DIGITAL EXHIBITION
" Finland closes schools, declares
STATE OF EMERGENCY
over coronavirus"
16.3.2020
This exhibition, 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.
Through playful storytelling, the exhibition reconstructs 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 reality and experience things like the "toilet paper challenge" in its nostalgic absurdity, a symbol of the era's uncanny triviality.
State of emergency invites viewers to relive this peculiar chapter of recent history, where the mundane and the absurd are blurred, and social media became a means to make sense of a world in flux.
"Theme Song"
"The Show"
The exhibition’s main piece, The Show, unfolds through short "episodes" rather than traditional, standalone artworks, mirroring the fragmented and surreal experience of time during the early stages of the pandemic. This episodic structure heightens the sense of unreality while simultaneously offering the comforting rhythm of serialized storytelling—a "sitcom-like" safety that echoes through the snippets. In a time when the future felt uncertain and the world’s fragility was laid bare, these episodes became a way to frame chaos with humor and familiarity.
Social media's role as both a connector and an alienating force is central, blurring the lines between reality, performance, and the hyper-curated narratives of digital life.