Anssi Kasitonni is an artist whose work makes allowances for free thinking, lots of differences and misunderstandings, and provides space for distraction. It speaks of conflicts without anger and threats, it laughs at tradition with kindness and some music. His creations are immediately open for the viewer and he does not shy away from the personal enjoyment that the very process of creation produces for an artist.
Living in seclusion, on a farm some 200 kilometers from Helsinki, he uses a few old, cold and drafty barns as his studios, or quite unique sets for his films. (e.g. The Investigators, 2007.) A life-size cardboard American Plymouth sits next to a vintage tractor that he uses to maintain the gravel road that connects his home to the side road. In the next barn is a set for a life size skate ramp, over which a disco ball shines, shooting flashy beams onto some kind of a Damien-Hirst-like, bigger-than-life shiny cardboard skull sitting on a pedestal. One can actually see how his films are created and envision a band rehearsal. It’s a glimpse into the creative processes of composing music and trying out verses and choruses.
Every little thing that comprises his films is made there, on the farm. It’s all staged and shot with a little help from his friends and Maria. I saw a tree from which a freaky squirrel with furry makeshift wings is trying to learn how to fly, falling and hurting itself with each futile attempt. Turning oneself into a flying squirrel is a family tradition. His father’s expectations are simple: learn how to fake flying and, most importantly, how to be spotted. Such a performance could save their tree house from the bulldozers. But fathers and sons seldom share the same dream. Our hero wants to rehearse with his band, skate and make art. (The Gliders, 2003)
There is an unsuspecting honesty in Anssi’s dedication and a joyfulness in his work. It’s like he is thinking about happiness and unlikely ways to approach it – but aware of accidents just waiting to happen. And perhaps most importantly, there is always love; not sentimental and worn-out, but real and living, that he makes urgent and actual in its fragility and charm.
Branislava Andjelković
The Ars Fennica prize 2011 winner was chosen by the Serbian museum director Branislava Andjelkovic. She is also an art historian, curator and writer. Andjelkovic’s main interests are feminist visual theories, contemporary art, cultural policy, museums policy, strategies of display, art and ideology in totalitarian systems, and modernist art in the Yugoslavian region.
