23.07.2025

Juhana Moisander – SERMON 

15.8.–24.8.2025 | Galleria Aski

This year, the Turku Animated Film Festival presents an exhibition at Gallery Aski, featuring the video installations Sermon II and Sermon III by visual artist Juhana Moisander. The exhibition is part of TAFF’s official programme and invites animation viewers to a slower and more contemplative image.

Sermon II is a video installation in the form of a fable, in which a skinless pig invites the audience to exercise a characteristic and unique feature of the human species: the possibility of exercising moral discretion. Sermon III, on the other hand, highlights the phrase FLESH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE WORD, which flutters on the flag with the rising and falling winds. The work, inspired by a Christmas altarpiece text THE WORD BECAME FLESH, presents a dark moral sermon on the disconnection between body and action.

“In general, the aim of a sermon is to evoke thoughts and feelings about the biblical texts and to comment on the state of the community. The approach is much the same as in works of art: both comment on the prevailing time and its phenomena. In the Sermon series, my starting point has been a critical examination of man and his actions in relation to the world around him and its creatures.”

– Juhana Moisander

Juhana Moisander (b. 1977) is a Finnish visual artist known for his dark-toned media works. Combining visual power and conceptual depth, his video installations invite the viewer to reflect on our shared human experience. The immersive works often focus on combining visual and sound elements with the architecture of the exhibition space. Drawing from art history, literature and the study of human behaviour, the works explore themes such as collective memory, cultural myths and social rituals.

The exhibition is curated by TAFF Festival Director Annika Dahlsten.

The opening will take place on Thursday 14.8.2025 as part of the Night of the Arts, and the exhibition will be open until Sunday 24.8. 

The production of the works has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK) and the Olga and Vilho Lehtonen Foundation.

Another of TAFF’s exhibitions, States of Nature – Virtual Experiments, produced by MUU ry, will also be on display in the Art House on 22-24 August 2025, in the Factory Building. You can check out the exhibition here. TAFF is organising the exhibitions as part of the City of Turku’s pop-up art programme.