Charles Esche (UK):
Mika Taanila’s works are the most convincing of all the candidates for their full realization of his ideas. He has worked with extraordinary commitment, as well as political and social awareness, to produce video works that are both documents of a time and place and expressive vehicles for ideas about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ society. Mika tackles some of the fundamental questions in a social democratic European society in terms of conformism, tolerance and the power of the state. He does so in ways that are never rhetorical or abstract but concrete and particular. Through his work, viewers have the opportunity to observe how society comes to its collective opinions and why that matters.
It has been a hard choice to make as all the candidates have particular qualities and reasons why it would make sense to ward them the prize. In the end, however, I have chosen to award the Ars Fennica to the artist who in my opinion has the most fully developed body of work in which the intentions of the works have been brought closest to realization. For that ultimately overriding reason, I would like to award the prize to Mika Taanila.
Charles Esche (UK), Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, curator and writer (2015)