ART CENTER AHJO, KYTÖ/LIEKKI SPACE; HELKA HEINONEN - A BRILLIANT TRICK

ART CENTER AHJO, KYTÖ/LIEKKI SPACE; HELKA HEINONEN - A BRILLIANT TRICK 25.3.-12.4.2026

The exhibition features 30-minutes long video work A Brilliant Trick. The other works in the exhibition form a space that discusses with the world of the video using different materials. Visitors have the opportunity to stop and sit down, perhaps to rest, draw or discuss. A Brilliant Trick is a poetic video work about growing up, nature loss, boundaries and negotiation. About imagining ways of being that include listening the environment and coexisting with it. The work combines filmed moving images with stop motion animations, dialogue and voice over. While making the work, I pondered nature loss, how many species and their living conditions are disappearing at a rapid pace right now. Nature loss seemed like a topic that is spoken about and recognized widely, and at the same time it seemed to remain invisible in some way, as if its shockingness was not quite able to reach our everyday experience.

In the work, I examined the theme of nature loss together with the themes of growing up, boundaries and negotiation, because I thought that reacting to nature loss and the emotions associated with it overlapped strongly with these themes. I wanted to explore how encountering nature loss and the emotions associated with it can get entangled in everyday experience. The narrative of the work is fragmentary and associative, while at the same time it moves from childhood to adulthood, exploring these themes. I also considered what a new, supportive way of reacting to the environment and oneself could be. When creating this work, I was inspired by many things I read and experienced, especially Juha Kauppinen's book Diversity – tales of extinction and Rosi Braidotti's work Posthuman Knowledge.