Paweł Althamer: Seven Prisoners

Paweł Althamer’s work, Seven Prisoners, will be displayed at HAM from 18 January to 20 February 2022. The inaugural Helsinki Biennial commissioned the work, and HAM added the work to its collection after the biennial ended. HAM also acquired several other biennial works, as well as sketches and documentations, some of which will be presented at HAM later. In addition, three works from Helsinki Biennial will remain on permanent public display in Helsinki’s city space.

Paweł Althamer has made two short films in collaboration with inmates of Suomenlinna Prison and his artist friends Leszek Molski and Jacek Taszakovski. The first is a VR fantasy film about a group of prisoners –Althamer among them – escaping and finding their way back to nature and to themselves. The second is a documentary about the making of the VR film in which the inmates talk about their lives, their dreams, and their idea of freedom. The two different realities and styles of narrative are exercises in empathy, inviting the viewer to choose between different experiencer roles and ways to identify. We can either choose to lose ourselves in a humorous adventure or relate to the real human destinies shared in the documentary. The films were shot on Vallisaari Island and in other Helsinki locations in autumn 2019.

Paweł Althamer: Seven Prisoners, 2021HAM Hall 18 January to 20 February 2022VR film (approximately 15 min) and a documentary film (approximately 23 min, loop)Screenings within the museum’s opening hoursFree entry