It is natural for us to try to understand the present through the lens of the past. Jari Jula turns this common way of thinking upside down, asking how the evolving present affects the way we understand the past and our history, and how time affects the sense of belonging.

Jula’s collage paintings featured in the exhibition are inspired by his childhood essay about the future. For the paintings, Jula collected pieces of used canvas from fellow painters, which he then joined with enlarged copies of his essay on ruled paper. In the work a text from past about the future merges with a still-hazy present.

Born in Jyväskylä in 1961, Jari Jula currently lives and works in Helsinki. He lived in Jyväskylä for twenty-one years, and feels that the town is part of his cultural heritage. Jula paints primarily with oil and acrylic, but his works also contain unconventional materials such as concrete, other building materials and dust. Jula earned a doctorate in art from Aalto University in 2018.