Time Machine

Mika Taanilas’ videos and installations exhibition, at Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, takes us back to a time when the future was full of promise.

Mika Taanila’s Time Machines exhibition showcases key works from the artist’s oeuvre. In works that blend fact with fiction, Taanila revisits technological utopias and future visions and dredges technical designs and scientific experiments from the past.

In his film installations and films, Taanila often uses found footage from archives or other sources, such as amateur films and advertising and educational material. His films have in fact been referred to as media archaeological excavations.

Mika Taanila, installation view, Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, photo Petri Virtanen

In his work, Mika Taanila investigates the growing presence of technology in our society from different perspectives. The three-channel video installation The Most Electrified Town in Finland (2012) is a poetic observational documentary about the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Eurajoki, Finland. Premiered at dOCUMENTA in Kassel last year, the film investigates the relations between technology, man and nature, and also “life in a nuclear village”. For Taanila, the work is not a direct statement either for or against nuclear power, but rather a speculative reflection on the theme.

On the left: Mika Taanila, *Out of the Past*, from the series *Black and White Movies*. On the right: Mika Taanila,*La Peau douce*, from the series *Black and White Movies*. 2013, series of 16 photograms (framed 75 x 87 cm), The Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives.

One of the most recent works in the exhibition is Six Day Run (2013), a film about ultrarunners in New York that also serves as a kind of paraphrase of the biblical story of the creation over six days. The main character of the film is Ashprihanal Pekka Aalto, a Finnish ultrarunning champion for whom running is a form of continual self-improvement and examination of his own values.

Mika Taanila, *Stimulus Progression*, 2005, site-specific video and sound installation 4 min, loop. Photo Job Janssen & Jan Adriaans

The show in Kiasma also includes works by Taanila previously unseen in Finland, such as the photographic series Black and White Movies (2013). The photographs document the destruction of the artist’s VHS video collection: each photo shows a video cassette destroyed in a manner that fits the plot of the movie in question.

Mika Taanila, Six Day Run, 2013, single channel projected installation, 14:25 min, photo Jean Paul Torno & Laurent Torno, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

Mika Taanila, The Zone of Total Eclipse, 2006, film installation with two 16 mm film projectors and loopers, 6 min, loop, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Pirje Mykkänen

Mika Taanila, The Zone of Total Eclipse, 2006, film installation with two 16 mm film projectors and loopers, 6 min, loop, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Pirje Mykkänen

Mika Taanila, Twilight, 2010, installation for two moving video projectors, 6 min, loop, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Pirje Mykkänen

Mika Taanila, Twilight, 2010, installation for two moving video projectors, 6 min, loop, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Pirje Mykkänen

Mika Taanila, Twilight, 2010, installation for two moving video projectors, 6 min, loop, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Pirje Mykkänen

Mika Taanila, SSEENNSSEESS, 2013, site-specific installation (video and film projectors, reel-to-reel audio tape player, lights, mirrors), photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Petri Virtanen

Mika Taanila, Keskeneräinen, 2013, 37 framed paper model pieces, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Petri Virtanen

Mika Taanila, Black and White Movies, 2013, series of 16 photograms (framed 75 x 87 cm), photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Petri Virtanen

Mika Taanila, Verbranntes Land, 2002, video installation for monitor and headphones, 6:36 min, loop, photo Mika Taanila

Mika Taanila, The Zone of Total Eclipse, 2006, film installation with two 16 mm film projectors and loopers, 6 min, loop, photo Kinotar Oy

Mika Taanila, Keskeneräinen, 2013, 37 framed paper model pieces, 6 min, loop, photo Finnish National Gallery, Central Art Archives, Pirje Mykkänen

Until March 2, 2014
Mika Taanila
Time Machine
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma 
Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki, Finland

Time Machine

Mika Taanilas’ videos and installations exhibition, at Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, takes us back to a time when the future was full of promise.

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