Waiting room (Pigs) – 16ch immersive sound installation / Directing and concept : Terike Haapoja & Laura Gustafsson / Field sound recording and installation: Jaakko Autio / Writer: Laura Gustafsson / Activist, photographer: Kristo Muurimaa / Exhibition master: Miika Vainionkulma / Exhibition assistant: Alan Bulfin / Art Curator: Sanna Karimäki-Nuutinen / Art Producer: Pii Anttila / The Pigs exhibition was visited by 5,177 people, which is a record number of visitors to the Seinäjoki Art Hall.

The work features an authentic 16-channel audio recording from the slaughterhouse. I recorded 16 pigs, and placed the speakers on 1:1 spatial relation to the original slaughter house. You can move in between the pigs, and listen to their behavior in a slaughterhouse. The waiting room was first featured in 2019 at the Zone2source Gallery in Amsterdam.

The exhibition on display in the Halli Exhibition Space shows the overlap of history and life of Itikka neighbourhood. From 1914 to the 1980s, next to the Kalevan Navetta building, which at the time was used for industrial and warehousing purposes, a slaughterhouse and a meat processing plant were operating. In its exhibition program, Art Hall Seinäjoki explores issues arising from its location at the intersections of urban and rural, history and the future, combining them with current contemporary art phenomena. The aim is to set aside the complex challenges of today and to highlight the importance and potential of art in society.

Gustafsson&Haapoja is a collaboration project since 2012. The project started out by exploring history and society from the perspective of other species and has progressed to dismantle the concepts of humans and animals and how they relate to the mechanisms of racism, sexism and social exclusion. In the works of Gustafsson&Haapoja, there is an idea of utopia and the possibility of a different world. Haapoja and Gustafsson combine poetry with a documentary approach in their work. Their art extends from installation and video art to performances, and their works often reveal the theatrical background of both artists. The artists attempt to link their exhibitions to social context through discussions, writings and actions.

Ohjelma