MOTHER TONQUE – Pekka Niskanen

Ryokan Mother Tongue is the latest videoinstallation by the finnish artist Pekka Niskanen.

 

PRESS RELEASE (Translated with ChatGPT)

Pekka Niskanen
Ryokan Mother Tongue – Hotel Mother Tongue
PROJECT ROOM, September 18 – November 10, 2002

Hotel Mother Tongue is a video installation comprising two video projections and a specially designed viewing space for the audience. The two video projections provide separate perspectives on the story, settings, and internal time of the work. Through its characters, locations, and narrative, the work examines themes of sexuality, obsessions, and power.

The filming locations include a townhouse in Helsinki and examples of Alvar Aalto’s 1950s architectural designs. In the townhouse, Finnish and Japanese housing styles meet: it features both a traditional Finnish sauna and a Japanese tatami room. The private residence transforms into a space resembling a Japanese ryokan, where hospitality is intertwined with communal power that defines individual identity. The townhouse’s architecture and its use serve as an analogy for a mother tongue, which simultaneously encompasses both familiar and foreign elements. The mother tongue shapes our relationship with the environment, influencing how we conceptually understand time, space, community, and identity.

The second part of the work connects sexuality and obsessions to Aalto’s public buildings. Filming took place at the House of Culture in Helsinki, the Otaniemi campus of the Helsinki University of Technology, and the University of Jyväskylä. All three buildings represent Aalto’s brick architecture period. However, these public institutions also embody an avoidance or absence of certain ideas in their design and construction. The characters’ dialogues on sexuality, illness, and obsessions fill these architectural spaces, simultaneously rendering them private. Their speech reveals the cultural power that shapes us into individuals. The central concept of the work is to reflect on how identity is constructed through narrative and its presentation.

The piece is part of Pekka Niskanen’s doctoral thesis at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.

Credits:

  • Script, Direction, Cinematography, Editing: Pekka Niskanen
  • Sound Design: Timo Muurinen
  • Music: Petteri Pyyny, Timo Muurinen
  • Videographer: Jyri Hakala
  • Sound Recording: Johanna Storm
  • Cast: Florian Roithmayr, Marja Silde, Robin Svartström
  • Producer: Nenne Hallman
  • Production Support: AVEK, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finnish Art Committee, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
  • Collaborators: e-piste, Artek
  • Special Thanks: Veli Granö, Liisa Immonen, Ilkka Rajala, Sari Tervaniemi, University of Jyväskylä, House of Culture, Helsinki University of Technology

INQUIRIES:

Information

Artist: Pekka Niskanen
18.09.2002 – 10.11.2002
Room: PROJECT ROOM
Archive ID: NULL