CLOSED: Rooms Hidden by the Water
- photographs from Venice by Jaakko Heikkilä
The exhibition will feature approximately 50 photographs by photographic artist Jaakko Heikkilä, taken in 2005–2015 in the palaces of Venetian nobility along with Venetian furniture from the late 1800s from the National Museum’s collections.
Photographer Jaakko Heikkilä (b. 1956) is an observer who is renowned for photographing people and groups of people around the world. Heikkilä photographs people in their own environment: at home, working, at museums or as flickering shadows on walls.
Heikkilä started photographing the Venetian nobility through a friend who opened the doors of the first palace for him. The photographs offer a unique opportunity to peek inside the palaces of the decreasing Venetian nobility and meet the residents and their life stories.
The Venetian nobility live a life that is bound and protected by their history. The nobility consists of merchants from La Serenissima, the golden age of the Republic of Venice, which existed from the 500s to 1797. They represent the old Europe and Venice of today - which is defined by the reality of mass tourism and the problems caused by global warming.