Pekka Sassi

Pekka Sassi (born 1969) is a Finnish media artist whose works include dozens of experimental sound and video pieces, short films, installations and music.[1][2]

Pekka Sassi studied in the Department of Time and Space-based Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, receiving a Master’s degree in 2000. He has additionally studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.[3] He lives and works in Helsinki, Finland, and is married to the Finnish visual artist Elena Näsänen.

In 1995 Pekka Sassi received the Ducat Prize, the oldest art award in Finland, presented annually by the Finnish Art Society to a young artist in recognition of special merit.[4] At the Tampere film festival of 2000 he was awarded as the most promising young artist of the year.[5] In 2006 he received the AVEK award, the most significant recognition for media art in Finland.[6] In 2010 at the 23rd European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany, he received the EMAF Award for a trend-setting work in media art for the experimental film "The Suburb Within." The jury found the piece “refreshingly minimalistic, but with an extraordinary sense of humor”.  “The Suburb Within” (2009) was seen to stand out from the usual flood of images while not leaving out “classic narration or a well-structured setup.”[7]

A varied body of work

Pekka Sassi has been considered one of the most notable Finnish creators of experimental film and media art of his generation.[8] He has been characterised as ”a wide-ranging, yet uncompromising artist”.[9] His working method involves traits of collage or bricolage.[10] [11] He constantly produces music and collects all kinds of images and sounds, integrating self-produced material and found footage to create sound pieces and audio installations or videos that combine sound with moving image.[10] For him, “sound is half of the film/video or maybe even more.” He limits the amount of image material and tries to use just the basic effects: cut, dissolve, brightness, contrast.[12] Structurally, Sassi’s works are “simple and vibrant”.[8]

“When examined separately, the structure of the video track and sound is often very simple. But glued together by Sassi, these elements generate a magic, cathartic experience in the viewer – as if rock lyrics found just the right melody.”[10]

Scripted stories

Some of Pekka Sassi’s works take the form of scripted stories that range from dystopian horror films to small comic impressions of the everyday.[13]

”Sassi does not actually describe the world but reconstitutes fragmented images into basic narratives accompanied by his commentary – serious and sometimes even fervent, however, often laced with irony.”[11]

“Pekka Sassi’s films show viewers ordinary surroundings that open up into self-contained universes which exist within and parallel to the real world. His subtly humorous stories often deal with the relationship between an individual and his surroundings.”[8]

For example the “Kolya saga”, screened at the AAVE festival (Alternative AudioVisual Event) of 2016 in Helsinki, Finland, consists of loosely connected experimental films that address deep themes with a surreal twist.[14] “Kolya and I” (2006) is a black comedy about the relationship between human and God. In “Bad News from Heaven” (2007), the “metaphysical hooligans” Kolya and Yuri are faced with the concept of heaven. “The Suburb Within” (2009) is, according to the filmmaker, about “communication, narration and presence”. It is also a horror film where escalating anguish is created through the soundtrack while the abstract image has a supporting role.[15]

The fourth film of the series, “After Everything” (2014) emphasises visual narrative and is exceptionally long (28 minutes) compared with Sassi’s usually very short videos. The film was produced with support from the Finnish Film Foundation[16] and premiered at the Tampere film festival of 2014. “After Everything” shows a dystopian world where brutality and inhumanity are part of everyday routine. The atmosphere of doom is emphasised by the combination of black and white footage, harsh settings and industrial noise music.[17]

Pekka Sassi taps into the conventions and phenomena of contemporary media culture and moves beyond. “Sassi’s moving images work like modern poetry or jazz; flirting with existing, recognizable structures and genres – and simultaneously constructing something new in an intuitive way.”[10]

The approach is explicit in ”The Dead House” (2003), a horror film constructed following the clichés of the genre but shot in a dollhouse. According to Sassi, “The Dead House” is a “make-believe movie.”[18] In another piece of work, ”It’s All Around Us Now, Frank” (2006), a Western created in the spirit of Twin Peaks and emphasising narrative through sound, two male characters are forced to face the unknown and their own fears.[8] [10]

Abstract moving image

A parallel strand in Sassi’s work combines optical, kinetic and constructivist art with the tradition of abstract experimental film.[10] [13] For example, in “A Friend” (2016) characterised as kinetic and constructivist by Sassi, the moving image is composed of black and white lines and grids. Another recent work, “Colours” (2016), characterised as minimalist/constructivist, is a video installation where large colour surfaces are projected in succession on three walls in a 20-minute loop. The immersive work can be seen both as a painting and as moving image.[19] Sassi explains: “I explored what happens when the element of time is integrated into the examination of an abstract painting by cropping and synchronising images by means of moving image.”[20]

“Pekka Sassi builds in a meaningful way a bridge between experimental modernism and contemporary art. In a certain manner, he is a formalist whose roots go back to the early days of experimental film in the beginning of the last century, but at the same time he is a filmmaker who reacts to the present and its themes and who puts together his material out of the congestion on offer.”[11]

Sassi’s works are characterised by creative integration of simple, and sometimes random, audial and visual elements detected in the surrounding world.[9] In a series of experimental films  called “Domestic Studies in Cosmology” a new planet is discovered at the bottom of a paper coffee cup (“Void”, 2004), a seagull circling around a pier creates a new galaxy (“Bird”, 2004) and a black hole is found pulsating in a kitchen sink (“Schwarzschild Radius”, 2004).[10]

Festivals and exhibitions

Works by Pekka Sassi have been recently screened for example at the Stuttgarter Filmwinter (2017)[21] and the Kassel Dokfest (2017)[9] as well as the Kansk International Video Festival (2016).[22] His works have been shown repeatedly at the Tampere Film Festival in Finland, at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, at the International Festival of New Film in Split and at the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück.[3]

Sassi’s works have been screened frequently in domestic new media art events.[3] In 2018, Pekka Sassi’s works were included in two gallery exhibitions of audio art as part of the Tampere Biennale, focused on contemporary Finnish art music.[23] Sassi’s works have also been showcased in events to promote contemporary Finnish art abroad, such as an event to present experimental Finnish music in Madrid (2017)[24] and an exhibition of Finnish media art at the International New Media Festival in Seoul (2016).[13]

Pekka Sassi is among the artists whose works are included in the VILKE collection bringing together Finnish electronic art works created since the 1970s that were pivotal in their time. The collection, maintained by the FixC artist cooperative, was first shown in Kerava Art Museum in 2013.[25]

A retrospective of Pekka Sassi’s works was shown in the Tampere film festival of 2014 as part of the 25 year celebratory programme of the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, AV-arkki. The retrospective screening “Messages from Pekka Sassi” included 18 experimental sound and video pieces produced in the years 1999–2009.[26]

Works in collections

Experimental films by Pekka Sassi are included in the Art Collection of the Finnish State (“Pass”, 2014; “The Duplicate”, 2001).[27]

The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma holds the sound installation “A lonely house on a hill” (2009).[28] The work is a pop music style “garage opera” comprising 14 pieces where the story presented by Sassi is accompanied by music played, recorded, mixed and mastered by Sassi.[29]

The Helsinki Art Museum holds the installations “The Balcony” (2002) and “Stories About Light” (2000, re-created in 2002).[3] [30]”Stories about light”, inspired by a soviet recording of Yuri Gagarin speaking, found in a flea market, is about space, heroic travelling and distances between people and the planets.[10] A nostalgic living room resembling a movie set offers the visitor the opportunity to listen to recordings of stories. In one of the pieces, named “12-IV 1961”, presented as a self-standing work in various events, Youri Gagarin calls his mother from the orbit around the Earth to discuss mundane issues.

References

  1. ↑ Pekka Sassi. Profile of the artist in the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art AV-arkki. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  2. ↑ Pekka Sassi in the Elonet database of the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI). Accessed 9.9.2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sassi, Pekka: CV. www.galleriaheino.fi. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  4. ↑ Suomen taideyhdistys on myöntänyt dukaattipalkintoja Nuorten näyttelyn osanottajille. [The Finnish Art Society has awarded Ducat prizes to participants of the exhibition of the young artists.] Helsingin Sanomat, 17.6.1995.
  5. ↑ Kangasjärvi, Jukka: Tampereen kansainväliset lyhytelokuvajuhlat 2000 -raportti. [Report from the Tampere international short film festival of 2000.] www.film-o-holic.com, 24.3.2000. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  6. ↑ Mediataiteen Avek-palkinto Pekka Sassille. [The Avek award for media art to Pekka Sassi.] YLE news 7.9.2006. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  7. ↑ Award Ceremony at the 23rd European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, 2010. 2016.emaf.de Accessed 9.9.2018.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Anttila, Hanna Maria and Tuomi, Auli: AV-arkki 25 years. Tampere 44th International Short Film Festival. Programme catalogue. Tampere, 2014, p. 155.
  9. 1 2 3 Short documentary films by Emilia Ukkonen, Pekka Sassi and Jonna Kina at Kassel Dokfest. AV-arkki 7.11.2017. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Anttila, Hanna Maria: Found Meaning in Found Footage. AV-arkki 2007, p. 12.
  11. 1 2 3 Kantokorpi, Otso: Mitä näin? [What did I see?] Taide, kritiikit, 6/2009. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  12. ↑ Interview with Pekka Sassi. impakt.nl Accessed 9.9.2018.
  13. 1 2 3 A focus on Finnish media art at the 16th Seoul International New Media Festival (NEMAF). AV-arkki 22.6.2016. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  14. ↑ Pekka Sassi's Kolja saga. AAVE Festival 17.4.2016. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  15. ↑ Schwierin, Marcel: Die lange Nacht der Ängste. Werkleitz Festival 2010. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  16. ↑ “After everything”. Released short films, The Finnish Film Foundation. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  17. ↑ “After everything.“ Tampere 44th International Short Film Festival. Programme catalogue. Tampere, 2014, p. 68.
  18. ↑ Avantoscope. Avanto festival 2004. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  19. ↑ Valjakka, Timo: Viikonlopun näyttelykierros. [Weekend tour of exhibitions.] Helsingin Sanomat, 28.1.2017.
  20. ↑ Sassi, Pekka: Colours – video installation. www.galleriaheino.fi, 2017. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  21. ↑ Azar Saiyar, Pekka Sassi, Maarit Suomi-Väänänen and Pilvi Takala at Stuttgarter Filmwinter. AV-arkki 17.1.2017. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  22. ↑ Finnish experimental films @ Kansk International Video Festival. AV-arkki 22.9.2016. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  23. ↑ Pekka Sassin ja Eino Ruutsalon teoksia Tampere biennalen taidenäyttelyissä. [Works by Pekka Sassi and Eino Ruutsalo in Tampere biennale’s art exhibitions.] AV-arkki 23.6.2018. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  24. ↑ Música experimental finlandesa. Instituto Iberomericano de Finlandia, 2017. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  25. ↑ VILKE in Kerava Art Museum 18.9 - 13.10.2013. Nomadic Academy of experimental arts, 16.9.2013. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  26. ↑ AV-arkki 25 years: Messages from Pekka Sassi. Tampere 44th International Short Film Festival. Programme catalogue. Tampere, 2014, p. 156-161.
  27. ↑ Pekka Sassi in the Art Collection of the Finnish State Art Commission. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  28. ↑ Pekka Sassi in the Finnish National Gallery. Accessed 9.9.2018.
  29. ↑ Sassi, Pekka: A lonely house on a hill / garage opera. www.galleriaheino.fi, 2009. Accessed 9.9.2009.
  30. ↑ Rastenberger, Anna-Kaisa: Pekka Sassi teoksestaan Tarinoita valosta. [Pekka Sassi about his work ”Stories about light”.] Tennis Palace Art Museum, 2002. Accessed 9.9.2018.
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