with Vappu Jalonen
During 2024–2027, the artists Elis Hannikainen and Vappu Jalonen work in the art and research project Realm of the Sick (Sairaiden valtakunta). It is conducted under University of Helsinki and funded by the Kone Foundation.
Realm of the Sick explores the specific knowledge chronically ill people have of the society and its structures, and their agency and participation in it. We are working together as artists with the chronically ill researchers Salome Tuomaala-Özdemir and Elina Niinivaara. The project is led by docent Anna Leppo and managed by project planner Iida Putkuri.
During the project, we produce media art works and installations. See also Part 1: Time (Osa 1: Aika).
First of the events produced by the project, called Bed Symposiums, took place in 2025 in Mad House Helsinki, and the second one in Tampere in May 2026. The Bed Symposiums are a practical method for creating spaces, rhythms and ways of being and relating which might suit chronic bodies better. The Bed Symposiums aim at offering chronic bodies a possibility for participation, expression, and collective thinking.
Installation view, Bed Symposium, Youth Culture Centre Monitoimitalo 13, Wivi Lönn hall, Tampere, 2026
Texts in images 7 and 8:
More pillows so that sitting would be more comfortable
(That) this sofa would be 1 meter wider so that could I lie with my legs straight
Installation view; reproduction of a body position, video still, Bed Symposium, Mad House Helsinki, 2025
Text in image 1: Here, a hammock