Hannu PALOSUO was born in 1966 in Helsinki, Finland. In 1993 he graduated in history of modern art at La Sapienza University in Rome and in the Italian capital he graduated in 1997 in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 2009, 2013 and 2022 it represented the Syrian National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 2022, it represented the Italian National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He is a participant in many joint exhibitions such as: the Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2024); Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki (2022); Curitiba Biennale, Brazil (2019); National Museum of Finland (2016); National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (2013); Zorrilla Museum, Uruguay (2007). He currently works and lives between Helsinki and Rome.

Cannot Turn Back The Clock
Vaj në kanavacë, (5) 209 x 82 cm secila, 2019

The conceptual approach:

Memory has always played a fundamental role in Palosuo's artistic research, because it is driven by the conflict between life and death, by the ultimate idea of the human condition. What we remember, what we tend not to remember, how we remember, why we remember, why we don't remember and above all, how memory affects our daily lives. It is this constant struggle that drives my work. For several years, the portrait and the life of the subject, as reflected by the person sitting before me, have entered much into my work.

For me, a portrait is like a mirror that reflects who we are and what we are. The idea of the portrait has brought me to reflect on memories in the hybrid future. What role will artificial intelligence play in the memories of future generations? What if the face in the portrait is just a blank image created by Artificial Intelligence? Or what instead, if our memory in the hybrid future is empty? In these works I partially cover the faces of the people portrayed with a white veil. I try to execute this pictorial gesture in a subtle way. I don't want anything violent, no gestures or colors that can be associated in any way with aggression or denial. I am looking for a gesture that can raise human questions about the hybrid future and Artificial Intelligence in the minds of the viewers.