In the Sanatorium’s former patient rooms 209 to 213 Elina Brotherus shows photographic works created during two residency stays in 2015 and 2018 at Maison Louis Carré, the only Aalto building in France. As with previous series, Brotherus’ views of MLC work to sound out possible untraveled paths of life in extant architecture by inhabiting them as characters who may, imaginably, once have been breathing their airs.

Mounted on the rough, unrenovated walls of the Sanatorium’s old patient wing that resonate their prior use, Brotherus’ pictures ask not only who in times past may have been wandering or recovering in these spaces. In this moment of the Sanatorium’s rebirth-again, they come to be a meditation about those yet unknown who soon will be its newest population.

Showing two Aalto buildings in their extension beyond a human lifetime, Living Spaces places attention on these (and other) buildings’ capacity to play, and play differently, with life evolving over time. This way, the show deepens toward a reflection on the functionalist dictum of the twinship between form and (original) program, suggesting a new freedom through reimagination and reuse.

With this, Living Spaces prepares the reflective ground for the showing of a body of new works produced by Brotherus during a residency at Paimio Sanatorium in spring this year.

Paimio Sanatorium presents Elina Brotherus: Living Spaces in cooperation with Les Amis de la Maison Carré, producer of the exhibition.