Rovaniemi museum adds living-ear artwork to its collection

Rovaniemi Art Museum has added an installation in which artist Iiri Poteri listens through a hole in a wall using her own ear, Yle reports. The work, called Kuiskaus, is on display during the museum’s 40th anniversary week.

Poteri sits behind the wall and listens as visitors whisper to her ear. They have read poems, played music and jokes from their phones, shared secrets and sung to it. Poteri says the work has prompted reactions ranging from embarrassment and laughter to confusion and amusement.

The installation was acquired for the museum by the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation after it was shown in the Kuvan kevät graduate exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts. Museum director Riitta Kuusikko describes it as unusual and possibly unique. The museum says it knows of no comparable works in museum collections.

Visitors sometimes mistake the ear for a sculpture or a fake, Poteri says. She can be replaced by another performer, with instructions provided for presenting the work. For each new exhibition, the instructions call for a new wall and a hole in it.

The work is part of a record donation from the foundation to the museum this year, valued at about 400,000 euros. The museum was founded 40 years ago after the foundation gave the city 500 artworks. Its collection has since grown to nearly 4,000 works.