6.2. — 1.3.2026

The starting point of the Thinking Numbers exhibition is Jonathan Schell’s essayistic nonfiction book The Fate of the Earth, published in 1982. The book is considered one of the key works of the Cold War era and examines the consequences of nuclear war and the future of humanity. According to Schell, reflecting on the fate of the Earth brings humans into contact with something they can neither fully control nor fully understand. At its best, this state of not-knowing can lead to wonder, and wonder in turn to respect and to actions aimed at securing the future of the planet. Does not-knowing still hold value in a time when ‘’an explanation’’ is always available?

From these premises, the artist’s book Thinking Numbers took shape and forms the basis of the exhibition. Thinking Numbers does not comment on Schell’s original work or its themes, even though it maintains a clear connection to it. The artist’s book preserves the size and page count of the source publication, but most of the text has been removed. Only numbers, numerical references and words related to thinking remain in their original positions. The result is a list of words in which numbers and thinking detach from measurement and their logic turns into magic. Numbers no longer explain the world; instead, they become tools for thinking about meaning, time, emptiness, and the limits of control.

The exhibition has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Tanja Koljonen (born 1981, Muonio) lives and works in Helsinki. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Photography from Aalto University in 2014 and a Master of Fine Arts from the Department of Printmaking, Academy of Fine Arts in 2024. Koljonen works at the interface between printmaking and photography. Koljonen’s works are often published in book form, which expand into spatial entities in exhibitions. Her work emphasizes an interest in the relationship between written language and images, and how they can change familiar ways of reading and observing. Koljonen has held solo exhibitions in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, and she has participated in group exhibitions and residency programs around the world.