Inventory
Liisa Ryynänen (b. 1994) is an architect and artist who lives and works in Helsinki. Ryynänen explores and develops experimental presentation and research methods in architecture and is interested in how they can aid in sensing and conceptualizing the environment in new ways.
Over the past few years, Ryynänens’ practice has revolved around experimental fieldwork conducted especially in modern buildings threatened by demolition. They study and document buildings through video, photography, and written formats, while also collecting building materials and components from them. The documentation and collected materials serve as an archive from which they develop their works. Ryynänen’s pieces often combine aesthetically undervalued everyday materials and peculiar spatial compositions engaging in dialogue with the exhibition space.
Ryynänen has participated in architecture, design, and, art exhibitions, and spatial interventions. They graduated as an architect from the School of Arts, Design, and Architecture at Aalto University in 2020, and have studied Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. Ryynänen also collaborates with other artists, architects, and collectives, and teaches architecture at Aalto University.
The project addresses altered and low-quality surroundings as a part of wider discussions of care and repair in architecture. Pieces are based on artists' ongoing fieldwork and were commissioned for the FIX: Care and Repair exhibition by The Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design.
When discussing repair in architecture, it is easy to focus on maintaining buildings designed by professional architects or fetish traditional and high-quality materials. Significantly less attention is paid to modern, repeatedly modified, and low-quality architecture that in Finland constitutes most of everyday surroundings.
Conversely, within architectural culture and official history, including research and inventories, low-quality materials and alterations made by the users are regarded with hostility. They are seen to diminish the building's value, and at worst, serve as grounds for the entire building's demolition.
The exhibition consists of two works based on fieldwork in buildings modified and threatened by demolition: a site-specific installation build of building parts (e.g. ceiling, plastic carpet, electrical conduits) collected from demolition sites and a photography series exploring the fieldwork.
While the artist emphasizes the spontaneous alterations and the intriguing aesthetics of low-quality architecture, the project doesn’t consider poor restoration or materials as a goal in itself. Rather, it explores an emerging and comprehensively new kind of aesthetics of repair architecture, defined by imperfection, blending, and the disappearance of the traditional designer subject.
The pieces are part of the artist's long-term practice. They utilize and develop the working methods and themes in new exhibitions including the 2024 Helsinki Design Week.
