JP Kaljonen
Reflectors, Suicides and Shantytowns
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari 1
7.12.–22.12.2013
(Gallery is closed on Independence Day 6.12.2013)
Exhibition Reflectors, Suicides and Shantytowns consists of three art works,
which all stresses artist´s societal role and process based approach to art.
Bijoygram (2013) is a documentary video- and photo installation about community based art
project realized in Chittagong City, Southern Bangladesh. In the work the artist develops in
cooperation with Abu Naser Robii, the director of Bangladeshian art center Porapara Space
for Artists, an annual cultural festival, which aims for connecting the inhabitants of local
Bijoy Nogor village and nearby Gucchagram slum. Even the residential areas are located next
to each other social- and population differences have caused a lot of mistrust and conflicts
between the communities preventing them for developing the area together. The installation
portrays the process of building the common cultural event as well as negotiations and
challenges related to the project from the first steps to the actual festival event. The artwork
has been realized in the Floating Peers 2013 project coordinated by the artist and Abu Naser
Robii. In the project 38 artists from different countries made socially engaged art projects
together with Gucchagram slum inhabitants.
Tashbeeh for Chittagong Air Port Road (2012) is a photo- and video work documenting
socially engaged art project focused on traffic accidents in Bangladesh. For the project artist
collected the names of 16 people who had died in traffic accidents at the Bijoy Nogor village
area in Chittagong. The total letters of all names were divided by the number of students of
local primary- and secondary schools. As a result the artist built 684 reflectors, which each
have one seventh part of one letter. The reflectors were distributed to the students of the
aforementioned schools forming a memorial for the people who died in traffic accidents in the
area. As reflectors are not available in Bangladesh the work function also as practical
protection for the children and youths of the village.
Cultures of Suicides (2009-) is a process based video installation where the artist discuss with
artists and cultural actors from different countries about suicides in Finland and interviewees
home country. The discussions map the cultural characteristics leading to suicides and also
search parallels between them.
JP Kaljonen (b.1976) is a Helsinki based visual artist working in the field of social practice
art. His projects are focused on intercultural communication and interplay between different
social groups. The works are based on societal grounds and vary from video or photography
to projects in public space. The latest projects have been concentrating on migration in the
Finnish as well as in global context.
Thank you Helsinki Metropolitan art council, Art Promotion Center of Finland and Svenska
Kulturfonden.
Contact: JP Kaljonen, jp(at)kaljonen.com, 046 889 5896
