MSL and Jaakko Pallasvuo: Bridge Over Troubled Water

CCA Derry~Londonderry is pleased to present Bridge Over Troubled Water, part of an ongoing collaborative project between the performance collective MSL (Antti Jussila and Jari Kallio) and artist Jaakko Pallasvuo, that explores ideas of queerness, nonlinear time, and climate change anxiety.

MSL’s performance-based practice, initiated in 2008, focuses on collaborations in various forms. Recurring themes in their work are behavioural compulsions, rituals, gender, sexuality and isolation. Jaakko Pallasvuo’s videos, texts, ceramics and images deal with hierarchies, feelings, generational experiences and social arrangements. In previous projects, both he and MSL have worked with different collaborators to co-create and deliver performances, music, events and videos that trouble fixed notions of identity, artistic and otherwise.

Their project, and the resulting exhibition at CCA, reimagines 1960s musical duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel as time-travelling protagonists whose association with a more hopeful era is at sharp odds with our increasingly precarious contemporary existence. Named after Simon & Garfunkel’s best selling album, Bridge Over Troubled Water follows them as they navigate past, present, and future post-human landscapes. Together they experience personal and ecological loss, entropy, and the impact of our insatiable fossil fuel consumption.

The exhibition at CCA will feature new material filmed on location across Finland and Lapland, shown as part of a sculptural installation that includes designed lighting, costumes, and pierced silicone body parts. Bridge Over Troubled Water marks the first time that work by MSL and Jaakko Pallasvuo has been shown in Ireland/Northern Ireland. On Saturday, June 4 at 8pm a new performance developed by MSL will accompany the exhibition opening at CCA.

Artist biographies

MSL (Antti Jussila and Jari Kallio) are a performance collective based in Finland. Selected exhibitions/performances include New Performance Turku Festival, Turku, Finland (2015); Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm (2015); Tehdas Theater, Turku, collaboration w/ echo+seashell (2015); SUCH Gallery, Helsinki (2014); 4 KoeHelsinki/Helsinki Festival, Helsinki (2014); Sorbus Gallery, Helsinki (2014); Titanik Project Space, Turku, Finland (2014); Sinne Gallery, Helsinki (2013); La Lieu, Centre en art actuel, Quebec (2013); Art Nomade festival, Chicoutimi, Quebec (2013); Antagon – Sound Art Biennial, Turku, Finland (2013); Perf13 – Performance festival, Pori, Finland (2013); Là-bas – Concept Of Performance, Turku/Helsinki/Tampere (2012).

Jaakko Pallasvuo is a Finnish artist based in Berlin and Helsinki. Selected solo and group exhibitions include: American Medium, NYC (2015); New Galerie, Paris (2015); Transformation Marathon, Serpentine Galleries, London (2015); 1646, The Hague (2015); CAC Vilnius (2015); Future Gallery, Berlin (2014); Sorbus-galleria, Helsinki (2014); Moving Museum, Istanbul (2014); KASK, Ghent, Belgium (2014); Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin (2014); Matadero, Madrid (2014); LIMAZULU, London (2013); Allegra Geller, Dos Perros Projects, Chicago (2013); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2013); Kiasma Museum Of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2012); Moving Image Contemporary Video Art Fair, NYC and London (2012).

Bridge Over Troubled Water is generously supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, and the Kone Foundation.