Public Space

Collective Mindscape

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Collective Mindscape brings together the mental landscapes of eight people who have experienced cancer. The viewer can spend time in the virtual world featuring the participants’ sanctuaries as well as more challenging landscapes reflecting their experiences of living with cancer.

The work is experienced by sitting in front of the screen and following the on-screen instructions. The viewer moves through the world using simple hand gestures and can trigger audio recordings in which the participants share their insights.

I made the work together with Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. The mindscapes were created by 3D artists Vilma Ratinen and Katariina Kontturi, based on multiple interviews and feedback sessions with the participants. The work was commissioned for the Comprehensive Cancer Center in Helsinki and curated by Taru Elfving. It is permanently installed in the Potilassalonki (Patient Lounge) at Siltasairaala in Helsinki. The work was completed in 2024.

Oodi Y:lle / Ode to Y

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On its 35th anniversary, the Y-Foundation commissioned us to create a public artwork involving its residents. The foundation is Finland’s largest nationwide non-profit landlord and an internationally recognised expert on ending homelessness.

Ode to Y consists of five mosaic-covered tables and an interactive mobile app. Together, the tables contain approximately 17,400 mosaic tiles, which is the same number as the Y-Foundation’s rental apartments in 2020, when we began developing the project.

Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen and I set up a mobile studio in the participating housing communities and invited residents to contribute content to the mosaic tiles. Through the mobile app, visitors can explore artworks, sounds, memories and stories connected to the different tables.

The tables are located in the courtyards of Taipaletalo (Porvoo), Rukkilan asumisyhteisö (Helsinki), Lyyrapyrstö 2 (Tampere) and Puunhaltijankuja (Vantaa).

The project was funded by the Y-Foundation. It was a co-production of the Y-Foundation and Firma Oy / Studio Kalleinen, and was made possible by AVEK’s Mediarata support for Firma Oy.

Keskustelupuisto / Conversation Park – A Public Space Game

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Thirty residents between the ages of 6 and 89 took part in a two-year Public Space Game. Their mission was to transform thirty individual visions into a single urban park in the centre of Rauma, Finland. The game-like process, designed and moderated by Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen and me during 2019-2020, unfolded over six phases, structured as six game moves.

The project was part of the Lönnström Project, a contemporary art programme initiated by Lönnström Art Museum.

Book
We wrote Keskustelupuisto / Conversation Park – A Public Space Game,
which shares the process, insights and lessons from the project.

Mobile app
The park is presented by the participants through a mobile app published alongside the park’s opening. The app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play by searching for Keskustelupuisto.

Project website
keskustelupuisto.fi

9 CARTUCHOS – PAPERBAG STORIES FROM CUBA

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In Cuba, paper bags represent both the past and the future. “Cartuchos” were once an essential part of everyday life, but were replaced by plastic bags after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen and I commissioned nine local writers and thinkers to write speeches about Cuba, using a paper bag as a point of departure. An edition of nine paper bags, each featuring excerpts from one of the speeches, was printed in 100,000 copies.

The bags were distributed during the biennial to vegetable markets and small grocery stores across Havana, where they were given out to customers. In this way, the work gradually entered households throughout the city.

The paper bag becomes a lens through which histories, politics, economics and global conflicts can be read.

The project was part of Havana Biennial 2019. Writers of the speeches printed on the paperbags were Juan Triana, Maikel José Rodríguez, Isdanny Morales, Mario Castillo, Roly Ávalos & Alex Díaz, Modesto Díaz , Orlando Hernández, Israel Castellanos and Hilda María Rodríguez. We worked with a local curator Lisset Yllanez.

 

COMPLAINTS CHOIR

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Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen 2005-2014
Many commissioners, including Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Kiasma (Helsinki), Nordwind festival (Berlin), Pro Arte (St. Petersburg), Fringe festival (Singapore)

The COMPLAINTS CHOIR project invites people to sing their complaints out loud together with fellow complainers. We organised the first choir in Birmingham followed by the Complaints Choirs of Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Chicago, Singapore and many more. The documentation of the choirs form a 4-channel video installation.

In 2006 the project went “open source” when we published the “9 Easy Step Method to Organize a Complaints Choir” on our website. Since then over 150 DIY complaints choirs have been organised all over the world.