In April 2024, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum will be taken over by the themes of renovation, maintenance, and cleaning. The exhibition FIX: Care and Repair brings together architecture, design, and contemporary art. Selected works from the open call provided the impetus for curating other content.
Selected artists
Sini Henttu
Artist Sini Henttu (b. 1988) primarily works with video art, installations, and performances. In her works, Henttu explores the intersections of society and subjectivity through multimateriality. Often, the focal points of her pieces are the body and the various dimensions of touch. She is particularly intrigued by how materials affect us and how the affective experiences produced by objects feel in the body. Through her art, she aims to create spaces that examine different ways of experiencing.
In Henttu’s works for the FIX: Care and Repair exhibition, art and design seamlessly intertwine. Henttu graduated in 2022 from Aalto University with a master’s degree in Contemporary Design. The artist has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, residency programmes, as well as community-based and interactive performance work. Additionally, she has appeared as a video artist in various events, including Zodiak, Kiasma, Ateneum, as well as festivals.
Helmi Kajaste ja Petra Vallila
Helmi Kajaste, photo: Anni Koponen
Architect and musician Helmi Kajaste (b. 1986) is currently a doctoral researcher at Aalto University. Kajaste’s doctoral dissertation in architectural theory explores the concept of boundaries through the lens of cinema. Previously, she has addressed architecture and film in articles and in her book ‘Rakenna, kärsi ja unhoita’ [Build, Suffer, and Forget] published in 2020. Kajaste is also known as Draama-Helmi in the music scene. In 2023, she won the Teosto Prize for her album ‘Draama-Helmi kuistilla’.
Petra Vallila, photo: Laura Malmivaara
Petra Vallila (b. 1983) is a poet, writer, and corporate communicator. For her, poetry serves as a research method to seek experiences and meanings that have not yet been articulated in factual texts. Through poetry, she aims to find freedom in negotiating things that are usually contractually defined. Vallila’s debut book ‘ehkä’ [Perhaps] was a nominee for the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize in 2022. The work shapes poetry around existence in a commercial company and a slightly unstable gaze built upon corporate language. Vallila graduated with a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2021. Leveraging her earlier master’s degree in political science, Vallila has for an extensive period held communication expert roles in multinational companies both in Finland and abroad.
Liisa Ryynänen
Liisa Ryynänen (b. 1994) is an architect focused on the history and theory of architecture, as well as being engaged in the field of visual arts. She explores and develops experimental presentation methods in architecture, and is interested in how they can aid in conceptualizing and sensing the environment in new ways. Ryynänen teaches architecture at Aalto University and has previously worked on architectural historical research projects in architectural firms. She graduated as an architect from the School of Arts, Design, and Architecture at Aalto University in 2020. Currently, she is pursuing a master’s programme in Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki.
Jessica Andrey Bogush
Jessica Andrey Bogush (b. 1987) resides in Helsinki, Finland, and Berlin, Germany. They work with images and installations in which the fantastic and the familiar are indistinguishable.
Using circular materials and flaky compositions, Jessica tackles the contemporary state of images and objects, offering actions of interspecies appreciation. Their approach combines surprise and grotesque with care and consideration, focusing on the intersection of life and death, particularly within queer community and More-Than-Human Others.
