Etsitkö töitä? / searching for a job?
Kuva / Image: Visa Knuuttila
Work / Art
2019–2022
What job would you have, if you could do anything at all?
A Searching for a Job? is a mixture experimental architecture, critical service design, social sculpture and documentary film – a hybrid of perfomance arts. With a Kone Foundation grant, we were offering eight people the opportunity to work on a self-designed job for 1-2 months.
The piece turned job giving into process of art, and asks about the utopias and opportunities of work and art in the era of post-fossil reconstruction. In the work, art takes part in rethinking society. Searching for a Job? is also true, it happens in reality, and it also creates new reality. It works etc. through a three-channel video installation, a reference book (published in Finnish) and series of workshops under the title “Experimental Employment Office”.
These self-invented jobs could be something that job postings don’t tell us about. Perhaps on something that is not necessarily valued traditionally as work, but which we want to propose now as the most important task to be done. That has remained ignored. Perhaps something that has been quietly waiting for the right moment and space. That the soul thirsts for and the body demands. That is felt important, and that this time and society, the world and the environment need.
The project received more than 2,500 job applications, among which were evaluated and selected: acting as a narrator in nature films, maternal soul care, independent astrobiologist, playing with trees, interviewing challenging father-child relationships, writing letters, fishing and chicken care on the island, a proposal for a dance workshop for young people in Fortaleza, Brazil, and a proposal from a child applicant to write a book and publish it.
The documentary material resulting from the assignments and the book compiled from 2,500 work proposals were first time exhibited at the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas (Tampere) in 2021.
Group:
Juhani Haukka, Lauri Mattila, Pilvi Tyrväinen, Visa Knuuttila, Menni Renvall, Iines Korhonen, Oula Rytkönen and Sari Paljakka.
Funding:
Kone Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Taike.
In co-operation with:
Live Arts Society, Circus Maximus, The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas.
In media:
Hannahelavuori.com 7.3.2022 “2574 unelmaa työstä – Lauri Antti Mattilan ja Juhani Haukan Etsitkö töitä? haastaa perinteistä talousajattelua”
Voima 16.3.2022 “Millaista olisi rakkaudesta kumpuava ja omia tarpeita kunnioittava työelämä? Se sisältäisi paljon hoivaa, osoittaa nykytaideteos”
Kulttuuritoimitus 26.10.2021 “Etsitkö töitä? -taideprojektissa kahdeksan ihmistä sai mahdollisuuden tehdä juuri sitä mitä tahtoo”
O povo 28.6.2021 (Brazil): “Do Mondubim à Finlândia: bailarinos cearenses vão expor trabalhos na Europa”
Blog do Lauriberto 25.6.2021 (Brazil): “Projeto artístico selecionado em Edital na Finlândia é desenvolvido com jovens da Rede Cuca”
Kulttuuritoimitus 1.3.2020: Parasta juuri nyt
Helsingin Sanomat 4.3.2020: ”Lauri Mattila teki moraalitonta myyntityötä, kunnes sai tarpeekseen – Nyt hän tarjoaa ihmisille mahdollisuutta ansaita 2 400 euroa kuussa itse keksityllä työllä”
Ylen aamun Jälkinäytös keskusteli projektista 5.3.2020
Iltalehti 9.3.2020
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