Jani Ruscica’s new public video art work at the Central Library Oodi

Jani Ruscica’s new public video art work, Hope is the thing with feathers, commissioned by HAM Helsinki Art Museum for the Central Library Oodi will be unveiled on Saturday 5 October 2019. The work focuses on four bird species – a coal tit, song thrush, hazel grouse and common teal – on their visit to Oodi. The animated birds move around the architectural interior of the library and offer an alternative experience of the space. The featured bird species are known to have nested in the Töölönlahti area, but have moved a few kilometres further north.

The work comprises nine short videos that pop up on the library’s information displays between notifications and event information. The delicate soundscape of the work consists of song and sounds of the birds. The name of the piece originates from Emily Dickinson’s poem from 1862 and this choice of name refers to the cultural content of the library and also examines how language resonates in time, even across hundreds of years.

Jani Ruscica’s artist talk will be held at the Oodi library at noon on Saturday 5 October. Ruscica will discuss his new public work of art and his solo exhibition Human Flesh with Hanna Huitu, Director of Galerie Anhava, and Kristiina Ljokkoi, Curator of Public Art at HAM Helsinki Art Museum. The Human Flesh exhibition will be on view at Galerie Anhava 3–27 October. The artist talk is arranged in association with HAM Helsinki Art Museum and the Central Library Oodi. Please notice that the discussion will be in Finnish. Welcome!