Alvar Aalto’s architecture is cast in a new light in Elena Näsänen’s Passerby, which receives its premiere on Thursday, 21.3. This combination of video art and photography presents a segment of Aalto’s production viewed through the lens of contemporary art. Passerby will be shown in the Alvar Aalto Museum Gallery in Jyväskylä, 22.3–5.5.2013.

“I have always been interested in architecture and in integrating it into my own work. In Passerby I finally managed to make this dream a reality,” Näsänen says.

In Passerby the actor Yuko Takeda plays a Japanese woman who arrives to spend a day and night in Helsinki, and goes round by tram photographing Alvar Aalto’s buildings. Her places of pilgrimage are Finlandia Hall, Stora Enso’s Head Office, Aalto’s own home and his studio.

The sound world of Näsänen’s works is carefully chosen and contributes to their final form. Sound also plays an important role in Passerby. Anne Tolkkinen has created the soundtrack in close collaboration with Näsänen, while Jussi Eerola was the cinematographer.

Elena Näsänen’s production has toured festivals and exhibitions in Finland and abroad. It includes a variety of works, among them the video work Round (2011) and the eco-activist western, Wasteland (2009), shot in Australia.

It is not only new generations of architects and designers, Alvar Aalto’s extensive and wide-ranging life’s work has also inspired several contemporary artists. Apart from Näsänen, a couple of years ago, the Alvar Aalto Museum Gallery showed Vesa-Pekka Rannikko’s video installation Three Legs, and, in 2012, a photograph exhibition by Ola Kolehmainen.

ELENA NÄSÄNEN – PASSERBY
Alvar Aalto Museum Gallery
22.3–5.5.2013

Alvar Aallon katu 7,
Jyväskylä 40600
open Tue – Sun 11-18
closed on Mondays

Elena Näsänen will be available to meet the media on Thursday, 21.3 at 14:00 in the Alvar Aalto Museum.

And on Friday, 22.3 at 14:00 the Alvar Aalto Museum will host a meet-the-artist event open to the public.

Further information:
Producer Mari Forsberg tel. +358 (0)45 6790920, mari.forsberg@alvaraalto.fi,
Alvar Aalto Museum

Meet the Artist: http://aaltopress.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/meet-the-artist-elena-nasanen/

Press images: http://aaltopress.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/press-images-elena-nasanen-ohikulkija-passerby/

Press images are password protected. Please request one from: Mari Murtoniemi, Tomi Summanen or Pia Poskiparta at firstname.surname@alvaraalto.fi.

www.elenanasanen.com