イベントスケジュール一覧へ戻る

【サンテリ・トゥオリへのインタビュー】

Q.まず写真に興味を持った理由を教えてください。

A. 普段から写真を撮っていたので、写真表現に興味を持ったのは自然なことでした。大学の法学部在籍中にも写真を撮っていて、劇場や新聞社でアルバイトのような仕事もしていました。法学部で4 年間学んだ後、2 年間アートスクールに通い、それから1 年間法学部に戻った後にアートスクールを卒業しました。法律を勉強しながら写真に関心があったことから、 "mug shot"（犯罪容疑者の顔写真）に興味を持ち、修士論文では監獄で受刑者を管理するためにどのように写真が使われ始めたのかについて、歴史的に研究しました。それと同時に、写真に何が起こったのか、人々が写真を見ることにどのような影響をもたらしたのかついても学びました。ある意味、法律は私にとって写真の研究の一部なのです。

Q.静止画と動画を重ねるというアイディアはどこからきたのでしょうか。

A.「Elizabeth」という作品で、1 時間の間、2 秒ごとにモデルのスチール写真を撮影しました。約2000 枚のスチール写真を重ねてアニメーションのように少しずつ動かしてみると、人物のある部分は動いているけれども、ある部分は止まっている。静止画と動画の間の境界線が曖昧になりました。そこで、スチールと映像を重ねてみたらどうなるだろうというシンプルな興味を持ったのです。その方法によって、実際に何が起こるのかわからなかったのですが、やってみるととてもしっくりときて、作品の可能性も広がったと思います。

Q.自然をテーマにした作品、最新作の「Forest」や、滝を撮影した「Water Fall」は、展示の際、スクリーンに実物大に投影するようにこだわっていると伺いました。また音もリアルに再現されています。実物の際現を意図されているのでしょうか。

A.「Forest」も「Water Fall」も、実際に存在するそのままのものを再現するのではなく、作品としてのイメージを表現したいと思っています。「Water Fall」を例にとっても、実際に見える"滝"のイメージと、作品に現れたイメージは異なります。そして見る人が「Water Fall」の映像を体験して感じ取るイメージも違う。実際に在るものと見えるもののイメージは異なるのです。

Q.作品制作のベースとなるコンセプトはありますか？

A.その作品を制作している時々で異なるので、どの作品にも共通するコンセプトというものはありません。あえていうのであれば、基本的な関心の対象は人間にあります。鑑賞者は映し出されているものを見て、そのイメージの上に自分を映し出します。私自身は、モデルや彼、彼女らのアイデンティティについて考えるけれども、作品を撮影している時には、モデルに自分自身を投影している、モデルを見て思い起こされる自分自身の経験を重ね合わせているのです。それは最新作「Forest」にも共通していえることかも知れません。森を見ていると森が生きているように見える。私が森を見ているのだけれども、森が私を見ているとも感じる。森を見ながら、自分を見ているように感じるのです。そういう風に眺めていると、森と人との関係も違ったようになっていくと思うのです。

Q.スパイラルの空間は、アトリウム（吹き抜け空間）、カフェに面したギャラリー、青山通りに面した2 階に抜ける階段部分と、スペースごとに特徴があります。展覧会の会場構成では、どのようなところに留意されていますか？

A.スパイラルは、（展示を考えるのに）とても難しい空間ですね（笑）。アトリウムでは、正面からだけではなくスロープを上がっていく人の眺めも考慮しています。ギャラリーではカフェからの視線を意識し、階段部分は大きなガラス面があるので透けて建物の外からも見られるようなものを考えています。

2009 年5 月

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Santeri Tuori exhibition『Place of life―Forest, Red Shirt, Tokyo』

Finnish artist Santeri Tuori's first solo exhibition in Japan

Date: 9-27 September 2009

Organized by Wacol Art Center

Planned and Produced by SPIRAL

Subsidized by FRAME

Cooperationed by Yukobo Art Space, INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE CO., LTD, EPSON SALES JAPAN CORPORATION

Supported by Embassy of Finland, The Finnish Institute in Japan

SPIRAL is proud to present "Place of life－Forest, Red Shirt, Tokyo", Finnish artist Santeri Tuori's first solo exhibition in Japan, on view at Spiral from September 9th (Wed.) to the 27th (Sun.), 2009.Tuori is a leading Finnish artist whose work has previously been exhibited at MOMA, NYC, in 2008, as well as in the Art Unlimited exhibition platform, Basel, in June of this year.

Tuori is known for a variety of work, but especially his fresh approach to portraiture. He studied art while still a law student. Starting his career in still photography, Tuori's early works reveal his interest in expressions of experimental photographic processes. "Blind City" (1999) was an early installation combining photography and sound, his photographs of places that the non-sighted recognize by their sounds. "Julia" (2001) and "Elisabeth" (2002), were each installations of still portraiture created from images produced by automatically photographing the subjects every two seconds for an hour, but without the artist present. Works in the upcoming Spiral exhibition will include "Posing Time" (2003), a work pivotal in the evolution of his current explorations in layering still and moving images, "Red Shirt" (2003), one of his best-known works, of scenes of a child struggling to put on a shirt, and "Forest" (2009), his latest series, the result of three years working on a small island in Finland. Spiral will also exhibit works he produced on the city in Tokyo, while resident at an artist-in-residence program this past May.

His basic interest lies within how portraits exist, and the elements they consist of. Does photography reproduce an identity, or does it create something unexpected? When he began his career as an artist, he was researching the use of prison photography. "Law is, in a sense, a part of photographic research" he says, and "law and creation are quite similar in their strictness, and I like them both in that they depend on rules." Tuori's work investigates the nature of the portrait and the complicated power balance between photographer, subject, and camera. Please consider this opportunity to engage his work for your readership.

【Artist's profile】
Santeri Tuori, born in 1970

【EDUCATION】
2003 Master of Arts, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
2000 Bachelor of Arts, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
1999-2000 Hochschule der Künst, Berlin, Germany
1999 Master of Law, University of Helsinki, Finland

【About Santeri Tuori's work】

I first encountered the Finnish artist Santeri Tuori's works in Helsinki, 2004, when I visited the Cable　Factory, a gallery, theater, and artist studio complex renovated from a Nokia factory. It was a moving image work, shot from a fixed point and projected on the wall of a child struggling to put on a red shirt. It was a 4-minute, short piece. I still clearly remember, that as the child isn't quite yet able to put on a shirt by himself, watching it made me anxious. When the child managed to complete the task, I felt uplifted by a shared sense of achievement. I was surprised how engaged I became with the work. I found myself deeply moved. I thought perhaps this was because I was in Finland, a place quite unfamiliar to me. Or perhaps it was because I was surprised and overjoyed, being reminded of the time before this child and behind myself, or the meaning of life, and the lives which we all are given.

The word "Globalization" started to be bandied about from the 1990s. It was used to represent a search for a new global sense of values, in a post-cold war world, in the context of confrontations between the economic might of the U.S. and small regional communities. Globalization asserted that when labor, goods, and capital are allowed to circulate regardless of national borders, we gain a sense of common values, the gap between rich and poor ameliorates, and peace is at hand. The reality, of course, is not that easy. Critics assert that globalization creates winners and losers, merely different rich and poor, at the expense of unique culture in each country, and that the competition will erode a spirit of mutual support and cooperation. Japan, of course is not exempt from this discussion. We talk about how each prefecture should feature its own characteristics to be economically independent, at the same time a variety of new cultural products are being created in communities all over the world. And amidst this,
we see increased attention on the social systems of Scandinavian countries, known for their high-tax rates, and inclusive social security systems. Their lifestyles are framed around understanding and appreciation for their natural and cultural environments. Their sense of aspiration and attitude toward social investment has generated strong interest in Japan, with the key factor being environmentally friendly life-style. I will leave the detail to others, but suffice it to say that there is a lot to learn from the mentality of Finnish people, who've historically survived oppression and occupation by the hands of regional powers, and yet have managed to maintain their originality. I'm also very much interested in the quality and strong creativity born from the land. In them I find a humane sensibility, which I'm sure existed within the Japanese people until just 30 years ago. I speak of a very normal sensibility of very ordinary things which used to be understood without effort; such as we shouldn't rob or kill or hurt others, the public spirit, that everyone has the right to be happy.

Santeri Tuori has a unique profile for an artist. He studied law, and possesses a license to practice law. He states that the aesthetic demands, in every aspect of the process of creation an artist encounters, is similar to the strictness of law. Thus it was necessary for him to learn the law to become an artist. He works in the media of photography and moving image. His subjects are things which exist in nature:people, waterfalls, and forests. He work uses objective, straight framing. He approaches his subjects face to face. He layers moving images on top of monochromatic photographs, taken from the same angle. Occasionally he adds live sounds. His new work is a series that he shot in the forests of the Åland island in the Kökäre island chain, near the Swedish border. He has continued to visit this island for three years with his family to complete the series. What we see in the work is simply trees blown in the wind, transformed by natural forces, showing seasonal expressions, and the artist's quiet gaze upon them. There is no narrative in the work, nothing dramatic, or romantic. The audience must look closely to notice the transformation. There's just a forest, unfolding before your eyes. It's as if there is a pure life which exists there, in the past and in the future, fragile yet universal.In olden days as now, artists create seeking the universality. Perhaps this is one of the most important tasks within artistic expressions. But this demands hard effort because happiness and love are invisible.What I find in his artwork is not a creation of shared vision, or new value, but his careful attention to human happiness, which is more universal, and is precisely what today's society is longing for.

July 2009 Tsutomu Okada
Chief curator, SPIRAL

【Interview with Santeri Tuori】

Q1. Please tell us why you became interested in photography.

To me, being interested in photography was quite natural. I was taking photos even when I was in law school, working for theaters and newspaper companies. After having studied for four years in law school,I went to art school for two years, then went back to law school for a year and after that I went back again to art school for an other three years. As I was always interested in photography even when I was studying law, the history of mug shots and use of images in criminal control became the theme of my master's theses. At the same time, I studied what happened to photography and how the practices of,for example, police photography influenced the way we see photography now.

Q2. What gave you the idea of overlaying moving images on top of still images?

In my work "Elizabeth" I shot the model every two seconds for one hour. When some 2000 of these photo images were animated, the result was quite interesting. Some of the parts seemed to be moving while the others did not, blurring the border between still photography and moving image. Seeing that, I became curious to see what would happen if such animated photos were laid over a still photograph. In the beginning I was not sure what effect there would be, but once I tried it, it was quite natural and I think it gave more depth and possibility to my work.

Q3. For nature themed works such as "Forest" and "Water Fall" you specify that the work be shown in actual size, with realistically reconstructed sounds. Are you trying to recreate nature through your work?

Well, in both works, I am trying not to recreate the actual forest or waterfall, but rather to create an image for the audience to remember their image of a forest or waterfall. For example, my "Water Fall" is different from actual waterfalls, as well as what the audience is experiencing while looking at the work.As images are not the actual thing, audiences will experience what they feel is the waterfall through my work. The image of what is there and what it actually is are different.

Q4. Is there any concept that goes through all your works?

There is no one concept that goes through all my work, as concepts of each work differs from one to another. If must there be one, it would be an interest in human beings, as the focus of my interest is always in people. Audiences look at the projected images and project themselves onto these images. For myself, I think of the models and their identities, but when I shoot them for my work, I project myself onto the models, I am inspired by the models .The same could be said for "Forest", my newest work. When I go to a forest, when I am in the middle of it, it feels alive. I am the one who is looking at it, but at the same time, it feels that the forest is also looking at me. From such a viewpoint, the relationship between a person and a forest seems to differ from time to time.

Q5. The exhibition space at Spiral is quite unique, consisted of atrium, gallery at the café, and the stairs to the second floor. What point do you think is most important in putting together this exhibition?

The exhibition space is rather challenging. For the atrium, I am considering not only the view from the bottom but eye of the people who is climbing the slope. Also I am thinking of the people from the café at the gallery, and the pedestrians view for the staircase, as there is a large glass window.

May 2009