Teemu Mäki - How to live with the death?

ABOUT DEATH

The theme of my exhibition is death, but my intention is not to distress or depress you, but rather to bring you joy and a zest for life.

I believe that there are no shortcuts to joy; joy cannot be achieved by escaping into daydreams, drugs, or lies. To find joy, you have to look in the mirror, look at the world as honestly as possible, and ask: "Who am I? What is the world really like? What do I want to become, and into what direction do I want to change the world?"

Death was chosen as the theme for my exhibition because it is part of the Tampere Parishes' Kuolevainen / Mortal project. An even more important reason, however, is that death is anyway both a central theme in my art and the focus of my life. I believe that in order to live well, I must learn to live with death.

Each of us will die; everything dies. Someday even the sun will go out, and even if humanity manages to escape somewhere else before that happens, it will not make the human race eternal, because according to current science, even the universe is temporary. The universe is expanding and entropy is progressing until the whole thing is so sparse, dark, and cold that no life is possible anymore.

When a person knows this about death, how can they maintain their joy of life and their desire to develop into a better person and create a better world?

There are many ways to deal with this challenge, but not all of them are equally good.

One common method is to simply try to forget about death, to keep it out of your mind for as long as possible. Think about it only when you are an elderly person with cancer. Don't go to your friend's funeral, so you don't feel bad.

Another way to try to solve the challenge of mortality is to believe in immortality like a child believes in Santa Claus. Some people take the talk of eternal life in many religions quite literally and think that if all goes well, God will save them from death and take them to paradise, where eternal happiness awaits. They believe that although they cannot take their bank deposits or the contents of their wardrobes with them to paradise, in other respects they will be able to continue their lives there as themselves — but happy and eternal.

The third way is to believe in technology, not God. Some believe that it is only a matter of time before technology advances to such an extent that it will give us — or at least the wealthiest among us — eternal life, either as cyborgs whose bodies can be endlessly repaired and upgraded, or as digital beings that can be uploaded to the cloud and backed up indefinitely. And as for the death of the universe, one can take an optimistic view that science is constantly advancing, so perhaps later on there will be new, more comforting information, or technical solutions that can prevent the end of the universe.

The fourth perspective on death is, of course, to try to accept death and create a relationship with it that does not spoil the flavor of life, but rather enriches it. In my opinion, this is the best option. In theory, this should be easy, for example, with the following line of thought:

Death is not the opposite of life, but the outline of life and the ultimate source of all meaning and value. It is precisely the fact that everything is limited, that death will come so soon to each of us, that makes life feel precious and gives rise to great passions and gives us the ability to love. If we lived forever, perhaps nothing would feel like much.

I think this is absolutely true, but this reasoning alone is not enough to eliminate the fear of death and the anxiety, disappointment, and depression associated with it. Problems, fears, and questions related to death cannot be solved by science or pure reason alone. More comprehensive and flexible methods are also needed to solve problems related to death and to learn to live a good life — with death.

This requires practice, the kind of practice that leads to a good relationship with death, where people learn to accept their own temporary place in the cycle of nature and enjoy it, using means other than pure reason. This can be practiced through art, for example. Or, if you are not interested in art, then by encountering death as part of life in some other way.

There is also a fifth perspective on death. It is not entirely separate, but partly overlaps with the ones mentioned above. According to this perspective, people should not worry too much about their own death, the death of their loved ones, or the end of the universe, but rather focus on reducing suffering in the here and now — both their own suffering and, in particular, the suffering and death of other living beings. Excessive contemplation of one's own death can be stifling self-centeredness or even narcissistic selfishness. If one obsesses over it, it can prevent one from enjoying life.

It is good to learn to live with your own mortality, but it is equally important to learn to take the lives of others seriously. Why? Some people believe that it is primarily the moral duty of the individual to take the lives of others as seriously as their own. Some people believe that it is not a duty, but in the individual's own interest, because if they treat other living beings as if they were inanimate objects, they condemn themselves to total loneliness. There are many ways of looking at this issue, but however you look at it, I believe that the better an individual is able to feel compassion for other living beings, the better their own chances of being happy are.

I think this perspective is particularly needed right now, when we see how destructive our impact on the world is: we have caused not only climate change, but also the sixth mass extinction. Humans are the most destructive species ever to have lived on Earth. We certainly have the potential for something else too, but we are far from realizing that potential.

I am an atheist and a socialist, but also a fan of Jesus. What does that mean? It means that, in my opinion, Jesus was above all a radical left-wing philosopher and activist who demanded true equality, said that happiness cannot be found in the accumulation of wealth, and preached about the miraculous power of unconditional love.

I hope that my exhibition will bring joy to the audience, regardless of their worldview. Even if you don't like my work and don't agree with me on anything, I still hope that my work will help you find joy in life and develop your own worldview.

ABOUT THE ARTWORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

The works in the exhibition deal with the many different dimensions of death and mortality.

Many of the paintings and drawings in the exhibition deal with the destruction of nature, inequality between people, exploitation and war. In these works, death is primarily a machine and a weapon with which humans maximize their own benefit and subjugate other humans and other living species. This is the main theme, for example, in the painting Grannies in the Midst of It All (Hey, teachers of my youth, how how did it come to this?). There is a more detailed info text about this work on the wall next to it.

The exhibition also includes portraits of my mother — I Remember My Mother and the Raven — and my father — Pentti and Aatos, with a Grandfather Clock (in Memory of My Father). I painted these after my parents died. On the one hand, the works are a form of mourning, and on the other, they are a reflection on mortality on a non-personal level. In both paintings, there are children alongside elderly people. By placing them in the same picture or the same work, I aim to accept the different stages of human life and think positively about them. It is often thought that people are happiest as children — or at least that children experience greater bursts of joy than adults or the elderly are capable of. I disagree. As people age, they do not inevitably become dull, cynical, bored and numb. They may just as well become more sensitive and learn to enjoy things that children do not know how to enjoy.

In many of my works, I have of course tried to deal with many different dimensions of mortality at the same time. For example, the painting entitled The God I Know actually contains two separate visual ideas. One is nature's revenge: the mother goddess in the picture takes revenge on humans for what they have done to the rest of nature. The other idea in the painting is a fantasy of how humans could accept their own mortality joyfully and in a way that brings joy to life.

In addition to paintings and drawings, the exhibition also features photographs and texts.

Hanging on (Forces of Gravity) is a work consisting of three photographs inspired by Christian altarpieces. It depicts a naked infant and naked middle-aged people. Death is not visible in the body and being of the infant, but it is strongly present in the bodies and beings of the others. Despite this, adults can be as happy as the most joyful child — but it requires a lot of mental work.

Four Generations, Two Genders, One Death is a work consisting of seven photographs that deals with the passage of life from one generation to the next. It includes photographs of my parents, some of my children, and a photograph of myself taking a photograph of my deceased grandmother. Although the title of the work refers to only two sexes, I am by no means claiming that there are only two sexes. I simply mean that all species that reproduce sexually do so by mixing their genes with each other, rather than cloning themselves. This also means that a person who reproduces must accept that they will not live on through their children, but life will continue. (As for the number of genders, there are many more than two.)

The texts included in the exhibition are my poems. They deal with the relationship between humans and God, other humans, other species, our own mortality, the genocide in Gaza, and so on. Death is present in all of them, just as death is present everywhere where there is life.

BONUS: RIVERBULLS

The exhibition also includes one work that is not on display in the gallery. It can be viewed on YLE Areena. (Unfortunately the version on YLE doesn’t have Englsih subtitles. If you want to see a subtitled version, you can contact me directly.)

RIVERBULLS (a letter to Vladimir Putin) is a documentary film about a Finnish male synchronized skating team… and a Russian president.

It's extremely rare for men to have synchronized skating as their hobby. However, I found a group of ordinary men, Team RiverBulls, are doing just that, in Seinäjoki, Ostrobothnia, rural Finland. I'm originally from there myself. It used to be very conservative place: the male sports were wrestling, javelin throw, Finnish Baseball and shooting — with or without skis. I'm happy that things have changed and got interested to make a documentary film about the RiverBulls.

The film is also a reflection of what it means to be a man and where a male person's idea of manhood may take him. In the case of Vladimir Putin, the current president of Russia, it has driven him to become a tyrant obsessed with looking like an invincible warrior king — in sports, in politics and in battlefields.

Since one of the sports Putin does is ice-hockey, there is a threadbare connection between him and the RiverBulls: they all love skating. That's why I wrote him an open letter, which is heard in the film. I tell him about the RiverBulls and also about my own journey with various sports and with manliness. And I tell him that it would be good for him and the world if he too tried new ways of how to be a man.

Music is an important part of this film. With the RiverBulls I got the change to pick the music for their this year's synchronized skating routine. I chose Toivo Kuula's arrangements of Ostrobothnian folk songs. In the film you'll also hear two compositions by contemporary Ukrainian composers: Valentin Silvestrov, and Hanna Havrylets. All the compositions are heard in their entirety.

Helsinki, October 10, 2025,

TEEMU MÄKI

Culture House Laikku / Studio (Keskustori 4, Tampere)

Open Tue–Fri 9am–8pm, Sat–Sun 10am–6pm

Fee admission

For more information about exhibitions at Culture House Laikku:

Irma Puttonen

Senior Coordinator

irma.puttonen@tampere.fi

050 553 8673

City of Tampere, Public Cultural Services