. The starting point for the work were experiences of personal space in school environment that can be cruel.  However what comes across in the video work is sense of hope, almost dreamlike lightness of being.




Fanni Niemi-Junkola, who some of you might know as a lecturer of Fine Art in Tamk, held her opening night last Thursday in Helsinki, in MediaBox, Forum Box, Helsinki.

Fanni was presenting a video artwork titled "Way to school/Koulutie".
 The singe channel video, presented on a 30 minutes loop, was very sweet,portrays a boy running towards the sun's brightest light. While watching you almost get a feeling of relief, of lightness and joy: you understand how the little boy is feeling. Because you have been that little boy, running in the sun, in a beautiful summer day, smelling the leaves and feeling the sun's warm rays on your skin.
Sami Sänpakkilä's music completes the experience, and you almost don't want to leave the video box, because outside the world is grey and sad, while in the box is full summer.

Fanni is very much interested in the social role that art can play; with the cooperation of TAMK and of two comprehensive schools in Tampere(the Kaarila School and the Finnish International School of Tampere)she managed an art project intended to give voice to the pupils. The aim of the videoworkhops was to let the students express their anxieties and issues on their everyday life at school.
The works are surprising, and inventive.


In many cases, the point of view of an artist might be more refreshing and effective than the usual "classic" way;working as an artist allows one to be more creative and explore different options. In TAMK's new Fine-Art study paths students are encouraged to have an open attitude towards new possibilities that are not so obvious in Fine Art practise.

About Forum Box: Forum Box is a beautiful art space, owned by a cooperative of artists, founded in 1996.
It was originally a cold storage room, and was renewed by the artists themselves and opened with a smashing joint exhibition in cooperation with Kiasma, featuring Richard Serra and Anthony Caro.
Nowadays the cooperative counts roundabout 80 artists, and rents the space for solo or group exhibitions, if some fellow students are interested, the deadline is March, 1st 2015 for exhibitions to be held in 2017.
Mediabox is an exhibition space for small video screenings. The works are created by Forum Box in co-operation with AV-Arkki, the distribution centre for Finnish Media art.




Very many compliments to Fanni, and wishes for the best-and next time Fanni will have an exhibition TAMK blog will tell you again about it.

Here are some links, if you want to know more(and you are too lazy to just go and knock at the teacher's office)
Fanni's own website: http://www.fanniniemi-junkola.com