Jan Lütjohann: Things that Contain
All the stacking and piling, and stocking and storing, all the lifting and carrying, the moving and shipping and handling. All the containers of equipment, pieces of material and boxes of things essential. All the pollution and waste. At once enabling and burdening, the objects at the center of these endless logistics are both making our lives possible and weighing us down.
The exhibition touches on our daily handling of space and things, and what we make of them. At MUU Helsinki these routines materialize in an installation of wooden boxes for equipment and a stack of mill-sawn timbers. The containers have been shaped to hold objects that are either worth having, unavoidable or a burden to preserve.
The works in the exhibition are made with hand tools and pre-industrial methods, from industrially produced wood materials. The ecologically unsustainable origins of the factory-made plywood and laminated boards reveal themselves in the materials’ residual tensions.
Jan Lütjohann (*1987, Kiel) is a sculptor and educator from northern Germany who lives and works in Helsinki. His sculptures and installations take the shape of tools, equipment and workspaces. He uses pre-industrial tools and obsolete technology to contemplate on working with hands in a post-industrial society.
The exhibition has been supported by Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden and Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Uusimaa Regional Council of the Arts.
Kaapelitehdas, Tallberginkatu 1 C, 00180 HelsinkiFree entrance
