Kim Simonsson – Watching You Watching Me

CEO Jari Jokinen, TEK, Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland:

Kim Simonsson “Watching You Watching Me”, 2000, ceramics

I chose Kim Simonsson’s work for two reasons. First, he is an alumnus for both University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK) and Aalto University. Secondly, the works of Kim Simonsson have followed me during my career.

Before Aalto University, I worked for the Ministry of Education and Culture, responsible for the preparation of Aalto University. At the Ministry of Education and Culture Simonsson’s work Alchemist welcomes guests at the lobby and has overseen numerous delegations and arrivals. The Alchemist often looked on as the steering group of the Innovation University project (the name before Aalto University) arrived to meetings to discuss, sometimes even a bit dubiously, the charter of the university foundation. He also saw the jury arriving to name the new university as Aalto University. And continues to look on at the many other meetings after these.

For this exhibition, I chose a work from the Aalto University collections called Watching You Watching Me. The stylistic connection to Alchemist is obvious with a white ceramic head smiling mildly. However, the edges of the eyes are red. The smile is there but the eyes give away the hard work and long hours.

This statue reminds me of the committed and future-oriented work that many people have undertaken in creating Aalto University. I am happy and proud to have been part of it.