Re-Sound — Jaakko Autio & Akasaka @ AARK 10 DIALOG group exhibition, Galleria Aski, Turku. October 10–26, 2025.

Featured Project: Re-Sound:Jaakko Autio (sound artist, installation) & Akasaka (visual artist, painting) / Musicians: Reetta Karhunen (vocal performance) & Anna Voutilainen-Veijonen (saxophone) / Project Founders and Organizers: Renja Leino (AARK founder & director), Bengt “Benkku” Andersson (AARK co-founder) / Host and Venue: Galleria Aski, Taiteen talo, Rettigin kuvataiteilijat ry / Curator: Renja Leino / Exhibiting Artists: Maria Ahmed (UK), Brian Cody (UK), Akasaka (UK) & Jaakko Autio (FI), Katya Yehorova, Olga Zaremba, Nickita Tsoy, Oksana Mykhanko (UKR), Marjolein Witte (NL), Mark Nixon (UK) & Viliina Koivisto (FI), Seah Heikes & Mykel Boyd and Chris Sheridan (US), Susan Mabin (New Zealand), Patty Leino (Scotland), Dana Neilson (Canada), Lilli Haapala (FI), Ville Laitinen (FI), Veera Rossi (FI) / Support and Partners: Archipelago Art Residency Association in Korpo, Turku Arts Academy, HIAP Ukrainian Solidarity Residencies, TAIKE, Svenska Kulturfonden, Konstsamfundet, Korppoon SpS, Paraisten kaupunki.

Re-Sound is an exploration of dialogue—between sound and image, body and awareness, presence and creative response. At its core lies a dynamic interaction: sound works and paintings arise together through processes grounded in meditation, attentive listening, and embodied perception. Our collaboration with Akasaka transforms both the act of making and experiencing art into a living interplay, where the boundaries between artist, medium, and audience dissolve. This project invites viewers to pause, sense, and witness how sound and image shape one another in real time, echoing the layered, contemplative process that gave rise to the works themselves.

Close-up of the Painting: The second video offers an intimate, uninterrupted view of the painting itself. Viewers are encouraged to take the time to really observe the painting while listening to the related sound piece, experiencing the dialogue of image and sound in real time.

Meditation & Brainwaves: In this video, I engage in a meditative session with one of Akasaka’s paintings, recording my brainwaves through EEG. The audible guided sonic contemplation is added afterwards to the video. This live moment provided the foundation for the resulting sound composition.

Key Project Details

Re-Sound is part of the AARK 10 DIALOG exhibition. Three new paintings by Akasaka and three solo sound works (performed in direct dialogue) reinterpret RE-DITUS choral work. The installation invites an encounter with stillness, listening, and image-sound interplay.

Collaboration Origin

A video document, Before your eyes – Improvised Ritual at AARK,” captures the very starting point of our project: an improvised ritual performed by Akasaka in the backyard of the AARK residency, with me behind the camera. This moment has come to symbolize the open connection and intuitive inquiry that ground our entire collaborative process.

Practices & Influences

Both of us draw on a long-standing background in Buddhist and somatic awareness practices. Akasakas painting is rooted in their engagement with the Triratna Buddhist community, where meditative presence, sound, and the body are deeply interconnected. My own practice intertwines artistic and spiritual exploration, shaped by formative years in Senegal and travels across South and Southeast Asia, where meditation (Anapanasati) and a spatial, embodied approach to art coexist. At the heart of our collaboration lies openness, silent empathy, and dialogical exploration.

Video Captured during a tranquil morning at Wat Suan Mokkh monastery in Thailand, the chanting is recorded at Wat Chom Thong monastery.

About AARK Residency

AARK Artist Residency celebrates its 10th anniversary with AARK 10 Dialog, an international group exhibition in Turku, Finland. Located on the island of Korpo amidst the Baltic Sea and forest, AARK offers artists a unique space for stillness, exploration, and creative dialogue with nature. At the heart of residency life is dialogue itself—between nature, fellow artists, and the local community. This dialogue manifests in both shared silence and the rhythms of everyday presence. AARK invites artists to be present not only in their own practice, but in relation to others—encouraging meaningful encounters and interdisciplinary exchange.

As a living relationship with the surrounding world, artistic practice at AARK often bridges ecological and creative networks. Deep cultural exchange happens as artists of different backgrounds and nationalities meet and collaborate—many returning year after year to deepen their connection to the archipelago and each other. Numerous artistic collaborations, lasting friendships and creative networks have grown from this culture of openness.

In Conversation: Meeting Point

The video “Meeting Point – Interview @ YÖ Galleria” (filmed at YÖ Galleria, Helsinki, August 23–25, 2024) documents my collaboration with Akasaka. Through mutual interviews and dialogue, we explore perception, meditation, and the living process of art. My use of EEG during meditation forms a digital double, dissolving boundaries between artist and viewer, while Akasaka’s drawings and reflections challenge the limits of self and artwork.

Our exchange centers on how contemplative practice informs my art-making and experience. Akasaka emphasize presence, attentive observation, and repetition as ways to foster wellbeing and connection—qualities often missing from an accelerated, polarized world. For us, art becomes a space of encounter where habitual boundaries soften, and contemplation is an active engagement: slowing down, welcoming experience, and deepening awareness. This approach encourages us to meet art, and life, with curiosity and embodied attention, cultivating a sense of connection that transcends the gallery setting.

Part of the RE Series

Re-Sound continues my ongoing RE series, including works such as Re-Ditus (Möhkö Ironworks Museum, Ilomantsi, June–August 2025; and Halkosaari Pavilion, Lappeenranta, July–August 2025), Re-Floris (Gallery Villa Suruton, Savonlinna, summer 2025), Re-Verb, Chapter I (Aine Art Museum); Re-Verb, Chapter II, House of Kinetic Art, Joutsa, June–August 2025), and Re-Birth (MUU Galleria, Helsinki, November 1, 2025)—the final work in the RE series. Each is dedicated to themes of space, sound, and community in immersive, site-responsive installations. These projects, along with my other collaborations, share a foundation in contemplation, place, and dialogue between me, the location, and you, the audience.