黑料不打烊

Persons Projects is proud to present a group exhibition, The Veneer of Happiness. The show focuses on the various myths and stereotypes associated with how success equates with happiness. These collected works exemplify the art of observing and displaying various states of happiness through altered realities from different perspectives: While Dominik Lejman and Katarzyna Kozyra share a common interest in challenging common concepts of beauty, we experience another perspective in the work of KwieKulik and Ulla Jokisalo whose works question and confront how western culture bends reality to fit certain norms or expectations in politics, economics or gender that define our presumed narrative for what happiness should look like.

35 Minute Smile (2002) by Santeri Tuori dares the viewer to engage with the artist as he performs an unnatural act of smiling that transforms the theatre of being happy into a mere facial fa莽ade. The artist enters the picture very seriously and focused, and then begins to smile at the viewer 鈥� a possible reminiscence of taking yearbook pictures at school. Soon, the video appears to be frozen, but in reality, the artist is smiling continuously. The smile is 鈥� if not malicious, but slightly strained 鈥� hung between action and expression, evoking a sense of madness. Here, the usual brief moment of smiling lasts for 35 minutes. It ends when the artist can no longer hold his facial expression and walks away, leaving us with an impression of unease.