Art Center Ahjo; Juha Merta & Jouko Pullinen and TeamWow & Teijo Karhu + Jussi Mäkelä

JUHA MERTA & JOUKO PULLINEN, TEAMWOW, TEIJO KARHU AND JUSSI MÄKELÄ – DIALOGUES, 16.4. – 4.5.2025

The Diversity of Artistic Dialogue

What can artistic dialogue be? Having engaged in artistic dialogue for over three decades, Merta & Pullinen now arrive in Joensuu to take part in a visual exchange with students from the University of Eastern Finland at Taidekeskus Ahjo. The outcome reveals the richness of a dialogical approach.

Talking about dialogue in the context of art suggests that this is not just any ordinary exchange. In hermeneutic dialogue—striving for genuine understanding—emphasis is placed on tact and non-coercion, while a critical eye is turned toward one’s own preconceptions. In true dialogue, participants become immersed in the conversation, allowing the dialogue itself to take the lead. When two artists engage in dialogue through the creation of artwork, the piece begins to guide its makers, who alternate roles—"one as the eye, the other as the hand."

In the Dialogues exhibition opening at Taidekeskus Ahjo on April 16, the tactful hermeneuts Juha Merta and Jouko Pullinen – M&P – fill the exhibition halls with their visual dialogues. The works by M&P are joined by pieces from visual arts education students at the University of Eastern Finland, who created their works inspired by those of M&P.

“Dialogue is realized on many different levels in this exhibition,” explains Jussi Mäkelä, who guided the students’ work. “Jouko and Juha have had their dialogues, which are now displayed as artworks. The students then entered into a dialogue with those works, and finally, their own pieces engage in dialogue with M&P’s works under our gaze. When dialogue is understood hermeneutically, this kind of interaction becomes possible—perhaps even inevitable.”

The Dialogues exhibition also reflects the age-old master–journeyman–novice tradition in the teaching and learning of visual arts. Mäkelä, who initiated and organized the exhibition, studied art under the guidance of M&P himself and now teaches visual arts to new generations together with his colleague Teijo Karhu.

“As a journeyman, I’ve acted as a kind of intermediary or messenger, conveying the ways of thinking and making of the masters to the novices, to make engaging in visual conversation as natural as possible for the students. It’s only fitting that Teijo and I have also modeled the idea of artistic dialogue ourselves, guiding students together through discussion and idea exchange.”

As visual arts educators, Karhu and Mäkelä broaden the horizon of artistic dialogue by incorporating the relationship between humans and the environment. In their own and collaborative works, they emphasize the significance of understanding interspecies coexistence for the human experience. This theme is also present in the underlying tone of the Dialogues exhibition.

An open lecture and discussion on artistic dialogue will be held in conjunction with the exhibition at the University of Eastern Finland, Metria Building, Auditorium M100, on Tuesday, April 15 from 10 am to 12 pm. Address: Yliopistokatu 7, Joensuu.