Esko Männikkö , Pekka Turunen
»PEMOHT«

Pemoht refers to the Cyrillic script for the Russian word Remont – a term which can be translated as reparation. Within this context the title stands as a euphemistic and tragic symbol for the collapse of a country and the subsequent failure of its institutions, devices, and social structures.

Today the peninsula still has the highest concentration of nuclear weapons, reactors, and facilities in Russia. The number of nuclear reactors alone exceeds any other region of the world. In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the geopolitical and strategic importance of the region has returned to public attention.

With scenes that recall the unvarnished realism of Gustave Courbet the artists present a cast of characters that go about their daily chores - washing clothes, sorting berries, leaving for school, changing the wheel on a car - against the backdrop of a landscape ravaged by acid rain, surface mining, nickel smelting and military nuclear waste. Männikkö and Turunen capture the everyday reality of a disenfranchised community living in the margins during times of major transition with poetry, clarity, and grit.

Esko Männikkö was born in 1959 in Pudasjärvi in the northern part of Finland. He lives and works in Oulu, Finland. In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. The same year he presented Cocktails 1990-2007 at Millesgården in Stockholm, Kulturens Hus in Luleå and Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall in Arendal. Other solo exhibitions include presentations at Göteborgs Konstmuseum (2016), the Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt, Oslo (2004), the Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg (1999), the Malmö Konsthall (1997), as well as Portikus, Frankfurt/Main, De Pont, Tilburg and Lenbachhaus, München (all 1996). He has taken part in numerous international exhibitions, including the travelling exhibition Investigations of a dog, organized by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (2009-2010), as well as the Venice Biennial (2005), SEEhistory. Der private Blick, Kunsthalle zu Kiel (2005), Liverpool Biennal (2004), Beyond Paradise, Shanghai Art Museum (2003), Contemporary Photography II: Anti-Memory, Yokohama Museum of Art (2000), São Paulo Biennial (1998), and Johannesburg Biennial (1997). Männikkö has had numerous solo exhibitions at Galerie Nordenhake in Stockholm and Berlin.

Pekka Turunen was born in 1958 and currently lives in Kemiönsaari, Finland. He has published some renowned artist books including Against the Wall: Lypö, Tilkkanen, Mörsky and I, 1995, Collected Works, 1999 and Every Object Tells a Story, 2004. His photographs have also been shown widely. Solo exhibitions include Villa Lande, Kemiö (2006), Söderlångvik Museum, Dragsfjärd (2004), Finnland-Institut, Berlin (2003), and Musée de Normandie, Caen (2002). He took part in the 11th Sydney Biennale in 1999 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions since.