Boiler Rooms of the Imagination - Machines That Never Were

Opening of the exhibition at Malmitalo gallery Wed 23.9. from 5-7 pm. Timo Kaukolampi (K-X-P) performs at the opening. Free admission, welcome!

Boiler Rooms of the Imagination is a spatial installation built from machines made of recycled materials and imagined inventions. Drawing on steampunk's visual language, the work explores alternative histories and futures that never came to pass - yet continue to live in these structures. Complex machines merge with organic forms, creating a space that feels simultaneously familiar and strange.

Behind the work stands Veikko "Rudi" Ruuskanen, a 68-year-old self-taught artist whose expression has been shaped by decades of experience with sound and light, as well as old factory environments, boiler rooms, pipes, and gauges. The work of visual artists Jani Hänninen and Elina Merenmiehen has influenced the development of his visual language. Ruuskanen represents the ITE art tradition: independent expression that emerged outside institutions. For nearly two decades, he has created Christmas and Halloween installations for families in the neighbourhood and decorates the shop window of the Mayra confectionery in Tapanila.

The artist will be present at the opening Wed 23.9. from 5-7 pm and Sat 26.9. from 12-6 pm, when he will also perform a DJ set at the gallery.