NYKYAJAN HUUTOLAISET
The Paupers of Today – About Unemployment
Video and photography installation

The motive behind the exhibition is to show the nature of unemployment and to make the opinions of the unemployed visible and heard through photographs and videos. Unemployment is a permanent phenomenon caused by digitalization, globalization, automation (i.e. robots) and monetarism (the economy serving the monetary system, not society).

The key aspects are the psychological impact of unemployment, instability of life, personal freedom and constant financial struggles. At subtext level, the exhibition reflects on the return of the class society – is there already a new class of paupers? Does our competitiveness need cheap labor and how does it come about? Does supported employment also take jobs from paid employees? On the other hand, it is also about resistance – opposition to brutal capitalism, for example, by refusing an ecologically and socially questionable job. Does an unemployed person have the freedom to choose?

Yrjö Pihlajamäki at his home yard winter 2016.

Matti Aalto and Kiki with their kids in Hauho.