Salla Tykkä’s solo exhibition in Bologna

Salla Tykkä’s first solo exhibition in Italy is on view until 31 January, at Galleria Studio G7, in Bologna. The Will, curated by Marinella Paderni, features Tykkä’s most recent video and photographic work.

Tykkä’s video piece The Will (2024) is built from images and sounds gathered through an ongoing process of observation. The film traces the formation of value, illuminating the trajectories that connect family and home, entrepreneurship and labor. The photographic works Contact 1–3 (2024) is made up of multiple film frames that challenge the notion of accidental observation. The contact prints reveal the subjective and ideological nature of vision, exposing the artist’s choices and point of view at the moment the image is taken.

The exhibition underscores how, for Tykkä, the image is everything. It is the privileged site where a process of identification takes shape, one that activates remote memory and, with it, recollections, fantasies, dreams, and fears. The value attributed to images ultimately shapes history. For this reason, Tykkä weaves personal experience together with a collective dimension, addressing socio-political questions and generating shared metaphors that reflect on the mechanisms of both external and internal social control.

Image: Salla Tykkä, Contact 2, 2024, C-Print, mounted on aluminium composite, museum glass, 101,5 x 75,5 cm