The invitation of art, the art of inviting.
Since 2002, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen have worked as an artist duo across participatory cinema, performance, public art, reality games, interventions and creative facilitation. Across their practice, the duo explores the tension between the individual and the collective.
Their art projects often begin with an open invitation and create unexpected, temporary communities. The works include Complaints Choir, realised in nearly 200 cities worldwide following their original concept. Their moving-image works include The Making of Utopia, created in intentional communities in Australia, People in White, in which people share their experiences of encounters with psychiatrists and psychotherapists, and Archipelago Science Fiction, in which inhabitants of the Turku Archipelago imagine and act out possible futures for the area.
Their interactive video installations include Collective Mindscape, in which the inner mindscapes of eight people living with cancer are transformed into an open virtual world. In 101 For All, a cross-section of the Finnish population discusses divisive topics. Their recent work The Most Valuable Clock in the World is a large wind-up clock, displaying valuable moments donated by people.
Kalleinen & Kochta-Kalleinen 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 and they have also taught at Aalto University. The duo received the AVEK Media Art Award in 2012 and the Ars Fennica Award in 2014.
The Artists
Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen
CONCEPT – VISUALS – CODE