Ilkka Pitkänen :
Æther

The richest colour is black, 

but alas, long you cannot bear to see: 

the cruelest colour is black, 

it quenches all the colours there be. 

Free translation of a poem by Aale Tynni (Varjot, excerpt)

Æther is an exhibition composed of six poetic video fragments. The exhibition explores states of physical and psychic recovery, inner experience, as well as affective memory. The installation creates a space where the viewer does not merely observe the work but steps into its center, encountering layers of silence, sensitivity, and hope. The work does not require a linear interpretation but invites lingering—like one would before a painting or a photographic artwork: to look, to feel, to remember. The exhibition is based on Pitkänen’s artistic research into aether colors—visual-psychological dimensions of color that are not grounded in the physical spectrum but arise from inner experience. Aether colors are not just hues but experiential states. The dialogue between these colors forms the core of the installation’s visual dramaturgy, where every light, shadow, and color exists in a meaningful relation to one another. The mental states explored in the exhibition—exhaustion, isolation, and the slow rebuilding of recovery—do not take shape in documentary form within the installation but emerge through associative memory and embodied perception. Æther does not present depression as a phenomenon, but reveals the inner rhythm and altered experience of time connected to it: a space in which identity, time, and self-image are reorganized. The exhibition is supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Ilkka Pitkänen (b. 1981) is a visual artist based in Helsinki who works in multiple disciplines, including media art, moving image, photography, installation, and performance. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2013, and his works have been exhibited both in Finland and internationally.

Pitkänen has been actively involved in the administrative side of the art field. He has advocated for the position of the arts in Finland, for example, by serving as Chair of the Board of MUU ry and as a board member of the Finnish Artists’ Association from 2017 to 2020. He is also a founding member of the art collective Yö ry and served as its first chair from 2020 to 2022. Since 2020, Pitkänen has served as the artistic director of Aletheia Fest, an annual multidisciplinary art festival held in Raasepori, Finland. He is also a founding member and, since 2017, Chair of the Board of Aletheia ry, the association responsible for organizing the festival.