12.3.–5.4.2026

Corporate Ukulele: Face The Music is a site-specific sound installation that examines the emptiness of white-collar work and stock music.

Artists Lauri Antikainen and Joel Karppanen will strip the Huuto IV space of everything related to the gallery and restore it to its original function, a meeting room. Inside of it, visitors will hear stock music pastiches composed on a ukulele and glockenspiel, such as Rondo to Celebrate a Successful Fiscal Year.

Stock music is a substance resembling music – anonymous sound wallpaper that, like its predecessor Muzak, is used as background music in corporate videos, advertisements and internal communications. No one listens to meaningless and often irritating stock music in their free time, yet it permeates our lives subtly and extensively. The work invites to reflect on how a paid job in the corporate world alienates individuals from their own values, taste and moral ambition. How does the ideal of professionalism manipulate us into acting in ways we would not consciously choose?

A visit to the bleakest art exhibition of the year is comparable to the experience of sitting in a movie theater where commercials are played continuously and the movie never begins. Finally, the lights are turned on to indicate that the screening has ended.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Lauri Antikainen (b. 1992) is a sound artist and musician originally from Kuhmo. The versatile artist has worked on sound design projects, created sound installations, popular music and performance art, and performed premieres of new art music. His music and works have been heard and seen at various events, including Flow Festival, Oulu Music Video Festival, Tampering Festival, and WeW! Contemporary Music Festival.

Joel Karppanen (b. 1993) is a photographer, visual artist and filmmaker. His works have been exhibited at various venues, such as Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Mänttä Art Festival, KunstHausWien, PHotoEspaña, and Galleria Halmetoja. His works are included in the collections of the Finnish Museum of Photography, the Finnish State Art Commission and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.