Clearing Memories - Niina Lehtonen Braun

Niina Lehtonen Braun (born 1975) is a Finnish artist based in Berlin whose relatives on both sides of the family come from Saarijärvi, Kannonkoski, and Pylkönmäki. The exhibition at Galleria Ahku continues her "Clearing Memories" installation shown at the Jyväskylä Art Museum's exhibition "On the Way to the Centre of the Land" (2020-2021), though most of the works at Ahku are new. The work has evolved in a more associative direction: previously the parts were tightly connected to biography, but now the artist is interested in memory and remembrance more broadly.

The exhibition draws on correspondence Lehtonen Braun conducted with her relatives, interviews with her grandmother and aunts, wartime letters, and sayings and stories that circulated in the family. From her mother's friend, she received all the letters her mother had sent to her. She also sought women's lives in factual books about men from the region - for instance, in Juha-Pekka Parantainen's book "Parantalan häjyt veljekset" she found a mention of the family's stubborn women. Such statements became work titles: "In this family, it was said there were wicked women."

Lehtonen Braun studied visual art at the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 2000 and forms the performance group JOKAkluben together with Tellervo Kallinen and Mirka Raito. She currently works with the support of a five-year artist grant from the Arts Promotion Centre.

Lehtonen Braun has published four artist books: "Mother Said" (2013), "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You" (2016), "Let Go Girl" (2021), and "My Body is My Studio" (May 2026). The exhibition is organized by the Friends of Saarijärvi Museum.