Helsinki

Jade Kallio and Antti Jussila: For a failed, a revolution

Jade Kallio and Antti Jussila: For a failed, a revolution

May

10

Fri

07:15 – 07:15

10 MAY 2024 – 26 MAY 2024

In 2009, the phrase “Art is too serious of a matter to be left to artists who no longer dare to make mistakes” was painted on the wall. Now a large mural is displayed at the end of the room. It is a collage of images, different events and activities performed by two similar characters. They sit, sniff, talk, touch each other and so on. 

The artists in the exhibition form a collective called MSL, an acronym derived from a name they do not hope to return to. Nevertheless, MSL still bears traces of its origins. Over the years, the artists have used fictitious names for themselves, or just randomly chosen letters. 

Benches covered with waxed tablecloth line the gallery space. They look too narrow and it feels serious to sit on them. The patterns and colours of the fabric are reminiscent of a 90’s summer cottage interior or a weatherproof cover for a garden table. Fifteen years ago, there was a desk and a stack of books in the room, a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard leaned against the wall. This room has a calm, distracted atmosphere – as if time moves at a different rhythm than outside. 

The early days of MSL were marked by a shared naïve and idealistic esotericism, a resistance to the prevailing structures of exhibiting art, a desire to work in a different manner; to be in opposition. Perhaps ultimately it was a failure to understand the structures of art-making within which one inevitably has to operate.

After the furniture and decorations of the space, your attention is drawn to two friendly-looking figures spending time in the gallery. Their previous performances have dealt with body, gender, feelings of alienation, repetitive and often ambiguous manifestations of symptoms: twitching of their crotches, visceral noises, the use of intoxicating substances in performances, identification with well-known popular music figures, and dealing with their own sense of discomfort through soft toys and mechanically moving gestures. 

In the spring of 2023, curator Remi Vesala invited MSL to create a reenactment of the 2009 exhibition at Titanik Gallery. For a failed, a revolution is a fictional retrospective of the period between the two exhibitions. 

The collars of the costumes are designed by Rita Vaali.

MSL (Antti Jussila and Jade Kallio) has performed at Salon de Normandy by The Community Hôtel Normandy, Paris (2019); Titanik, Turku (2019); Sinne, Helsinki (2017); SIC, Helsinki (2017); Turku Art Museum, Turku (2017); CCA Derry, Derry-Londonderry (2016); Ytan Contemporary Art Platform, Västerås (2016), among others.

Fri 10 May 2024 – 26 May 2024 Closed today