Elis Hannikainen

Elis Hannikainen is an artist working in Finland and Berlin.

Hannikainen graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts in 2017 and works with text-driven media art and installations. In their work Hannikainen has recently dealt with bodily experience, possibilities of participation and means of support.

Elis Hannikainen’s residency is realised with support from the Nordic Culture Point.


Distress Run is a common project together with the Helsinki-based artist and writer Vappu Jalonen, based on our experiences of endurance sports. Distress Run centres on moving bodies located somewhere between ability and inability. The bodies are exposed to norms, able to feel enjoyment, depressed and in need of support. Endurance sports are also connected to self-monitoring and achieving as well as sisu and nationalism, and our works deal with the difficult experiences related to these. Distress Run will be shown at HAM Gallery in Helsinki in 2021.

This Isn’t Consoling deals with the body as something that needs sealing and sheltering. I will write, search for biodegradable, elastic and adhesive materials to work with and think of “holding environments”.