DIGITAL EXHIBITION

" Finland closes schools, declares
STATE OF EMERGENCY
over coronavirus"

16.3.2020

State of emergency", emerges from the digital archives of the Instagram profile "Poyhiah," capturing mundane audiovisual moments from the spring and summer of 2020—a time when the world stood still. Social media's role during the pandemic was central, blurring the lines between reality, performance, and the hyper-curated narratives of digital life.

Through playful profile ridden storytelling, the exhibition curates the shared life of two roommates, "Poyhiah" and "Ihmeliisa," as they navigate the surreal reality of a COVID-19 lockdown in Finland. Ordinary spaces transform into stages of absurd Instagram show with episodes like the "toilet paper challenge".

State of emergency is a window to a peculiar chapter of recent history, where the mundane and the absurd are blurred in the times of profilicity.

@poyhiah x @ihmeliisa

"Theme Song"

"The Show"

The exhibition’s main piece, The Show, unfolds through short "episodes", mirroring the unreal, almost fictional feel, of times during the early stages of the pandemic. Episodic structure offers the familiar rhythm of serialized storytelling, a familiar "sitcom-like" structure many millenials find comforting.