Thin Membrane

Thin Membrane (Den Tunna Hinnan / Ohut Kalvo) is a video installation about thresholds: between middle class and petite bourgeois respectability, between solidarity and estrangement, and between the pull of belonging and the relief of outsiderness.

A plastered wall -like the façade of an ordinary home- holds a large window that doubles as a back-projection surface. On the other side, a life-size loop shows four friends sharing dinner. At intervals, thunder and power cuts plunge the scene into darkness. In those brief blackouts the image drops away and the glass returns the viewer’s reflection, the “thin membrane” that separates the onlooker from the gathering inside.

Inspired by a short story in Peter Høeg’s Fortællinger om natten (Tales of the Night), the work re-stages ritualised forms of togetherness in a contemporary domestic setting. Watching from outside and unable to make out the conversation through the pane, the viewer is held in an unresolved position: close enough to recognise the scene, distant enough to feel how easily connection becomes a performance, and how quickly warmth can tip into exclusion.

Exhibitions

Thin Membrane was shown at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in the group exhibition Matters of Time, presenting the works of eight Finnish contemporary artists, 25.07.2014 — 12.10.2014. The immersive video installation piece was part of an exhibition in the Turku gallery Titanik, 31.1-24.2 2013.

Credits

Written, directed and designed by Minna Långström
Actors : Jussi Ollila, Marika Salomaa-Kivelä, Silja Sauros ja Fabian Silén
Camera: Ville Tanttu
Sound recording and mixing: Kimmo Vänttinen
Set design: Anne Karttunen
Lighting design: Paco Bouazza
Carpentry / Puutyöt: Nuutti Koskinen, Sakari Tervo