Installation in Venice Biennale 2011 consisted of black and white painted facade which covered the Aalto pavilloin of Finland in Giardini.Inside of pavillion was a videoinstallation of three overlapping videoprojections....and all stuctures are unstable" posed questions of authorship of the artwork in context of national presentation. Rannikko's installation combined the structures of revealing and covering to theatrical nature of biennale and convention of exhibiton in general.

"By choosing a theme for the central exhibition that was relevant to the Biennale as a whole, Curiger created resonances throughout the festival. Vesa-Pekka Rannikko's installation And all structures are unstable, Venice Biennale 2011, was at the Finnish pavilion, but with its themes of creativity and national identity, it could have been a signature work in Curiger's show. The pavilion is a treasured national symbol, designed by the influential Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in 1955. Rannikko leaned pieces of building material, matching the original materials, against the exterior. This economical gesture suggested that the modernist classic was coming apart, beginning to move. Inside, in a multi-channel video, Ranniko painted and repainted the walls; the projections lapped over each other, folding the space into a concertina of ceaseless making and remaking."

Aalto designed the pavilion as a temporary structure, but when his fame made it a focus of national pride, it became "temporary" in name only. Rannikko's reworking, deeply linked to the history of the site, suggested that insight leads to the building of human structures—including nations—which must be rethought and rebuilt if they are to persist through time.  Beautiful and concise, the piece reverberated with ILLUMInations.

Meredith Tromble in Stretcher

Discussion with Maaretta Jaukkuri from catalogue of the exhibition is found here.