Exhibited in the Small Gallery of Kunsthalle Turku, the ‘Rest of Us’ video trilogy by Leena Kela and videographer Jussi Virkkumaa captures performances exploring the time after humans. The series consists of the parts ‘There Is No Planet B’ (2020), ‘Rest of Time’ (2021) and, premiering in the exhibition, ‘If You Fall, We Will Fall Too’ (2022).
Shortly before his death, physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking predicted that the human race could not sustain more than another 100 years on Earth. To save humans from extinction, we must prepare to colonise another planet. We are running out of time, which is why we must get ready to leave our globe. The video series asks questions about the future of the Earth. As there is no planet B to go to, how will we act when our planet is in a crisis? How much time do we have left? What will remain of us?
Leena Kela is a performance artist, artistic director of the New Performance Turku Biennale, residency director of the Saari Residence and a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. Her artistic work and research explore a dialogue of corporeality and materiality in performance art. She makes performances and video art that play with and twist our relationship with everyday objects and phenomena. She has presented her performances in a number of contexts in Finland, and internationally at performance art festivals and exhibitions in every continent except Antarctica.
The pieces in the exhibition have been supported by the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture AVEK, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland, the Varsinais-Suomi Regional Fund, the Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland and the University of the Arts Helsinki.
