March 22nd - June 3rd 2018
Opening Thursday March 22nd from 5-7pm

The Finnish Museum of Photography

Project Space
Kaapelitehdas, Tallberginkatu 1 G, 00180 Helsinki

http://www.valokuvataiteenmuseo.fi/

A feel of rhythm and an aroma of sweat overcome my senses on this Wednesday evening as the popping sound of wooden tails and the connection of metal trucks to metal coping takes place. It's about time, it's about space. The production of urban bodily senses. Balancing, moving and responding while seeing, hearing and touching architecture.

There is concrete, asphalt and metal. There is some brick and wood. Every once in a while there is a tree. It is no mystery why the tree is there: someone planned it, just like everything is planned – and then falls apart. To be oppositional, appropriative of the city, irrational in organization. It was in the streets that spontaneity expressed itself – in an area of society not occupied by institutions – social space has assumed new meaning.

A curb is an obstacle until you grind across it. A wall is but ledge until you drop off it. A cement bank is a useless slab of concrete until you shred it. Benches, stairs, banks and smooth pavements. Citizens use some of these elements every day, almost to the point of excess, but still have no appreciation for the structure itself. Most people think handrails are for those with mobility problems. Christian Hosoi says they are for ollie nose grinds.

Ian Waelder (b. 1993) is an artist based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In his work he explores suburban culture from memory. Working with photography, sound, text or sculpture, he collects experiences from his environment, interested in researching the traces and marks left by the individual. Waelder has received the Full Contact Prize 2013 at the SCAN International Photography Festival in Tarragona and has shown his work at spaces such as L21 Gallery, Salón, La Casa Encendida or LOCAL in Santiago de Chile. Currently he's part of the class by Peter Fischli at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main.