Atelier Insights #2: Tanja Koljonen

Tanja: My studio is located in the lively and communal environment of Cable Factory, Helsinki. My studio is on the fifth floor. It’s a compact, quiet, and bright space with views of the sky, some buildings and a tiny stretch of the sea. I love my large desk –– it’s great for binding books and sketching. There is enough of wall space, and I have a drawer and a large shelf to store prints, papers, and books.

TK: Recently, I’ve been working with artist’s books that are based on old existing books, theatre screenplays etc. I consider the book format to be an excellent way to organise my thoughts. The books I make also function as manuscripts for exhibitions and other spatial arrangements. Over the past few months, I’ve been preparing for upcoming exhibitions. In my next exhibition, my artist’s book ‘Itsetutkisteluja’ (2020) will be reimagined as a sound piece. For this project, I invited people to my studio and recorded them reading the book. These social encounters have given me new insight to an already existing work and they have opened new realms of interpretations of what else this old book can be.

TK: Studio offers a calm environment that minimises distractions. It allows slow processes where materials can be collected and worked with over time. However, I also value flexibility, simplicity of my surroundings and the ability to work anywhere, anytime. As much as I respect materials, sometimes I feel burdened by them, and I want to challenge myself to reduce even more. Ideas for my work often come unexpectedly in daily life. The studio, then, functions as a space to finalize these ideas and bring them into production.