This ready-made film is a discarded film fragment I found in a dustbin, a relic from a time before the advent of computer-programmed TV. In 1978, Nobel Science Prize winners Pjotr Kapitsa, Arno Penzias, Hamilton O. Smith, Peter D. Mitchell and Werner Arber were filmed in a Stockholm TV studio talking with Bengt Feldreich about fossil fuels, nuclear reactors, genetics, the nature of time and symmetry. My version is a flicker film comprised solely of the Finnish subtitles that were played during the original broadcast. The film runs in a rapid loop, emulating the effect of a Tibetan prayer wheel.  (MT / translation: Silja Kudel)

selected exhibitions or screenings:

• Film Reader, Ars Nova, Turku, Finalnd, 2022-23
• Message to Man, Cinema Aurora, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2019
• Kommandona, Pekilo, Mänttä Art Festival, Finland 2016
• Blackout, Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Finland 2015–2016
• Script Films, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany 2013
• Rappiotaiteen festivaali – Festival of Degenerate Art, Astoria-sali, Helsinki, 2011

My Silence is a structuralist, reductionist video and sound piece. It experiments with what happens when you take out the most important element from a specific film. Louis Malle’s feature film My Dinner with André (1981) is a canonized classic in cinema history, a film noted most of all for its brilliant, multi-layered dialogue/monologue.

I re-edited the film without any qualitative preferences, systematically deleting all scenes featuring spoken words on the soundtrack. What remains is the light, the camera movements, the gestures, the body language, the chemistry, the background noise, the silence… total cinema, as opposed to more theatrical, spoken cinema.

selected exhibitions:

• сны футуриста, Kino Yunost, Moscow, Russia, 2019
• Author’s Choice, Pinxinmäki, Sysmä, Finland, 2016
• Action Films, balzer projects, Basel, 2016
• Time Machines, Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Finland 2015-16
• Silence-Fiction, Fish Gallery, Helsinki, Finland 2015
• Society Acts, Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden, 2014
• A Group Exhibition of Artists’ Films, Carroll / Fletcher, London,  UK, 2014
• Ääni-festivaali, Kuopio Art Museum, Finland, 2013
• My Silence, Forum Box, Mediaboxi, Helsinki, 2013
• Social Videoscapes from the North, Elverket, Tammisaari, Finland, 2013

We live in a world steeped in technology. Obsolete office tools are here transformed into musical instruments of the future. The film is based on Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers by [The User].

Optical Sound combines nocturnal time-lapse footage, miniature surveillance camera images and a musical score photocopied directly onto clear celluloid. The music is a live recording of a dot matrix printer symphony staged at the Avanto Festival at Kiasma Theatre. The recording features only the sound of the printers, with minimal electronic processing. (MT / translation: Silja Kudel)

Cinematography and Co-script: Jussi Eerola, Music: [The User], Sound Design: Olli Huhtanen, Production: Kinotar / Cilla Werning, Ulla Simonen, Lasse Saarinen

watch the trailer

Selected screenings

• Zwei Tage Strom, Filmpodium Zürich, Switzerland, 2024
• Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä, Finland, 2013
• IFFR Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2013
• Image and After, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, 2008
• Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2008
• La Rochelle Film Festival, France, 2008
• Zone d’éclipse Totale, Dazibao, Centre de photographies actuelles, Montréal, Canada, 2007
• Lost & Found, S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, Belgium, 2007
• Music For People, Dundee Center for Contemporary Art, UK, 2006
• Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 2006
• MuHKA_media, Antwerp, Belgium, 2006
• Clermont Ferrand Film Festival, France, 2006
• International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2006
• Frieze Art Fair, London, 2005
• Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Germany, 2005
• Human Engineering, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland, 2005
• Hotel Futuro, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK, 2005

This is a sports film about a particular human utopia: the man-made autonomous machine. The film was shot during the 14 days of the 1999 robot football World Cup in Stockholm, where the artificial intelligence community declared its ambitious mission: “By the mid-21^st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall, complying with the official rules of FIFA, win the reigning champion of the most recent human World Cup.” These robot pioneers patched together from cardboard and Scotch tape will no doubt come across as endearingly primitive to 2050 audiences.

The standard rhetoric is all there: the slow-mos, the replays, the penalty kick shoot-outs in the semi-finals, the complaints about bad conditions, the video scouting, the agony, the ecstasy. As in Six Day Run, sleep deprivation is the key to victory. (MT / translation: Silja Kudel)

Cinematography: Jussi Eerola, Sound Design: Olli Huhtanen, Music: Rehberg & Bauer, Shizuo, Christoph de Babalon, Production: Kinotar / Lasse Saarinen

watch the trailer

Selected screenings:

• Zwei Tage Strom, Filmpodium Zürich, Switzerland, 2024
• Impakt Festival, Utrecht The Netherlands, 2010
• Arctic Hysteria, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA, 2008
• 36th La Rochelle International Film Festival, France,2008
• Pesaro Film Festival, Italy, 2005
• Human Engineering, Migrosmuseum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland, 2005
• Istanbul Biennale, Imperial Mint, Hagia Eirene Museum, Turkey, 2001
• Entropy in the Living Room, Stadtgalerie Kiel, Germany, 2001
• Dokumentart Festival, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 2000
• Ars Electronica, O.K. Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz, Austria, 2000
• Outoäly, Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland, 2000

”Against this background one of Taanila’s most recent works, the silent 16mm film Sommerreise (A Summer Trip, 2006) represents a particularly synthetic moment, and is his most personal work to date. To an extent a recreation of Kurenniemi’s experimental short Winterreise (1963), it ‘documents’ (in a poetic manner reminiscent of Stan Brakhage) Taanila’s visit to Kurenniemi, an endless talker, who due to an apoplexy has lost his ability speak. Kurenniemi’s manic, but futile efforts to make himself understood (appropriately, there is no soundtrack) are moving and tragic; the sunny promise of the title gets transformed into the darkness of Schubert’s Winterreise.” – Erkki Huhtamo

selected screenings:

• IFF Message to Man, Cinema Aurora, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2019
• La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain, 2014
• Towards 2048, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, 2013
• Cinema Galeries, Brussels, Belgium, 2013
• Arctic Hysteria, Taidehalli, Helsinki, Finland, 2009
• On the Spot #4, Badischer Kunstverein, Germany, 2008

SSEENNSSEESS has two forms: an installation and a live concert.

SSEENNSSEESS live performance features silent film loops by Taanila and live music by Circle. The recording of the first SSEENNSSEESS concert 22 November, 2014 is available on Ektro Records.

The installation is site-specific and features a two soundtracks. One with a low-pitched, static drone created by Taanila on keyboards. The other consists of vocal excerpts from Past, Present and Future (1966) by The Shangri-Las. The same lyrics are also interpreted here by ex-Abba singer Agnetha Fältskog’s cover version (2004). The looping of the images and sounds at mismatched intervals creates a work that is never the same at any two moments.

The projectors show early 1950s scientific footage from Helsinki University’s Department of Phonetics. Part of the footage has been digitally manipulated by the artist.

shows:

• 25FPS, Zagreb, Croatia (live show)
• Jyväskylän kesä, 2018 (live show)
• Gegenkino, UT Connewitz, Leipzig, 2017
• Bildrausch Festival, Basel (live show)
• Mind The Gap / IFFR, WORM, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2014 (live show)
• Pneuma, Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki, Finland, 2013 (live show)
• Aikakoneita – Time Machines, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, 2013 (installation)

Every day, 160 million people around the world listen to anonymous background muzak. Muzak is a ‘scientifically researched’ urban folk tradition with a schizophrenic function: it is supposed to be as unnoticeable and undramatic as possible, yet at the same time it is meant to stimulate workers and shoppers. It is meant to be heard, but not listened to.

The events seen on the small b/w surveillance monitor evoke the Esperanto-like nature of muzak. The scenes are minimalist music clips – notions on unheard music. (MT / translation: Silja Kudel)

Based on the documentary film Thank You for The Music – A Film about Muzak (1997).

Cinematography: Jussi Eerola, Research & Co-script: Anton Nikkilä, Production: Kinotar / Lasse Saarinen

exhibitions:

• Blackout, Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Finland 2015–2016
• Stimulus Progression (Köln), Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany, 2014
• Aikakoneita – Time Machines, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, 2013
• The Most Electrified Town In Finland, TENT, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2013
• La chanson, Sevilla Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain, 2011
• On The Spot #4, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2008
• Human Engineering, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland, 2005

160 million people around the world listen to anonymous background music, i.e. muzak, every day. Muzak is ”scientifically researched” urban background music. It has a schizophrenic function: it is supposed to be unnoticed and as undramatic as possible. At the same time, it should be stimulative enough, to increase the efforts of workers and shoppers. It is meant to be heard, but not listened to. The film resembles muzak in style. It combines and mixes different types of material (film, video, computer animation…) to underline muzak’s Esperanto-like nature. There is no strict storyline; music plays the key role throughout the film. In fact, many scenes are minimalist music videos. Their visual look is true to muzak’s econimical, wryly surrealistic and sterile spirit.

watch the trailer

Selected screenings:

• See The Sound / Soundtrack Cologne, Germany, 2014
• Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2014
• Spruth Magers London, UK, 2006
• New Forms Festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands, 2001
• Lovebytes Festival, Sheffield, UK, 2001
• Split Festival of New Film, Croatia, 1998
• Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland, 1998
• 45th Sydney Film Festival, Australia, 1998
• IDFA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1997
• Uppsala Internationella Kortfilmfestival, Sweden, 1997
• XXVII International Short Film Festival, Tampere, Finland,  1997

 Eurajoki, a small town of 6,000 inhabitants on the west coast of Finland, is building what has been described as the world’s most efficient nuclear reactor, Olkiluoto 3. There are already two nuclear reactors in Eurajoki, both dating back to the 1970s, OL1 and OL2.

The new OL3 plant was supposed to be up and running by May 2009, but the project ran into serious delays. The official estimated opening date is late 2016 – at the very earliest.

The piece juxtaposes industrial construction scenes with images of the changing rural landscape and experts performing various radiation measurements. The title borrows the slogan used by the town to proudly promote itself. The local residents have adapted to the invisible stress inflicted by their nuclear neighbour. (MT / translation: Silja Kudel)

The installation is based on Return of the Atom, a feature documentary by Mika Taanila and Jussi Eerola (work in progress).

Cinematography: Jussi Eerola, Sound Design: Olli Huhtanen, Music: Pan sonic, Production: Kinotar

exhibitions:

• The World Began without Human Race and It Will End Without, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, 2021-2022
• The End, STUK, Leuven, Belgium, 2018
• Systemics #3: Against the idea of growth, towards poetry (or, how to build a universe that doesn’t fall apart two days later), Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark, 2014
• Aikakoneita – Time Machines, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, 2013
• Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan, 2013
• Tomorrow’s New Dawn, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, USA, 2013
• The Most Electrified Town in Finland, TENT, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2013
• dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany, 2012