Janne Lehtinen - Sacred Bird

Janne Lehtinen - Sacred Bird

Exhibition: 01 February – 25 April 2009
Address: Bergstr. 22, 10115 Berlin-Mitte

Gallery TaiK is proud to present the solo exhibition by Finnish photographer Janne Lehtinen who is also a representative of The Helsinki School.

The artist born 1970 in Karhula, Finland graduated in 2002 as a Master of Arts from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. His career has included a number of international solo exhibitions. Lehtinen´s work is held in several of the major international photographic collections and he is the subject of a forthcoming monograph Janne Lehtinen - Night Shift, that will be published in 2009.

The exhibition will present his current works entitled Sacred Bird inrn which the artist refers to one of the oldest dreams of mankind: being rnable to fly. In a very poetic way Janne Lehtinen's photographs relate torn the human desire of flying through the sky like a bird. For all times rnpeople tried to manufacture their own wings, like Icarus and Daedalus rnwho used wax and plumes for their apparatus to brave the forces of rngravity.

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After having already chosen an autobiographical theme for his last rnseries "The Descendants", Janne Lehtinen continues to focus on a topic rnwhich is influenced by his biography: His father is a well-known Finnishrn glider pilot. The dream about flying which became real for the father, rnremains fiction for the son.

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Janne Lehtinens attempts to take himself to the sky are clearly rnpreposterous. Also they fable an adventure, which needs to end rninevitably in miserable failure. The artist staging himself as a rnlatter-day aviation pioneer par excellence hangs from a tree, stays on arn ledge or a field with rather bizarre looking flight-machines wrapped rnaround his body. These odd situations reminiscently call into mind rnanother tragic story about a man trying to defeat the aerial battle. In rnthe early nineteenth century Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger known as the rntailor of Ulm built himself a hang-glider instrument. Unfortunately he rncould never proof the operational capability of his flight invention rnwhile living. The hopelessness of Lehtinen´s vain endeavor to defeat thern elementary rules of gravity is startlingly honest. Though behind those rnunequal battles one will find concealed the indestructible courage to rnpursuit obsessively one´s dream.

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