HIPPOLYTE STUDIO
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki
09 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi/studio
Open: Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16

13 August – 5 September 2010
Pauliina Salminen and Andrés Jaschek
ON MY WAY

The show in Hippolyte Studio consists of two videos – 8 Crossings by Pauliina Salminen and On My Way (On Their Way) by Andrès Jaschek. Their shared topic is transitoriness, intermediate spaces and the movement of people. They also investigate pictorial mobility and immobility through the dynamic between still and moving images. The work was created in an artist residence in Guwahati, north-east India. It was originally presented on a decommissioned riverboat on River Brahmaputra that runs through the city. Shot at and around the river, the videos are redolent of the political, geographic and temporal “no man’s land” atmosphere in Guwahati.

8 Crossings
The city of Guwahati is bisected by a river. On one bank is a village, the countryside, on the other, a booming city. Hordes of people commute daily across the river, standing on the roofs of ferries. In the video, the camera remains stationary while people move from one edge of the frame to the other, only to disappear from view. They float against the pale background as if dissociated from their surroundings, telling in a few sentences about their feelings towards the two banks of the river. Their voices too blend and float in different directions, building up into a nebulous story of the everyday life of an entire subpopulation.

On My Way (On Their Way)
The piece consists of a combination of photographs and video. From the window of a ferry, we see, in a moving image, a line of people going somewhere. Just a distant line of people walking in water or sand, detached from the landscape. As the ferry moves, we see more and more lines of people appearing. When the ferry stops, the people continue to move. Who is moving, and in which direction? The sound of the ferry’s engine, its pauses and intermittent silences build a soundscape that blends into human voices and the clanging sounds of the ferry.

Pauliina Salminen (b.1975) graduated as video artist from the Turku School of Art and Communication in 1999. She furthered her studies in Marseilles at the Université de Provence, graduating from there in 2001. She has subsequently directed documentaries, gradually moving towards experimental cinema and media art. Her work consists of installations, interactive pieces and linear videos. The works are often documentary in their approach, with abstract, painterly images blending into more classical cinematic narrative.

The Argentinean Andrès Jaschek (b. 1977) graduated from the Arts Academy of La Plata, after which he furthered his studies at Université de Provence. After graduating in 2001 he has directed documentaries as well as video installations. His works can address the same themes from a general, social perspective as well as in a personal and intimate manner.

Salminen and Jaschek have exhibited their video installations in Finland and abroad in France as well as in Italy, Spain, Turkey, India and the United States. Their videos are regularly screened at several European festivals.

 

Information and press images:
Hippolyte Studio, +358 9 612 33 44, info[at]hippolyte.fi

Still: Pauliina Salminen 8 Crossings, 2008