7.3.2026 15–17

On Saturday, 7 March 15-17 Eero Yli-Vakkuri will give a lecture on the themes of his documentary film Hoiva ja Kuri (Care and Control). The talk will be followed by a screening of the documentary (53 min) and an open discussion facilitated by the artist, focusing on the police horse and the governance of public space. The event will be held in Finnish and/or English, as needed.

Eero Yli-Vakkuri’s previously unreleased documentary Hoiva ja Kuri (Care and Control, 53 min, 2026) follows the lives of police horses between 2016 and 2021. The observational documentary explores how police horses are desensitized to frightening stimuli and how they are used to de-escalate conflicts between people. Animal-assisted law enforcement is a widely criticized aspect of frontline police work. Footage of the mounted police’s daily life has been filmed in various parts of Helsinki, for example outside of Lou on Vaasankatu and elsewhere in the Harju district. The documentary film is the final part of Yli-Vakkuri’s Trans-Horse project, which began in 2014 and examines contemporary horse culture.

Eero Yli-Vakkuri (b. 1981) is a recovering survivalist and performance artist. From 2014 to 2022, he worked closely with horses and various equine professionals. His activities included a horseback-riding performance connecting Turku and Helsinki, as well as horse-related teaching at Aalto University, Theatre Academy, and Kankaanpää Art School. More recently, Yli-Vakkuri has explored transformative artistic organizing and has been keenly involved in activism. He has worked in support roles in demonstrations opposing Israeli apartheid, advocating for Palestinian rights, and pressuring Finland to act against genocide and biodiversity loss. The editing of Care and Control was delayed due to his activism. The work has been supported by the Linnamo Foundation (Political Film 2022).

No registration needed.

Exhibition open until 7.3. Mon-Fri 15-19, Saturday 13-15 before the event.