Storm in the City was born as a community art project. Räbinä wanted to offer unemployed people in search of some direction in life something meaningful to do and an opportunity to have their voice heard by taking part in planning and executing an art project. With the exception of one professional actor, all the people seen in the video piece are amateurs who truly lay themselves on the line for the sake of the project. The same method was used in 2009 in an earlier video piece, Plan B, which also dealt with unemployment, poverty and the rise in inequality.
The world has become harsh and merciless. Greed, unscrupulousness and pursuing personal gain colour the actions of both corporate leaders and common people. People seek happiness through economic success and forget to nurture spiritual and cultural capital. Our set of values is disintegrating, our needs becoming ever more superficial. Market forces have overthrown the Highest power. Markets have become god-like and they react to human decision-making either by becoming nervous, worried or pleased. Nervous market forces are placated by sacrificing jobs and lives of innocent people on their altar. Mass layoffs inspire increases in stock prices and make the shareholder’s accounts bulge. Simultaneously the unemployed are blamed for their situation. Unemployed people are viewed as a suspicious part of the populace, a group that has drifted away from the job market either out of its own laziness or stupidity.
In Storm in the City, a man vents his frustration and anxiety by numbing himself with products of the pornographic industry and masturbation. Simultaneously a choir in the background loudly demands for bread. Instead of appropriate and analytical discussion, we are flooded with crippling multinational entertainment that distracts our attention with irrelevant things and leaves important current issues in the shadow. International program formats offer easy publicity to those that dream of fame; you can clear your way to stardom through song, dance or weight loss. It is easier to control your own body or the remote control than to control the society.
Arising from social inequalities, Storm in the City is a fierce eruption in which Paavo Räbinä expresses in images and words the frustrations and anxieties of people battling with the disadvantages of market economy. In his works Räbinä wants to bring down false images and point out that there are always alternative ways of seeing and interpreting things, as well as possibility for change.
8-channel installation with sound
HD Video / Stereo / Duration 22’30 min.
Storm in the city, 2011 / part of installation
8-channel installation with sound
HD Video / Stereo / Duration 22’30 min.
Part 3 of 8-channel installation / Duration 05’20 min.
Installation view