Kohta

Kohta is now closed for a summer break. The opening of the exhibition 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐭𝐢 𝐀𝐢𝐡𝐚: 𝐘𝐤𝐬𝐢 𝐤𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐭𝐮𝐮𝐫𝐢/𝐀 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 and Kohta's summer party will be on 7 August at 6pm. See you then!

Image: Martti Aiha installing his work for the project Siirrettävä Tuonela in Helsinki, 1983. Photographer: Sakari Viika

It's the last weekend of both 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 and 𝐑𝐚𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐬 𝐑𝐚𝐦ö 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐭: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐤𝐮𝐥𝐥.

We are open on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 pm. So you still have time to visit!

Kohta will be closed in July for a summer break and exhibition mounting and we will open again on Wednesday 7 August with an exhibition by the Finnish artist Martti Aiha and Kohta's traditional summer party.

Images:
1. Installation view of ‘Figure’ with work by Emilia Tanner (Fractals, 2023) and Maria Taniguchi (Untitled, 2018). Photographer: Jussi Tiainen.
2. Installation view of ‘Rasmus Ramö Streith: The set is a skull’. Photographer: Jussi Tiainen

Taniguchi’s work is shown courtesy of the artist and carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid carlier | gebauer

It's the final week of Figure: Maria Taniguchi & Emilia Tanner and Rasmus Ramö Streith: The set is a skull!

Kohta is open today and on Friday from noon until 6 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 4 pm. Warmly welcome!

Images:
1. Installation view of ‘Figure’ with work by Emilia Tanner (Light Engavings, 2024) and Maria Taniguchi (Untitled, 2017 and 2018). Photographer: Jussi Tiainen
2. Installation view of Rasmus Ramö Streith: The set is a skull. Photographer: Jussi Tiainen

Rasmus Ramö Streith: The set is a skull

Rasmus Ramö Streith’s film- and object-based installations conjure up uncanny scenes among elements of everyday life. His exhibition ’The set is a skull’, shown at Kohta during the spring, is built around the video work The Un dead (2018). Its action takes place in a haunted house where people and furniture have become all but interchangeable.

The plot, at the same time a surreal sequencing and a report on material reality, lets us glimpse what is happening between those four walls. It is an abandoned-looking interior where amateur actors perform protracted actions on repeat.

The video is recorded on VHS with a camera from 1985. These technical limitations create a time-specific filter, a low resolution for painterly effect. The sound is clear and sharp and achieves the effect of unsettling the relations between image, sound and object. In Ramö Streith’s visual universe illusion is always a glitch, a dreamlike uneasiness.

– Emily Fahlén

The exhibition runs through 16 June.

Kohta's opening hours:
Tue–Fri 12 to 6 pm
Sat–Sun 12 to 4 pm.

Welcome!

📷: Jussi Tiainen

Join us for Art Walk Kalasatama this Sunday at 2 pm!

Art Walk Kalasatama is a free guided gallery tour in the neighborhood of Kalasatama. The tour is held in English and the guide is visual artist Robin Ellis.

The tour starts at MAA-tila Project Space (Pääskylänrinne 10) at 2 pm and ends at Longa&Fönäri (Tukkutorinkuja 6). Duration approx. 1,5 h.

Sunday 9 June we visits four different venues:

1. Maa-Tila Project Space: Sara Blosseville & Iisa Lepistö

2. Kohta Taidehalli: Figure: Maria Taniguchi & Emilia Tanner and Rasmus Ramö Streith: The set is a skull

3. Pajagalleria: Milja Havas & Rastapunka: Metsämaa

4. Galleria Longa & Fönari: Group exhibition LUONTO

The tour is not barrier-free. Please dress according to the weather and put on good walking shoes.

Warmly welcome!

Art Walk Kalasatama Maa-Tila Kalasataman seripaja Galleria Longa & Fönari

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢
Detail of 𝘜𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
275 × 487 cm

The duo exhibition 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 runs through 16 June.

Kohta's opening hours:
Tue–Fri 12 to 6 pm
Sat–Sun 12 to 4 pm.
Welcome!

(Photographer Thomas Barratt)

Wednesday, 12 June, 18:00
𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐬: Jaakko Pallasvuo & Teo Ala-Ruona, Stella Massa and Ville Laurinkoski

Welcome to an evening of three solo performances at Kohta. It features performances by Ville Laurinkoski and Stella Massa and a collaboration between Jaakko Pallasvuo and Teo Ala-Ruona.

𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯
𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘴

𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘥𝘥𝘴?
𝘉𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦?

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦
𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘥

𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘺
𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥

𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴

– F***y Howe


Ville Laurinkoski: A Year in Arcadia and Absences répétées

Conjuring verses from Emil Leopold August von Sachsen-Gotha and Altenburg (1772–1822) and a song from Guy Gilles’s film Repeated Absences (1972), the two performances A Year in Arcadia and Absences répétées aren’t afraid of evoking the obsolescent and slumbering décor of time as the prime product of our decades.

Ville Laurinkoski (1996) studied at Ed Atkins’s class in Copenhagen and works on suggestive interiors and chamber pieces that comprise mass-produced objects and misfit materials that are being imbued with sound and voice, transforming the unwanted states of loneliness and intimacy to collective sceneries of relief.


Jaakko Pallasvuo & Teo Ala-Ruona: New in Town

New in Town is a monologue about a dentist starting over.

Jaakko Pallasvuo (1333) is someone.

Teo Ala-Ruona (1990) is a performance artist who loves surprises and risks on stage, with an endless fascination for the possibilities of language and spoken text in performance.

Text: Jaakko Pallasvuo
Performance: Teo Ala-Ruona
Costume: Ville Pölhö
Dramaturgical dialogue: Martta Jylhä

Stella Massa: Kešälintu

Kešälintu is a performance about doing Karelian spells, being outside of the music scene and about what happens after losing something very important.

Stella Massa (2000) is a Finnish-Karelian activist, performance artist, music maker and actor.


The performances will take place at Kohta Taidehalli, Työpajankatu 2B, 3rd floor. Free entry.

Images: 1. New in Town, photo Mykolas Valentinas, 2. A Year in Arcadia and Absences répétées 3. Kešälintu

𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫
Lines, 2024
Laser etching on paper
28.5 × 37 cm

The duo exhibition 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 runs through 16 June.

Kohta's opening hours:
Tue–Fri 12 to 6 pm
Sat–Sun 12 to 4 pm.
Welcome!

📷: Jussi Tiainen

𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫

Maria Taniguchi (Philippines, 1981, lives in Manila) and Emilia Tanner (Finland, 1990, lives in Helsinki) share an uncompromising approach to vision, experience and material. Their works straddle the boundaries between image and process and become embodiments of time: the time it took to make them and the time it takes to view them.

The exhibition runs trough16 June. Kohta is open Tue–Fri 12–6pm and Sat–Sun 12–4pm and you can find us from the Teurastamo area in Helsinki.

📷: Jussi Tiainen

Saturday, 1 June, 16:00–17:30
Artist talk and screening with 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐟 𝐃𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐠

Melodramatic Film Miniatures as a Blueprint for Dematerialised Sculpture.

Kohta is very pleased to host a conversation between Josef Dabernig (Austria, 1956, lives in Vienna) – whose uncompromising work deserves to be much better known in Finland and the whole Nordic region – and Anders Kreuger at Kohta this Saturday at 4pm. The conversation will be in English. Free entry.

Film, Foto, Objekt, Text, Bau. Film, photography, object, text, and then a good German word that is hard to translate but means at least three things: ‘construction’, ‘architecture’ and ‘urbanism’. This is Dabernig’s own categorisation of his various kinds of works. They are distinct but interconnected.

Dabernig trained as a sculptor and says that he spent most of his time as a student measuring things. When he began to make short films in the mid-1990s, partly inspired by the Austrian tradition of experimental cinema, they were just as composed and articulated as his objects, and just as meticulously planned out, frame by frame, second by second.

Two films will be screened during the talk:

Wisla (1996, 16mm/DCP, b/w, 8 min). ‘In the anti-soccer miniature Wisla (1996) horizontal pans shot at different heights define the meta-filmic brackets around close shots of two protagonists in an empty stadium.’

River Plate (2013, 35mm/DCP, b/w, 16 min). ‘The various forms of such body parts as shoulder, arm, belly, hips, knee, and leg are examined in River Plate (2013) with the help of six women and men stranded on the banks of a mountain river. Added to the filmic equation of figuratively sculptural details are concrete fragments of freeway bridges.’

(The work descriptions are quoted from Josef Dabernig’s scripted lecture Melodramatic Film Miniatures as a Blueprint for Dematerialised Sculpture, on which the conversation at Kohta will be loosely based.)

Image caption: Josef Dabernig, still from River Plate (2013)

Rasmus Ramö Streith: The Set Is a Skull

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦

𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯. 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦, 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘶𝘳. 𝘈 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴. 𝘕𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴, 𝘯𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘴, 𝘯𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦.
𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘉𝘪𝘬𝘦, 𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦, 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘯, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘤𝘶𝘱, 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦, 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘬𝘦𝘺 . . .

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳. 𝘐𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘰.

𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘤𝘬. 𝘔𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥. 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦.

– 𝘙𝘢𝘴𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘙𝘢𝘮ö 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩

The exhibition runs through 16.6.2024 in Kohta's studio space.

📷: Jussi Tiainen

Saturday, 1 June, 16:00–17:30

Josef Dabernig: Melodramatic Film Miniatures as a Blueprint for Dematerialised Sculpture

The artist Josef Dabernig (Austria, 1956, lives in Vienna) is finally in Helsinki! He was invited by the Metakino experimental film festival, which is hosting an evening with Dabernig at WHS Teatteri Union on Thursday, 30 May at 20:15.

Kohta is very pleased to announce a conversation between Dabernig – whose uncompromising work deserves to be much better known in Finland and the whole Nordic region – and Anders Kreuger at Kohta on Saturday, 1 June at 16:00.

Film, Foto, Objekt, Text, Bau. Film, photography, object, text, and then a good German word that is hard to translate but means at least three things: ‘construction’, ‘architecture’ and ‘urbanism’. This is Dabernig’s own categorisation of his various kinds of works. They are distinct but interconnected.

Dabernig trained as a sculptor and says that he spent most of his time as a student measuring things. When he began to make short films in the mid-1990s, partly inspired by the Austrian tradition of experimental cinema, they were just as composed and articulated as his objects, and just as meticulously planned out, frame by frame, second by second.

Two films will be screened during the talk:
Wisla (1996, 16mm/DCP, b/w, 8 min). ‘In the anti-soccer miniature Wisla (1996) horizontal pans shot at different heights define the meta-filmic brackets around close shots of two protagonists in an empty stadium.’

River Plate (2013, 35mm/DCP, b/w, 16 min). ‘The various forms of such body parts as shoulder, arm, belly, hips, knee, and leg are examined in River Plate (2013) with the help of six women and men stranded on the banks of a mountain river. Added to the filmic equation of figuratively sculptural details are concrete fragments of freeway bridges.’

(The work descriptions are quoted from Josef Dabernig’s scripted lecture Melodramatic Film Miniatures as a Blueprint for Dematerialised Sculpture, on which the conversation at Kohta will be loosely based.)

Rasmus Ramö Streith’s film- and object-based installations conjure up uncanny scenes among elements of everyday life. His exhibition ’The set is a skull’, shown at Kohta during the spring, is built around the video work The Un dead (2018). Its action takes place in a haunted house where people and furniture have become all but interchangeable.

The plot, at the same time a surreal sequencing and a report on material reality, lets us glimpse what is happening between those four walls. It is an abandoned-looking interior where amateur actors perform protracted actions on repeat. The video is recorded on VHS with a camera from 1985. These technical limitations create a time-specific filter, a low resolution for painterly effect. The sound is clear and sharp and achieves the effect of unsettling the relations between image, sound and object. In Ramö Streith’s visual universe illusion is always a glitch, a dreamlike uneasiness.

– Emily Fahlén

Rasmus Ramö Streith: The Set Is a Skull runs until 16 June at Kohta's studio.

Maria Taniguchi shows in Kohta some of the ‘brick wall paintings’ that she has been making, alongside videos and sculptures, for more than a dozen years.

This almost imperceptibly mutating ongoing series is a convincing argument in favour of the hypothesis that some artists – they were never many – are capable of constant renewal while remaining unwaveringly loyal to one motif, always and never painting the same painting.

The paintings have a unified visual grid based on the simplest and most common repeating pattern in masonry, the stretcher bond. It may create a wall too thin to stand alone but is often used in modern construction to form the ‘skin’ or ‘face’ of a building. At the same time, the surfaces of individual paintings, especially the larger ones, disintegrate into patches of irregular shapes and sizes. Echoing the giornate of late medieval fresco painting, these testify to day-to-day fluctuations in humidity or air pressure that influence how the acrylic medium behaves on the canvas.

Taniguchi’s work is shown courtesy of the artist and carlier | gebauer, Berlin/ Madrid.

𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 runs trough 16 June. Warmly welcome!

📷: Installation view from Figure: Maria Taniguchi & Emilia Tanner, Photographer Jussi Tiainen

Oscar Chan Yik Long's painting installation Transferred Resurrection is now ready and part of the Teurastamo yard!

The painting installation was commissioned by Kaupunkitilat for the entrance to the Teurastamo area and executed on the asphalt between the Teurastamon portti restaurant and Kunsthalle Kohta.

The painting shows a skeleton turning itself into new forms of life, welcoming visitors to Teurastamo with unexpected shoots and blossoms.

Welcome to see the painting, the best view is from Kohta's windows!

📷: Angel Gil

Teurastamo

Emilia Tanner's Light Engravings (2024) is an ongoing series for which lengths of paper (each measuring 98 × 300 cm) are put through a laser cutter multiple times, yielding irregular sequences of burn-marks as the paper writhes and slides under the impact of the unforgiving beams.

Paper of the same quality and thickness (100 grams per square metre) was in fact chosen for all the works on display at Kohta. Two sources of light are harnessed: laser beams, programmed to burn into the paper without fully penetrating it, and sunbeams, allowed free passage through holes that Tanner manually pierces in the paper.

𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 is on view until 16 June. Welcome!

📷: Emilia Tanner, from the series Light Engravings (2024), laser etching on paper. Photographer: Jussi Tiainen

Rasmus Ramö Streith: The Set Is a Skull
16.5.—16.6.2024

Rasmus Ramö Streith (Sweden , 1985, lives in Malmö) mainly works with installations and the moving image, often combining both into total environments that entice viewers but also unsettle them.

‘The set is a skull’ is a new installation based on the film The Un dead (2018), shot on VHS with a camera from the year of the artist’s birth, in which amateur actors perform slow movements on repeat. The set is a haunted house where people and furniture have become all but interchangeable.

📷: Jussi Tiainen

Art work in progress at the Teurastamo yard!

The painting installation 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 by the artist Oscar Chan Yik Long
(born in Hong Kong in 1988, lives in Helsinki) is commissioned by Kaupunkitilat Oy for the entrance to the Teurastamo area and executed on the asphalt between the
Teurastamon portti restaurant and Kohta.

The artist is known for his intense figurative compositions, based on East Asian ink
painting, anime, horror films and mythologies from various cultures. One of his
temporary murals was on display at Kohta in 2021. This new painting shows a skeleton turning itself into new forms of life, welcoming visitors to Teurastamo with unexpected shoots and blossoms.

The work will be finished during next week.

📷: The painting installation in progress, photographer Jussi Tiainen

Teurastamo

Welcome to see our two current exhibitions: 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 in the larger space and 𝐑𝐚𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐬 𝐑𝐚𝐦ö 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐤𝐮𝐥𝐥 in the studio.

We are open from Tuesday to Friday from noon until 6 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 4 pm. Free entry, as always.

Images: 1. Installation view from ‘Figure’, photographer Jussi Tiainen, 2. Rasmus Ramö Streith, video still from The Un dead (2018)

Teurastamo

Join us today at 6 p.m. for a talk by the curator Emily Fahlén, director of Mint in Stockholm (in English)

Emily Fahlén is an independent curator and director of the art space Mint, located in the Workers’ Educational Association in central Stockholm. Focusing on contemporary art and poetry, Mint is embracing experimental practices, cross-generational encounters and site-specific interventions Just like the practice of a museum relates to – and is in dialogue with – its collection, Mint allows its program to be inspired and directed by the history of the building and its events, struggles, organisations and cultural expressions.

Fahlén will speak about her work with Mint and about its programme. She was invited to visit Kohta, and to do studio visits with artists in Helsinki, within the framework of ‘Serving Art’, a project initiated by Kohta and realised with funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The purpose is to build a network of representatives of various European art institutions, ranging from smaller ones such as Kohta and Mint to larger ones such as the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Vilnius. The participating institutions are united by their interest in working closely with, for and through artists of all active generations.

Free entry, welcome!

Opening today at 6 pm in our studio. Warmly welcome!

The second exhibition in our Nordic series, supported by the Nordic Culture Fund is by Rasmus Ramö Streith (born in Falköping, Sweden, in 1985, lives in Malmö).

'The set is a skull' is a new installation based on the film The Un dead (2018), shot on VHS with a camera from the year of the artist's birth, in which amateur actors perform slow movements on repeat. The set is a hain ed house where people and furniture have become all but interchangeable.

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Opening of the exhibition ‘The set is the skull’ by Rasmus Ramö Streith

Wednesday, 15 May, 6–8 p.m.

Informal talk between the artist and the curator Emily Fahlén at 7 p.m. (in English)

The second exhibition in our Nordic series is by Rasmus Ramö Streith (born in Falköping, Sweden, in 1985, lives in Malmö). He graduated from the Malmö Art Academy in 2018) and has exhibited at Malmö Konsthall (2022), Kolonin in Arvika, Sweden (2022) and Galleri Arnstedt in Östra Karup, Sweden (2019) and elsewhere. His work is collected by Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Rasmus Ramö Streith’s film- and object-based installations conjure up uncanny scenes among elements of everyday life. His exhibition ’The set is a skull’, shown at Kohta during the spring, is built around the video work The Un dead (2018). Its action takes place in a haunted house where people and furniture have become all but interchangeable. The plot, at the same time a surreal sequencing and a report on material reality, lets us glimpse what is happening between those four walls. It is an abandoned-looking interior where amateur actors perform protracted actions on repeat. The video is recorded on VHS with a camera from 1985. These technical limitations create a time-specific filter, a low resolution for painterly effect. The sound is clear and sharp and achieves the effect of unsettling the relations between image, sound and object. In Ramö Streith’s visual universe illusion is always a glitch, a dreamlike uneasiness.

– Emily Fahlén

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Artist Talk with Jóhan Martin Christiansen
Saturday, 11 May, 4 p.m. (in English, free entry)

Kohta’s director Anders Kreuger will talk to Jóhan Martin Christiansen about his work and his engagement in the artists’ unions in the Faroe Islands (Listafólkasamband Føroya) and Denmark (Billedkunstnernes Forbund). We find it encouraging that young and actively exhibiting artists judge it worthwhile to contribute to the meaningful work done by such organisations. We feel that this is especially important in Finland right now, when the visual arts are met with an increasing lack of generosity from the Powers That Be.

Christiansen, who graduated from the Malmö Art Academy in 2014, has made a name for himself in his two home countries with three-dimensional work departing from the practice and ethos of sculpture and printmaking – and sometimes combining them, as in the pigmented plaster reliefs cast from discarded carboard packaging in the series Leave me Breathless, currently on display at Kohta. He has had solo exhibitions at Danske grafikeres hus in Copenhagen (2023), the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands in Tórshavn (2016) and elsewhere, and he has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Sweden, the US, Japan and elsewhere.

Welcome!

𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫

Maria Taniguchi's ‘brick wall paintings’, all untitled, include one large-format stretched canvas leaning against the wall and four wall-hung medium-sized variations of the same theme. This almost imperceptibly mutating ongoing series is a convincing argument in favour of the hypothesis that some artists – they were never many – are capable of constant renewal while remaining unwaveringly loyal to one motif, always and never painting the same painting. Taniguchi’s work is shown courtesy of the artist and carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid.

Emilia Tanner shows a selection of recent and new pieces for which the common denominators are paper and light. Two sources of light are harnessed: laser beams, programmed to burn into the paper without fully penetrating it, and sunbeams, allowed free passage through holes that Tanner manually pierces in the paper. Fractals contains over one million hand-perforated holes for the sunlight to shine through when the work is hung like a curtain (or as a more complex sculptural arrangement) in the exhibition space.

The exhibition runs through 16 June. You can find us at Teurastamo, the old abattoir yard in the Helsinki neighbourhood of Kalasatama. Welcome!

📷: Jussi Tiainen

𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟: 𝐉ó𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧

Jóhan Martin Christiansen (Faroe Islands, 1987, lives in Copenhagen) frequently exhibits both sculptures and works on paper, but a recurrent feature of his practice are the reliefs based on casts made in pigmented plaster from fragments of discarded cardboard packaging. Christiansen’s exhibition ‘Relief’ brings together a selection of such works from the series Leave Me Breathless (2023–24).

Instead of treating his humble materials with ironic disdain he repeatedly performs close readings of a battered surface and the circulation, the yearning for communication and communion, coded into it. Figuration, for him, is a commitment to the specific time-line – indeed the individual fate – shining through in any scrap of evidence for life.

The exhibition runs through 12 May, welcome!

📷: Jussi Tianen

Welcome to see our two current exhibitions: 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 & 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 in the larger space and 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟: 𝐉𝐨́𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧 in the studio.

We are open today and on Friday from noon until 6 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 4 pm. Free entry, as always.

📷: Jussi Tiainen

Kohta will be closed on Tuesday 30 April and Wednesday 1 May for the celebrations of Vappu.

Kohta on suljettu vappuaattona 30.4. ja vappupäivänä 1.5.

Hyvää vappua! 🎈

(Image: Emilia Tanner, Untitled, 2022, Hand-perforated holes on paper, 23 × 17 cm. Photographer: Jussi Tiainen)

Art Walk Kalasatama is a free guided gallery tour in the neighbourhood of Kalasatama. On Sunday 28 April the tour is held in Finnish by visual artist Enni Vekkeli. The next AWK in English will be on Sunday 12 May.

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Art Walk Kalasatama on ilmainen opastettu kierros Kalasataman lähialueen näyttelyihin. Suomenkielisen kierroksen pitää kuvataiteilija Enni Vekkeli.

Sunnuntaina 28.4. kierros alkaa Galleria Huudosta (Panimokatu 1) klo 14.00 ja päättyy Galleria Longa & Fönariin (Tukkutorinkuja 6). Kesto n. 1,5h.

Tällä kertaa kierroksella vieraillaan neljässä eri kohteessa:
1. Galleria Huuto:
Katri Naukkarinen, Sini Henttu, Anu Haapanen, Laura Pohjonen
2. Kohta Taidehalli:
Figure: Maria Taniguchi & Emilia Tanner
Relief: Jóhan Martin Christiansen
3. Pajagalleria:
Jenni Rope Ja Matti Pikkujämsä
4. Galleria Longa & Fönari:
Nastaran Nasir Zadeh
Fönari: Nastaran Nasir Zadeh

Suosittelemme varautumaan säänmukaisilla varusteilla ja hyvillä kävelykengillä. Kierros ei ole esteetön. Ei ennakkoilmoittautumista.

Seuraava suomenkielinen AWK pidetään 26.5.2024.

Tervetuloa mukaan!

Galleria Huuto Art Walk Kalasatama

Helsingin Sanomissa Aino Frilander vinkkaa, että Kohtan näyttelyssä Figure voi kokea pienen palan Venetsian biennaalia, jonka päänäyttelyssä on myös esillä Maria Taniguchin tiiliseinämaalauksia. Hän nostaa esiin myös yhteisnäyttelyn kahta taiteilijaa, Taniguchia ja Emilia Tanneria, yhdistävän toisteisuuden.

Tervetuloa tutustumaan näyttelyyn!

A recomendation to visit Kohta's exhibition Figure in Helsingin sanomat!