Annu & Kerttu
84,2 YEARS
10.1.-2.2.2025
French author Romain Rolland and Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, had a unique friendship mainly based on correspondence. They only met each other face to face once, in 1924. They admired each other greatly and exchanged about twenty letters between 1923 and 1936, discussing topics such as politics, art, religion and psychoanalysis. In a letter written in 1927, Rolland described a feeling he had experienced as eternal and boundless, somewhat oceanic, and urged Freud to analyze this scientifically. While the two men’s views differed, the oceanic feeling and its exploration originated from their correspondence.
The single-channel video 84.2 Years (2025), which will have its premiere at Galleria Huuto, was born based on the artists’ correspondence and an 8 mm film shot in North Karelia. The average life expectancy for a girl in Finland is 84.2 years, and the work focuses on the statistical midpoint of the protagonist’s life, exploring death, fear of death, corporeality and intergenerationality through the concept of the oceanic feeling.
Annu Timonen (b. 1984) and Kerttu Malinen (b. 1985) form the artist duo Annu & Kerttu. They work with moving image, installations, sound and photography. Timonen graduated from Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts and Malinen from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2018.
The sound designer for the work is Arto Tuunela, and the voice actor is Seidi Haarla. The video was made with a project grant from AVEK.
We want to thank everyone who helped us.
Contact information:
annu.timonen(a)gmail.com
kerttu.malinen(a)gmail.com
www.instagram.com/annujakerttu
