Japanese artist Yoshinori Niwa (b.1982) is creating new site-specific works in Helsinki during his HIAP production residency. Communicating with Thieves is a temporary, site-specific installation that imagines a relationship with a real thief. On aika varastaa! / It’s time to steal! slogans are projected onto the walls of several bank buildings on Saturday, March 27, at 7.30 pm–11 pm. People seeing these signs can imagine any scale of bank robbery or theft from governing authorities and global capitalism, as an act of resistance in their imagination. This can be seen as resistance that speaks to the private-property system, since ‘wealth’ in all fields belongs to somebody from the low-income working class. The bank-robbery slogan symbolizes the fact that action is possible. But it cannot make people act. Nevertheless, thinking about money and the economy from the point of view of an outlaw bank-robber could trigger a change in the world. Seppo Renvall is assisting Niwa to realize the projections.

Oliver Whitehead will document the projections. His photographs will be seen also in Niwa’s exhibition in HIAP Project Room.

Previously Yoshinori Niwa has been interested in how we communicate with others, including animals and plants, and in historical existence. Living my life is choosing what I believe and how I can involve others in every community, so that human society is part of the making of history. These are the most important elements for my artworks, says Niwa.

Thanks to Seppo Renvall, Oliver Whitehead, Jenni Valorinta, Mikko Linnavuori, Tomasz Szrama and Marita Muukkonen.

Produced during a residency run by the HIAP production residency programme, Helsinki.

Supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation and HIAP.