Vaurauden filosofia | Förmögenhetsfilosofi | Philosophy of Wealth

“I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.”
– Pablo Picasso

► With wealth comes influence, and with influence comes responsibility. Finnish contemporary art offers many perspectives on themes such as social change, loneliness, exclusion, middle class life, and the daily existence of ordinary individuals – but prosperity is a topic hitherto rarely touched upon.

Affluence is compellingly personified in Jaakko Heikkilä’s intimate photographic portraits, which present wealthy people as living, feeling individuals with a touching human side. The models are presented in richly detailed intimate settings, many among meditative landscapes reflected off water, as if suggesting memories floating to the surface. The portraits are paired with quotes, anecdotes, stories and observations about life shared by the sitters.

“Thought itself possesses a water pattern. […] So do one’s emotions, so does blood.”
– Joseph Brodsky