light | vision - Artist Vesa-Pekka Rannikko

The Aalto pavilion in Venice as reinterpreted by Vesa-Pekka Rannikko

Vesa-Pekka Rannikko whitewashes architecture, art and the act of displaying art at the Venice Biennale. In the installation "...and all structures are unstable", the familiar Aalto pavilion is covered in a temporary and transient sheath of white boards. Inside, the video shows repainted found paintings, found paintings being painted over in white, and the process of painting the white screen for the video, all overlaid with new color.

Everything becomes white, or even nothing, in the end.  Rannikko calls into question what art and its display really mean, if they mean anything or if it means everything to the work. Does it matter if a painting is whitewashed, or simply repainted? The haunting images of Rannikko's found paintings, which he repainted in black and white, lead us through a new understanding of whitewash.

Unknown (2010) by Vesa-Pekka Rannikko. Repainted found painting in black and white