15 Sep 2016

Finnish artist Salla Tykkä wins the 15000 € AVEK Award for media art

The winner of this year's AVEK Award is artist Salla Tykkä (born 1973). The award for media arts, worth €15,000, was presented on the 8th of September at the season opening of AVEK, the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture in Finland. The AVEK Award is the most significant accolade in the field of media arts in Finland.

'The AVEK Award is an important accolade for me since it is awarded by a jury consisting of experts from the field of audiovisual arts,' Tykkä commented. 'I have been working hard in recent years, in new ways and in search of something new, which is another reason why this award feels especially gratifying. The monetary award is also a concrete form of support and recognition, with the help of which I can continue working on my current projects until they are ready for their openings and premieres.'

Tykkä graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2003, and participated in the Venice Biennale in 2001. In 2006 her short film Zoo won the Arte Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, and in 2014 she won the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) with her short film Giant. In recent years, Tykkä's works have been seen at the Biennale of Sydney, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Art Centre in Belfast as well as the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle.

The AVEK award jury appreciated Tykkä's patience and her ability to boldly reinvent herself, both in terms of the development of her means and language of expression as well as the content of her works. Her works are strongly political, but instead of simply pointing fingers, they exude meaning on multiple levels. 'The artist's work explores repeating power structures via varying conventions related to images, othering the corporeal subject into an object of gaze and thus making it controllable,' the jury describe in their statement. 'Her works also display an overarching theme of the concepts of gender and race intertwining with the depiction of nature and narrative, making them particularly topical in our modern times.'

The AVEK award jury consisted of Director of HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme Juha Huuskonen (Chairman), Art Historian/Producer Nina Toppila, Curator/Researcher Taru Elfving and Media Artist Elena Näsänen, who was AVEK's Commissioner for Media Art at the time. The recipient of the award was decided by the AVEK board of directors, based on a statement from the jury. The AVEK Award was awarded for the thirteenth time.

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RECIPIENTS OF THE AVEK AWARD 2004–2015
Media Artist Heidi Tikka (8 September 2004)
Media Artist Hanna Haaslahti (6 September 2005)
Media Artist Pekka Sassi (7 September 2006)
Artist Adel Abidin (6 September 2007)
Artist Pia Lindman (11 September 2008)
Artist-curator Juha Huuskonen (10 September 2009)
Artist Jani Ruscica (9 September 2010)
Artists Lea and Pekka Kantonen (8 September 2011)
Artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (6 September 2012)
Media Artist Erkka Nissinen (5 September 2013)
Artist Annette Arlander (4 September 2014)
Artist Anna Estarriola (10 September 2015)

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Preview video clips of Salla Tykkä's work:
vimeopro.com/avarkkifi/sallatykka/video/181479898

Salla Tykkä's CV:
www.sallatykka.com/web/files/tykka_salla_cv_2016730.pdf

Salla Tykkä's home page:
www.sallatykka.com

Interviews:
Requests for interviews via the Communications Manager of AVEK:
Maria Bregenhøj, +358 40 451 4559, maria.bregenhoj@kopiosto.fi

Further information:
The General Secretary of AVEK Juha Samola, +358 9 4315 2351, juha.samola@avek.kopiosto.fi

Artist Salla Tykkä, salla@sallatykka.com

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AVEK
The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK) in Finland operates within the copyright organisation Kopiosto and uses copyright remuneration to promote audiovisual culture. Its assets are mostly based on copyright remunerations. AVEK grants funds for the cultural exportation and development of different kinds of film genres, the advanced training and further education of employees and organisations in the audiovisual industry as well as the organisation of festivals and events. AVEK also supports the production of short films and documentaries, animations and media art.

AVEK grants funds for the development of cultural content and cultural entrepreneurship through the Ministry of Education and Culture's DigiDemo and CreaDemo grants.

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STATEMENT BY THE AWARD JURY / AVEK Award 2016

Besides myself, the award jury comprised Art Historian/Producer Nina Toppila, Media Artist Elena Näsänen and Curator/Researcher Taru Elfving, who assisted me in preparing this joint statement from the jury.

The members of the AVEK Award jury are tasked with an exceptionally great and challenging duty. The jury takes the artist's career into consideration, but the award can also be granted based on more recent works. The jury must discuss recent trends in Finnish art and decide which particular artist deserves the AVEK Award this year. The jury must also decide upon the more detailed criteria for selection of the recipient. This was no simple task, but the jury finally reached a clear and unanimous decision.

During its contemplation, the jury discussed the political dimension of art as well as political art, which was one of the topical themes in the art scene last spring. For instance, many works that addressed the refugee theme divided opinions and stimulated discussion about populism in art. This year, the AVEK Award will be granted to an artist whose works are strongly political, but instead of simply pointing fingers, they exude meaning on multiple levels.

We also contemplated the different stages in the artist's career and the relationship between the Finnish and international art scenes. Many artists have a prominent international career, but their works are rarely displayed in Finland. Fortunately, the activities of Finnish galleries and other organisations are rapidly becoming more international. The jury hopes to see this trend continue in the future.

The artist we have chosen to receive this award focuses on a critical examination of narration in moving pictures as well as the mechanisms of the camera apparatus in her works. The artist's works explore repeating power structures via varying conventions related to images, othering the corporeal subject into an object of gaze and thus making it controllable. Her works also display an overarching theme of the concepts of gender and race intertwining with the depiction of nature and narrative, making them particularly topical in our modern times.

The overlapping of these conventions is featured strongly in the artist's newest works, in which she explores the traditions and potential of cinematic narration and documentary images. Another significant feature is the artist's return to her personal presence in front of the camera. This critical positioning helps to raise a wider range of questions regarding the exercise of power and our own participation in reproducing representations of race, gender and our relationship with nature as well as the maintenance of outdated social structures based on this reproduction.

The jury appreciated the artist's patience and her ability to boldly reinvent herself, both in terms of the development of her means
and language of expression as well as the exploration of the critical content in her works. The artist's works are strongly permeated by politics, which is visible in her commitment to unravelling and rethinking concepts and her continuous examination of artistic means and conventions. Her newest works cast a sharp light on the acute issues of our time.

The recipient of this year's AVEK Award graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, and in recent years her works have been on display in the Biennale of Sydney, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Arts Centre in Belfast and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle, among other places. In 2014, her short film received an award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

This year's AVEK Award will be granted to Salla Tykkä.

- Director (HIAP) Juha Huuskonen