Jonna Kina’s Secret Words and Related Stories video work will be on display at the Kirpilä Art Collection from October 24 to November 17, 2024. The work consists of anonymously collected passwords and the stories behind them, exploring the concept of security and personal “secrets” in contemporary society. By examining these passwords, the work unravels how security connects to identity—how passwords act as compressed fragments of language, encoding physical history and memory to access various services in the virtual world.

In the video, young actors aged 12 to 16 stand against a red backdrop, reading from sheets of paper, narrating personal confessions, childhood memories, and clichéd rationalizations tied to these passwords. These stories are, at turns, thoughtful, humorous, and emotional, transforming simple chosen words into windows that reveal personal information—the very opposite of a password’s intended function.

On the opening night, Thursday, October 24, actors Johannes Holopainen and Alina Tomnikov will perform (in Finnsih) two readings at 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM, presenting true stories behind passwords anonymously shared with artist Jonna Kina. These stories reflect the tension between public and private, as the passwords, originally created to protect, often disclose deeply personal memories or references. Admission to both the exhibition and the opening performance is free.

Jonna Kina (b. 1984) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, and Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Her works have been widely exhibited internationally in in international exhibitions and festivals such as the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Berlinale Forum Expanded Cinema Program in Berlin, Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Galleria delle Carrozze di Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, and at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Kina’s film Arr. for a Scene was awarded Best Nordic Short Film at Nordisk Panorama in 2017, and that same year, she was nominated for the VISIO Young Talent Acquisition Prize in Florence. Kina has participated in the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s residency program twice: in 2023 at the Fabrikken residency in Denmark, and in 2018 at Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS).

Still image: Jonna Kina, Secret Words and Related Stories, 2013–2016, 4K, 20 min 12 sec

Petri Kumela, one of Finland’s most versatile and sought-after classical guitarists, is equally at home with period instruments as in working with contemporary composers, microtonal music or cooperating with artists from other art forms. He is also one of the Finnish guitarists best known on the international scene, with a reputation for originality and versatility. His performances have ranged from intimate house concerts to prestigious concert halls such as Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre and the Kitara Hall in Sapporo.

Petri Kumela studied at the Helsinki Conservatory with Juan Antonio Muro and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg in Germany with Franz Halász. He was the first guitarist to be accepted for the prestigious Meisterklassen study programme and was awarded the rare DAAD scholarship for two consecutive years to study in Hálasz’s master class. Kumela has achieved first-place finishes in international competitions such as the Scandinavian Guitar Festival and the Stafford Classical Guitar Recital, and in 2023, he was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize.

PROGRAMME

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
4 Petites Pièces (Arr. Kumela)

• L`Irresoluë, Wq 117/31
• La Capricieuse, Wq 117/33
• La Caroline, Wq 117/39
• La Borchward, Polonaise, Wq 117/17

Franz Schubert/Johann Kaspar Mertz

• Lob der Tränen (D.716b)
• Liebesbotschaft (D.957)
• Aufenthalt (D.957)

Selection from the collection ‘Small Creatures’
Composers: Delvizio, Hirvelä, Leinonen, Ruders, Wennäkoski, and others.

There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.
Free entry. Warmly welcome!

Photo of Petri Kumela by Heidi Piiroinen

Band of Weeds (Olli Aarni, Lauri Ainala, Kalle Hamm, Hermanni Keko, Anniina Saksa, and alternating plant members)

Band of Weeds is a sound collective founded in 2015. At first, it was only a conceptual band created by Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger, and existed only on a paper. Over time it became a real band, which releases LPs and gives live concerts. The first album – Other-Than-Human – was released in autumn 2017, and the EP Waiting for the Extinction 🙁 in the spring 2019. Their upcoming album, New Pangaea, which explores the history of the plants on the island of Seili, will be released around the end of the year by the Italian label Superpang.

All the sound material is recorded from the plants using the method developed by the Soviet botanist Ivan Gunar. There are ionised liquids running inside the plant tissues and the changes in their electro-magnetic field can be converted to the sound range audible for the human ear.

The Band of Weeds questions anthropo- and zoocentric worldviews. The plant kingdom has been considered the lowest class of the living beings in the Western thinking. Contemporary researchers call this ‘plant blindness’. People don’t notice the plant kingdom, even though plants form the most significant part of the visible biomass. Plants are everywhere, but they are seen only as a background for human and animal life: milieu. At the same time, the importance of the plants are underestimated for the mankind, despite of their vitally importance in terms of producers of oxygen, nutrition and shelter.

There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.
Free entry. Warmly welcome!

Soprano Emma Hartikainen and pianist Tanja Niiranen began their intensive collaboration in the sphere of lied music in 2020, when they were both students at the Sibelius Academy. Having received tutoring from Ilmo Ranta, the duo has also attended numerous master classes under teachers such as Angelika Kirchschlager, Andrè Schuen, Malcolm Martineau, Christian Westergaard, Pauliina Tukiainen, Anu Komsi, Pia Värri, and Andreas Schmidt. They have studied improvisation under David Dolan from the Guildhall School in London, and their lied improvisations have been enthusiastically received in concerts.

The duo regularly performs live across Finland, with appearances at venues such as the Pro Musica Foundation, the Musica Nova festival, Ateneum Art Museum, the Soiva Kieli vocal music series, Laulumusiikin Ystävät ry concerts, the Hämeenlinna Sibelius Museum, and the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art in Turku. Internationally, they have performed in Florence, Salzburg, and Rome.

The duo is deeply interested in music’s ability to express and process even the most difficult emotions. In their lied collaborations, Hartikainen and Niiranen aim for nuanced, in-depth, and engaging storytelling. As performers, they are brave and sincere—qualities they believe are essential for fostering genuine interaction with the audience. They also place importance on highlighting composers and works outside of the traditional canon.

The Sibelius Academy Foundation has awarded the duo grants for study trips to Germany, Italy, and Austria, to compose a commissioned work for Maleena Linjama, and for organizing concerts featuring lied music by women composers composers from the 1900s and 2000s. In spring 2023, Hartikainen and Niiranen received a € 5,000 recognition grant from the Martin Wegelius Memorial Foundation; in spring 2024, they received a grant from the Helsinki Music Centre Foundation; and in summer 2024, they were honored with an award from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.

Free entry. Warmly welcome!

Photo: Christian Schneider