THE FEMALE GAZE: ensæmble

AALTO and multidisciplinary art collective The Community both share a Finnish heritage, and a desire to merge the Finnish and Parisian viewpoints. "The Female Gaze" is a project curated for AALTO by The Community with the aim to explore the contemporary photography scene in their common homeland: Finland.

The ongoing project highlights the work of young female talents who interpret Finnishness from their own perspective. The first part of the project premieres with the work of ensæmble.

The creative duo ensæmble was invited to "The Female Gaze" project in the interest towards their unique process and performance inspired work. They are not exactly photographers, but rather move freely from one medium to another and are always producing strong, beautiful and surprising results be it in fashion, installation, performance, video- or photography related projects.

9/100 is a portrait series, which features four children - Lumi, Mio, Sylvia and Väinö - who have all turned nine years as Finland celebrated its first century of independence in December 2017. Instead of reflecting on the past one hundred years the images project the future of the nation. The series is made out of diptychs, each featuring one portrait and one creatively manipulated image.

As explained by the artists themselves, “We are fascinated by extending the use of photography as well as the limits of the body. For this series, we wanted to document the disproportionate silhouettes created by kids wearing adults clothes. After seeing the developed images we wanted to interpret them further by laying emphasis on the materiality of the garments and the feel of the new shapes: the multiplying of pleats, the shine of satin, the angularity of denim and the softness of jersey. The result is a dialogue of mediums, between photography and sculpture.

The depicted children are our friends' kids. They've all been born to young parents and it's wondrous seeing them grow up together. Them all being nine years old is a fun coincidence.”