Grey Area Exhibition

The pair of artists Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen are known for their spatial installations that combine movement and sound.

The artist duo Grönlund-Nisunen occupy the border ground between art and science. Grey Area is an extensive retrospective exhibition of their works and will fill Kunsthalle Helsinki with their inventive, science-inspired installations.

Their works prompt us to look at phenomena such as gravity, magnetism and temperature with new eyes: the kinetic works are like gadgets that surprize viewers by revealing the visual dimensions of immaterial phenomena – phenomena that have to be experienced with the senses. They open our eyes to wonder at the world around us, at its stupendous structures and underlying laws, which we often overlook in everyday life.

This retrospective produced by the Finnish Art Society spans twenty years of Grönlund-Nisunen’s production. It includes key works from this internationally successful artist duo’s career, along with totally new works.

There are several large-scale installations at Kunsthalle Helsinki, including Wire Installation, made for the 2001 Venice Biennale, this being the first time it has been shown since then. The movement of its nearly three hundred taut steel wires create an optical illusion.

The combination of apparently simple technology and repetitive motion has a meditative effect. In Unstable Matter tens of thousands of steel balls roll around on a sloping surface, forming a mass that strikes like a wave, creating an infinite number of different patterns.

The soundscapes in these works vary from a steady rumble to a light knocking, as in the Spring Field installation, in which the tapping of the coil springs triggered at random by electromagnets generates rhythmic sound patterns.

Tommi Grönlund (1967) and the professor of Department of Art Petteri Nisunen (1962), who began their collaboration in the 1990s, have received numerous Finnish and foreign awards during their career, including the Finnish State Art Prize 2001, the Swedish Edstrand Foundation Art Prize 2004, and the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts 2013. They have made numerous public works. The latest can be seen at Keilaniemi metro station in Espoo and in the New Children’s Hospital in Helsinki.

More information: http://taidehalli.fi/en/