The invitation of art, the art of inviting.
Since 2002, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen have worked together across participatory cinema, performance, public art, game design, interventions and creative facilitation. Their works create temporary communities in which participation itself becomes the subject of artistic exploration.
Their projects often start with an open invitation. They include the open-source Complaints Choir, realised in nearly 200 cities worldwide, in which local participants form a choir with the help of a local musician and sing their complaints together. Their moving-image works include The Making of Utopia, People in White, Archipelago Science Fiction and Final Scenes for Disaster Movies, all created with participants, alongside public art commissions such as Collective Mindscape. Their most recent work, The Most Valuable Clock in the World, is a large wind-up clock combining mechanical and electronic systems that displays valuable moments donated by the public.
Across their work, they explore the dynamics between the individual and the collective. Their concepts create situations where unexpected encounters and shared imagination can emerge.
They are the authors of Conversation Park: A Public Space Game (Lönnström Art Museum, 2022). In 2017, they were guest professors at the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki. The duo was awarded the AVEK Media Art Award in 2012 and the Ars Fennica Award in 2014.
The Artists
Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen
CONCEPT – VISUALS – CODE