Antti Jussila: apricot trees exist

Turku Art Museum, Studio 25 January – 17 March 2024

Join us for the press preview on Thursday, 25 January 2024 at 11 am at Turku Art Museum. The artist will be present on the occasion.

Opening on Thursday, 25 January 2024 at 5-7 pm. Welcome!

The title of the exhibition, apricot trees exist, is derived from the name of the first poem in the poetry collection alfabet (1981) by Danish poet Inger Christensen, titled abrikostræerne findes, abrikostræerne findes. Through the verb exist (findes), the poetry collection explores and discovers everything that exists. This idea has also served as inspiration and as a basis for Antti Jussila‘s visual thinking when working on the exhibition.

Jussila’s works are a type of assemblage, forming pathways towards growth, development, and destruction. Visually, they reference cells, particles, X-rays, screen fractures, glass, metal, rust – all on equal terms and entangled with each other. Metal bars frame the works, and the materials attached to them seem to have found their places by chance. Everything appears to be in a transitional phase: either fading away or growing towards something new.

The gestures, signs, and impressions are part of a broader chain of things. In the images mimicking the screen of a tablet, the material vibrates and cracks; in the jacquard weaves, pixels become bindings, and the complex intertwining of threads turns into patterns; stained silk scarves with drawings reminiscent of skulls, from which sinews, plants, insects, and colourful grids sprout. The indentations in the museum’s wall resemble larval paths under the bark of a tree, which allow fungi to penetrate, preventing the transportation of water, and ultimately leading to the death of the tree. On the surface, everything appears as mere aesthetic script.

Antti Jussila‘s (b. 1979) artistic work is multimedial and often based on collaboration. After graduating in 2007 from the Arts Academy in Turku, he has created experimental films, installations, performances, and music in various ensembles. In his works, he explores how the ordinary blends with sci-fi, fantasy, the grey zones of our understanding, and aesthetic dead ends.

Apricot trees exist concludes Jussila’s grant period 2021–2023 at the Henry Lönnfors studio in Puolalanpuisto, where he worked as a studio artist chosen by the Turku Art Society, which runs Turku Art Museum.

The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.

The artist’s work has been supported by the Turku Art Society.