Jani Ruscica, No Dot on the I

30.4. - 5.6.2022

Jani Ruscica’s works thrive in a space where they can enjoy freedom of movement. They linger in conditions where previously agreed upon guidelines for reading can be identified, but where compliance with them is challenging if not fully impossible. A space that opens up such different directions holds a place for the spectator and their interpretations.

In Ruscica’s works, the relationship between signs, objects and concepts is an unstable one. Prior context always forms a base for new layers of meaning. The phenomena and forms depicted by these works evade straightforward interpretation and binary categories.

Self reflexivity, both of form and medium, is elemental to the works. In the video work No Dot on the I (2021), materials and sounds test out their own qualities; their legibility and nameability. About Us (refrain to refrain) (2022), a new video to be premiered at Kunsthalle Helsinki, detaches from linguistic communication to rely instead on voice and bodily expression only. An algorithm disrupts the assumed linearity of the work, and the video starts to unfold randomly.

The new wall paintings adapt to the Kunsthalle’s architecture – expanding and stretching out according to the dimensions of the building. The sunlight filtering through the windows projects images into the space, fluid ones, that keep shifting and changing, depending on the time of day and intensity of the light.

Furthermore, a commissioned prose poem written by Taneli Viljanen is presented as part of the exhibition, as well as the performative piece Felt the Moonlight on my Feet – a, pro, pre, post, contra, ultra, hyper, alter, trans, re, dis, un, dys, extra, co, ex, non, inter, sub (2022) in collaboration with tap dancer Suzanna Pezo. The piece is presented within the exhibition’s opening hours from 30 April until 4 May.

The exhibition is curated by Piia Oksanen.

Jani Ruscica (b. 1978) was born in Savonlinna, Finland and spent their childhood in Italy. They presently live and work in Helsinki. Ruscica studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, as well as at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. www.janiruscica.com