Pekka Sassi (born 1969) is a Finnish media artist whose works include dozens of experimental sound and video pieces, short films, installations and music.
Some of Pekka Sassi's works take the form of scripted stories that range from dystopian horror films to small comic impressions of the everyday.
[16]"Sassi does not actually describe the world but reconstitutes fragmented images into basic narratives accompanied by his commentary – serious and sometimes even fervent, however, often laced with irony.
"[13] "Pekka Sassi's films show viewers ordinary surroundings that open up into self-contained universes which exist within and parallel to the real world.
"[10]For example, the "Kolya saga", screened at the AAVE festival (Alternative AudioVisual Event) of 2016 in Helsinki, Finland, consists of loosely connected experimental films that address deep themes with a surreal twist.
[20] The fourth film of the series, "After Everything" (2014)[21] emphasises visual narrative and is long (28 minutes) compared with Sassi's usually very short videos.
"Sassi's moving images work like modern poetry or jazz; flirting with existing, recognizable structures and genres – and simultaneously constructing something new in an intuitive way.
"[24] In another piece of work, "It's All Around Us Now, Frank"[25] (2006), a Western created in the spirit of Twin Peaks and emphasising narrative through sound, two male characters are forced to face the unknown and their own fears.
A parallel strand in Sassi's work combines optical, kinetic and constructivist art with the tradition of abstract experimental film.
[11] In a series of experimental films called "Domestic Studies in Cosmology" a new planet is discovered at the bottom of a paper coffee cup ("Void", 2004),[26] a seagull circling around a pier creates a new galaxy ("Bird", 2004)[27] and a black hole is found pulsating in a kitchen sink ("Schwarzschild Radius", 2004).
In a certain manner, he is a formalist whose roots go back to the early days of experimental film in the beginning of the last century, but at the same time he is a filmmaker who reacts to the present and its themes and who puts together his material out of the congestion on offer.
[33] Timo Valjakka, writing for Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper in Finland, considered Pekka Sassi’s three-channel video installation “Colours” the most striking work in the exhibition in the sense that, while being immersive and meditative, it called to pay attention to the meticulous design.
[33] In 2023, Pekka Sassi participated in the invitational exhibition “Filaments of Image and Space” set up in Paimio Sanatorium designed by Alvar Aalto.
[37] A retrospective of Pekka Sassi's work was shown in the Tampere Film Festival of 2014 as part of the 25 year celebratory programme of the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, AV-Arkki.
[3][51] "Stories about light," inspired by a soviet recording of Yuri Gagarin speaking, found in a flea market, is about space, heroic travelling and distances between people and the planets.
In one of the pieces, named "12-IV 1961", also screened as a self-standing work in various events, Youri Gagarin calls his mother from the orbit around the Earth to discuss mundane issues.