8.—23.11.2025

Ilkka Pitkänen & Lassi Vierikko: AGORA AEON
A dystopian chamber play in a cyclical virtual limbo

Programming: Timo Pitkänen
Sound design: Markus Bonsdorff
Cast: Paavo Kerosuo · Malla Malmivaara · Samuli Niittymäki · Boris Nordin · Juha Varis · Helena Vierikko · Konsta Väänänen

The exhibition Agora Aeon explores the interface between technology and the human mind in a world where surveillance has evolved into an all-encompassing state of consciousness — a panopticon of the mind. The exhibition consists of two works: Agora Aeon, a large-scale video installation by Ilkka Pitkänen and Lassi Vierikko that fills Yö Galleria’s main space, and UP’L, a participatory installation by Pitkänen presented in the gallery’s back room. The sound design for both works is by Markus Bonsdorff, and programming by Timo Pitkänen.

Agora Aeon is a dystopian chamber play created by visual artist Ilkka Pitkänen and writer Lassi Vierikko. The work combines cinematic video with evolving abstract color-field visuals.
The piece unfolds as a cyclically repeating audiovisual chamber play, in which five randomly selected human figures encounter a corrupted artificial intelligence in a closed virtual space every thirty minutes. Their dialogues, arguments, and emotional reactions continuously transform — caught between algorithmic order and human chaos. Agora Aeon constructs a temporal limbo where the past, present, and future merge into a single state. The viewer becomes part of an ongoing negotiation about the boundaries of consciousness and control — witnessing a never-ending play between AI and humanity that constantly restarts, reinventing itself with each cycle.

Displayed in Yö Galleria’s back space, UP’L is an interactive media installation by Ilkka Pitkänen that merges the aesthetic of a late-1980s Macintosh SE/30 computer with contemporary technology. The installation offers an immersive media art experience through a fictional interactive software created by UP’L Corp.

Its interactive structure questions whether interaction with AI is genuine communication or merely a silent agreement. UP’L reflects broader concerns about the balance of power and responsibility between humans and artificial intelligence: is AI merely a passive tool, or an emergent entity shaping the encounter itself?

UP’L invites viewers to consider the effects of new technologies and encourages them to question — and at times, quite literally, to poke them in the eye.

Opening: Fri 7 November 2025, 18:00–21:00 – Welcome!