PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi

Minna Havukainen & Sini Liimatainen
READY FOR THE OPERATION
8 February – 2 March 2008
Open: Tue-Fri noon–5pm, Sat-Sun noon–4pm

How does it feel to be ill?

Ready for the Operation is an exhibition by photographic artist Minna Havukainen and cinematographer Sini Liimatainen. Combining video and photography, the exhibition will be on show at Photographic Gallery Hippolyte in February–March 2008. The works on show arise out of a need to study the experience of being hospitalised for an illness.

The works of the two artist form a complement to each other. They investigate the visual grammar of the hospital, revealing patterns in our cultural subconscious about what it feels and looks like to be in a hospital.

The show features of an installation consisting of large video projections (duration 18min) depicting the hospital ambience. Another video work plays in three monitors (duration 5–7min) where patients tell what it feels like to be taken ill and be hospitalised. Part of the thematically linked photographs are large-format portraits of patients, part still lifes of objects, spaces and surfaces in hospitals.

Both the videos and the photographs were shot at the Turku University Hospital in 2006–2007. Their making would not have been possible without close cooperation with the staff and patients.
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Photographic artist Minna Havukainen (b. 1969) lives in Turku and works primarily in Turku and Kuopio. In the past few years Havukainen has mostly studied life's turning points in her work. Her photographic and video works have been presented in many joint, group and solo exhibitions.

Cinematographer Sini Liimatainen (b. 1973) lives and works in Helsinki. She has collaborated with many young artists in the fields of cinema, video art and theatre. Works shot by her have been screened in exhibitions and festivals in Finland and abroad. Ready for the Operation is Liimatainen's first private exhibition.
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For further information and press images, please contact:
Petronella Gronroos, exhibitions co-ordinator / Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, +358 9 612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi