There used to be a cinema where the Hippolyte gallery is today. I remember sitting there, in the dark, watching films by Hayao Miazaki. My favourite spot was on the outermost seat in the centre row, so that I could lean on the wall. My installation, Before you know it, is a construction somewhere between the former cinema and the present gallery.

Tanja Koponen is a Helsinki-based visual artist. Her primary interest is space. Her works extend into their venue, employing its features as an important element of the work itself, blurring the line between the work of art and the world.

In a dark space, objects do not offer themselves up to the gaze, and something always remains hidden. Movements become careful, tentative. The darkness entwines itself not only around the works in the space, but also the people in it. In darkness, vision functions differently, in concert with the other senses. Darkness becomes an immaterial substance of mediation that touches without touching.  – Kari Yli-Annala

The exhibition has been generously supported by the Uusimaa Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Kone Foundation and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

29 April – 22 May 2016
TANJA KOPONEN
Before you know it

Photographic Gallery Hippolyte
Yrjönkatu 8–10 courtyard, 00120 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16
Closed 1 May 2016 & 5 May 2016