Humanshredder destroys burdens at Helsinki City Museum
Do you have a burden you wish to get rid of? Is there a particular item that evokes your unhappy memories? Bring it to Helsinki City Museum and feed it to the Humanshredder.
Humanshredder is a participatory performance project by Jenny Suhonen, exploring the themes of letting go, acceptance and overcoming. The performance is based not only on the objects brought by the participants, but first and foremost on the feelings associated with them. You can feed an emotion or an experience to the Humanshredder, including secrets, unfulfilled wishes, fears or dreams. During the performance, Suhonen takes the item that represents the emotion—or burden in her words—destroys it in the presence of the spectators and preserves the pieces for a ritual to be held later.
More than 200 people have participated in the Humanshredder project so far. The project kicked off in summer 2012, when Suhonen collected burdens at a parking lot on southern Esplanadi street. Since then, the Humanshredder has appeared in different forms in many galleries and exhibitions, including Gallery Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki (2013), Gallery Huuto, Helsinki (2014), Titanik Gallery in Turku and Ars Auttoinen (2015), and Supermarket Art Fare in Stockholm (2016). Helsinki City Museum will be the last place where Suhonen will receive burdens and destroy them.
The Humanshredder will be available at Helsinki City Museum, Aleksanterinkatu 16, on Wednesday 17 August from 4 to 7 p.m. If you want to be part of the performance project, bring an item that represents an emotion or thought you wish to let go of with you. Free entrance.
The popular Museum of Broken Relationships exhibition that deals with the same theme will be open until 11 September 2016. The exhibition comprises items and stories about broken relationships, which people have anonymously donated to the museum.
