paola jalili

Selected visual works

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I Read This: A quiet intervention 

(2021)

Tracing paper, handwritten texts 

In 2021 I spent a week at Titanik gallery (Turku, Finland) as a reader-in-residence. The result was a series of small interventions on some of the books from the gallery’s collection—a record of my time browsing, taking notes, and reading there, which I hope other users of the library will encounter in the future.

Women at Hotel Lobbies


(2021)

Lecture performance + video (23'')

Women at Hotel Lobbies is a lecture performance that addresses gendering and racializing processes within the global hospitality industry. Commissioned by Art Weekend Belgrade and curator An Paenhuysen, the piece was created in response to the lobby of Hotel Beograd, an abandoned hotel in the Serbian capital. 

This performance is part of my ongoing artistic research project Office Aesthetics, which investigates the intersections between labor, gender, and the architecture of the contemporary workplace.

Presented at “Hotel Belgrade” in Belgrade, Serbia

Curated by An Paenhuysen

Video documentation > 

unfurnished//unfinished

(
2018)

Exhibition co-curated with Saara Mahbouba

12 artists and 2 curators transformed 
a residential apartment in Vuosaari (East Helsinki) 
into a temporary gallery that explored the contemporary condition of transience through non-intrusive works of art, interventions, performances, and a concert. 

Exhibition archive

Work / Unwork: Contemporary Labor & Artistic Resistance 

(2021) 

With Saara Mahbouba & Shubhangi Singh 


Lecture performance discussing work, working, non-work, and unworking through artistic research and creative practices. Establishing historical frameworks and definitions of contemporary labor rooted in a feminist and decolonial perspective, the audiovisual performance presents the artistic research projects of Jalili, Mahbouba, and Singh.

Presented at “Subversive Feminisms” Tutkijalitto Summer School (Suomenlinna, Helsinki)

office drawings i, ii, iii 


(2019)

Risographic prints 21 x 21 cm

Edition of 65, numbered. Printed in Espoo, Finland.

Character Count

(2018 & 2020)

Character Count is a reflection on editorial work and its repetitive and bureaucratic nature, which seeks to question a culture industry ruled by efficiency, productivity, and capital.

• Presented at Can You See Work? (2018), curated by Naya Magaliou & Shubhangi Singh. Espoo, Finland. Three videos in a loop (5'' each) + three A4 papers, intervened by hand 

• Presented at the Pori Biennale (2020)
, curated by Porin Kulttuurisäätö. Online exhibition and printed publication

Scanner Series

(2018)

Inkjet print series, A4

In collaboration with Else Lagerspetz and Naya Magaliou

The scan of a text contains more information than what is carried by words: sprinkles of dust, textures of paper, an occasional cat hair, and the specific hue of the scanner itself. Scanner Series is a collection of texts about memories and dreams repeatedly printed and scanned to the point of heavy distortion. A coexisting sound piece—made in collaboration with Bryant Hoban—creates an atmosphere of fading and deteriorating recollections. 

Presented at Images, Tropes and Narratives: Sharing Control, a group exhibition in Marek Gallery,​ Wolkesdorf, Austria.  

The Counter-Department 

(2018) 

Working group: Else Lagerspetz, Essi Ruuskanen, Paola Jalili, Saara Mahbouba, & Sheung Yiu

Series of artistic research projects investigating the ever-changing meanings of monuments and public sculptures, and the possibilities of contesting and redefining their historical significance. The collective's work was presented in the following exhibitions and events: 

• Patsastellaan / Parties for Public Sculpture, as "The Re-Inauguration Game" (Helsinki, Finland) 
• Whose History is it Anyway?, as "Counter-Ritual: De-Sacralizing Monuments, Re-Defining Meaning". Harald Herlin Learning Centre (Espoo, Finland)
• Monument Worthy, group show at John Nicolas Brown Center for Public Humanities & Cultural Heritage (Rhode Island, United States)

What’s the Use of 
Intersectionality?

(2021)

Digital illustration

Visual notes commissioned to document a conversation between Bolanle Tajudeen & FCH as part of the exhibition What’s the Use of 
Intersectionality? in STOA Cultural Centre, Helsinki.

Curated by Feminist Culture House

3OOTTO 

(2018)

Digitally printed poster, 153 X 102 cm

Collage made in collaboration with Else Lagerspetz and Naya Magaliou. Presented at Mainostauko ["Ad Break"], an outdoor poster exhibition cuarated by Street Art Vantaa. 

MS Slavic 7 film poster

(2019)