Panu Johansson: Wherever Street Piece

Drawing on cultural history and the history of experimental film, Panu Johansson’s moving image works often take the form of diaristic collages. His interest in the multidimensional nature of memory is reflected in them both on the level of personal experience and in relation to the memories of others that have already disappeared.

Wherever Street Piece (2025, 8:40 min) is a two-channel moving image installation that deals with fragmented and impersonal memories. It examines how past realities intermingle with the present moment and how some experiences inevitably fade over time. The work is based on found footage that Johansson rescued from ending up in a landfill in the early 2000s. The silent material lacking any background information was most likely filmed in several different countries between approximately 1965 and 1975. Johansson transferred the original 16 mm films onto high-contrast Kodak 3378 sound recording film and treated the material frame by frame with chemicals that erode the emulsion. The resulting images remain recognizable, yet, detached from documentary realism, they settle into a more indeterminate space between memory and imagination. The stories they tell and their original purpose remain open, to be completed by the viewer.

Although clothing and material culture clearly anchor the images in the past, they resonate strongly with the present. On the streets, people continue to demonstrate both for and against tolerance, while everyday life goes on amid political instability and conflict. The portrait of an era emerging from decades ago—where threat and hope coexist side by side—remains recognizable and present. What the past has truly taught us—and which mistakes continue to be repeated—remains unresolved.

Panu Johansson (b. 1980) is a media artist and experimental filmmaker based in Rovaniemi, working with moving image, photography, and sound. He favors analog film materials, frequently uses found footage, and most often creates the soundscapes of his works himself. Johansson graduated as a visual artist from Art School Maa (2003) and received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Lapland (2014). His works have been presented at festivals and exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 2000. In addition to his own artistic practice, he has curated and produced several media art events in Northern Finland.

The work has been supported by the Lapland Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland / The Arts Council of Lapland, AVEK (The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture), VISEK (The Centre for the Promotion of Visual Art), and Filmverkstaden.

The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.