"Tila/Espaces": five young Finnish photographers

From 24th November 1999 to 9th January 2000, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, in collaboration with the Finnish Embassy, presents the work of five Finnish photographers born between 1961 and 1972.

Elina Brotherus, Marjaana Kella, Pertti Kekarainen, Ola Kolehmainen and Jyrki Parantainen all studied at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Their work forms part of the collection at the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, which generously agreed to loan the photographs.

"Tila", the title of the exhibition, is a Finnish word meaning both "space" and "state". The choice of the works in the exhibition reflects the notion of physical or mental space explored by each of the artists.

The work of Elina Brotherus is essentially about her private life and her own experiences: a kind of diary. The series entitled "Landscapes and escapes" reflects a very romantic approach to the landscape.

The installations of Marjaana Kella analyse what makes up photographic expression. The austerity of her photographs comes from her idea that images must be free from anecdote. In "A Young Woman in a State of Hypnosis Sitting in a Green Armchair " (1999), Marjaana Kella confronts the viewer with an expression of both presence and absence.

Ola Kolehmainen has been working on the theme of light for several years using photography and fluorescent tubes. In the two light boxes entitled "Blue Room I" and "Blue Room II", presented at the MEP, the real subject is not the photographic representation of a place, but the space created by the blue light emitted by the work itself.

Jyrki Parantainen's hot, infernal work is diametrically opposed to that of Ola Kolehmainen, which is cool and aquatic. Jyrki Parantainen has been working with fire for several years. On derelict sites in Finland or Estonia, he creates interiors which he then burns and photographs. In "Fire", light and heat have become uncontrollable and dangerous, making the work both beautiful and disturbing, both attractive and repellent.

Less spectacular but more mysterious, the interiors photographed by Pertti Kekarainen are very carefully composed. In "Density", the artist asks what we really see, and deals with the theme of the materiality of space.