Video artist and sound designer challenge the ways of presenting architecture in the Pavilion of Finland’s upcoming exhibition

The exhibition of the Pavilion of Finland at the Biennale Architettura 2025 addresses the maintenance of buildings and the collaborative nature of architecture. The exhibition focuses on the exhibition space itself, the pavilion building designed by Alvar Aalto’s office in the Giardini della Biennale Park in Venice. The exhibition, recounting the story of the Pavilion, focuses on the people whose work has ensured the endurance of the wooden building, originally designed as temporary, in Venice’s challenging climate.

Already when applying for the curatorship of the Pavilion of Finland’s exhibition, we knew that we wanted to use video art as our medium. We believe that videos – especially site-specific installations – can make visible the maintenance work that architecture requires. Traditional ways of presenting architecture, such as drawings, photographs, and models, freeze architecture into a static, shiny image of newness. Video art, on the other hand, can depict the activity, change, and life occurring within buildings.

In dialogue with Archinfo, we chose Merle Karp, a Helsinki-based visual designer, video artist, and VJ, to create the video artwork. As a VJ, she creates, mixes, and performs moving images in real-time. Merle is also a co-founder of the audiovisual art and VJ culture biennial Aavistus Festival, and serves as its director.

We were already familiar with Merle's work, and she understood that this was not about a traditional documentary film, but rather a spatial artwork. As an expert in video art, she presented ideas and perspectives we hadn’t even thought to hope for.

Merle, could you tell us about your work as a video artist?

Merle Karp: My practice, or artistic process, is deeply rooted in VJ expression. It is characteristic for me to work with moving images, improvising and engaging in dialogue with music and diverse spatial environments and projection surfaces. I constantly collect material for my library, mostly shooting with my phone, but also by producing motion graphics, 3D and generative graphics, animations, and sifting through archival footage.

In my work, I often explore themes of nature and the environment, both through the lens of sustainability and climate anxiety, as well as mythology and imagination. I’m also interested in sci-fi, technological phenomena, and digital culture. The contrasts between delightful, comforting, and challenging emotions are fascinating to me.

MJ&EK: You’re well known in the Helsinki music and VJ scenes, but you’ve also worked on international projects. What kind of projects?

MK: I’ve performed at more than two hundred events, festivals, and artistic productions, from Finland to Greenland and Kazakhstan. Examples include Drifts Festival, Flow Festival, Zodiak, and Minimi dance theatre in Finland, Grelle Forelle in Austria, and Nonagon Festival and Norbergfestival in Sweden. This spring, Heikki Lindgren and I are releasing an audiovisual album, Untouched Realms, through the Flaming Pines label.

MJ&EK: The soundscape of the video is a central part of our exhibition. We were excited when we were able to bring sound designer Jussi Hertz into the team. Jussi is a sound artist, curator, composer, and performing electronic music composer and producer based in Helsinki.

Jussi, could you tell us about your practice and what topics inspire you?

Jussi Hertz: The core of my practice is site-specificity, layers of harmonies, and the interaction between natural and electronic instruments. I aim to create cohesive and immersive works through which the listener can dive into emotional states – my compositions build worlds through which I reflect my own feelings and experiences.

MJ&EK: You’ve also released music.

JH: I’ve released two full-length works through the Danish Janushoved label and a long-play sound piece through the American DISPLAY series. Additionally, I created an album inspired by piano music in collaboration with sound artist Henia Nikkilä, which was released in 2024 through the art platform World Canvas, which I curate. My next album will be released in spring 2025 through the Portuguese Eastern Nurseries label.

MJ&EK: When we first contacted you two, what kind of thoughts did participating in the Biennale Architettura and our exhibition idea inspire?

MK: I was very excited! The world of architecture is not very familiar to me, but an exhibition highlighting the maintenance, repair, and restoration work that extends the life cycle of a building feels very timely and important on many levels. It has been fascinating to explore the Pavilion building beneath its surface – both figuratively and quite literally. The story we explore in the video work is not only about the Pavilion itself, but also about the Biennale as an institution and a phenomenon – and, above all, about all the people, other living beings, and natural forces that have been engaged in a constant tug-of-war over the Pavilion’s maintenance and decay for nearly seven decades.

JH: I was also delighted and inspired when I heard about the project. Working with sound in an environment framed by moving images and video installation is very close to my interests, as I experience sound in a highly visual and bodily way. Additionally, architecture as a subject is closely connected to the physicality of sound, something I hope to bring to the forefront in my role as the sound designer for the video.

MJ&EK: What is your relationship with spatiality and site-specificity? How do you approach architecture in your work?

MK: When working with video projections, I tend to avoid separate projection screens and instead prefer to project directly onto the surfaces of the space. This way, the projection feels like it belongs to the space, and the reflected light becomes an added layer of reality that complements the existing surface. This reveals new features both of the space and the projected video content. Especially in VJ expression, the element of temporality is very important. The performance is created through the interaction of the space, music, improvisation, the audience, and the prevailing atmosphere.

Architectural surfaces also allow for projection mapping techniques, where video content is directed onto a three-dimensional surface, such as a building facade. One of the highlights of the Aavistus Festival is the projection-mapped artworks selected for the facade of the Helsinki City Museum.

JH: The foundations of my works often arise from site-specific emotional impressions that inspire and inform them. I make extensive use of field recordings in my work, which are often born through fleeting impressions.

Conveying the impression of site-specific sound is a subtle process that requires both understanding and respecting the environment and the soundscape it produces. I feel that using sound alone as material would be an exploitative approach to the environment; it’s important to understand the characteristics and functions that influence environments and the bodies that inhabit them before using them as part of the artistic creation process. Architecture is also an act and a dialogue with the environment, as different materials and architectural solutions impact how various bodies experience their surroundings and the sounds that fill them. In this sense, sound is always defined and determined by the surrounding space, the actions taking place within it, the architecture, and the various historical and sociopolitical intersections.

MJ&EK: We’re looking forward to experiencing the work in the Pavilion, together with the audience. As Merle has pointed out, reality only reveals itself once the work is transferred from the computer screen to the space. It remains to be seen what layers the environment of Venice will add to the piece.

The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia will open to the public on May 10, 2025, and will be open until November 23. The opening ceremony of the Pavilion of Finland will take place on Thursday, May 8. 

Read more about the Pavilion of Finland's exhibition The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship here. 

Learn more about other Finnish participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale here.