Work shown at Muu gallery in Helsinki in the exhibition City Breaks curated in 2005 by Taru Elfving.

Taru Elfving writes:

Simo Brotherus has focused attention in his research to shared urban codes or even ethos that affect our engagement with and within cities. The suggested monument celebrates surrender to ecstacy, letting go of the performed public roles and dependencies on social structures, becoming absorbed in individual emotional and sexual fulfilment. Classical formal language with all its symbolism lends itself to the contemporary performance of the self as the boundaries of public and private as well as cultural and natural blur. Whether considered as realisable or just a suggestion, the proposal works as an affirmative opening for discussion and re-signification. Both as a conceptual and a concrete intervention it makes space for experience that troubles the structures and norms that shape the social realm and our participation in it.

Stencils and spray colour, 2004.

 

City Breaks, Whitechapel Project Space, London.
The text was sprayed on garbage bags and discarded furniture around the gallery block.

Installation with video projection, 2003.

An installation which in its spacial composition and in the film’s narration deals with physical and mental distances and with the projection of one’s own desires onto others.

Installation, 2000.

Two monitors wearing rain coats show Canada geese fleeing a harassing camera on an autumn heath. The installation was planned with an arrogant narrator in mind. The work had the expected effect – visitors experienced the installation as un-welcoming.

Installation, 2000.

installation view

An installation formed in the spirit of Asian calligraphy, with strong and weak points in the space that are “activated” by the sculptural elements, which are two monitors and a stencil spraying on a wall. The monitors show an animation each; one of ice-fishing, another of playing a tone on a wine glass and a third, the spraying on the wall – a woman enjoying a foot bath. The installation brought to mind meditative moments.

Poster stand with photographs, 2000.

A man dresses or undresses depending on the directions of turning. The visitor becomes a voyeur. The sculpture was a part of the Forest Scent Spray exhibition.

Video projection into corner, 1999.

The man’s left and right halves skip out of rythm. The film is in slow motion, sometimes the body halves come into sync only to fall out again. The sound of the skip rope and the feet hitting ground is sweet. Although coming into balance is desirable also the opposite state has its inherent beauty.

Marcus Lerviks and Simo Brotherus

Prestige started as a performance in SYH/Nykarleby in 1998 with two persons sitting facing each other trying to fit their fists into the other’s mouth. We filmed the performance and later it has been shown as a video installation in “Measure of a Man” in 2004 at Helsinki Art Museum.

The Performance was also done in the Poikkeustila -festival in Helsinki 1998.

Marcus Lerviks and Simo Brotherus

The duration of the performance was about 15 min. We used two slide projectors as brushes, the canvas being a phosphorized board. The painting action was done to an upbeat triphop groove.

The performance was made in 1996 in ‘Comment’ in Espoo, Finland and in 1998 in Kunsthause Tacheles, Berlin.