empatia ele, Enni-Kukka Tuomala
Image courtesy of Enni-Kukka Tuomala
What if politicians suited up with empathy instead of armour, and represented all forms of life?
We are grateful for Enni-Kukka Tuomala’s inspiring work as the world’s first election artist. @ennikukka.studio came into our field when we saw her work, empatia ele in the Design for Different Futures exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. What moved us was her ability to inject a beating pulse into the increasingly hard-edged discipline of politics.
In empatia ele, Tuomala collaborated with the Parliament of Finland and politicians from five different political parties to create a collection of empathy tools for doing politics. Their aim was to diffuse the halls of stiff suits into softer spaces of dialogue between people of differing perspectives, life experiences and belief systems.
Image courtesy of Enni-Kukka Tuomala
Politicians used balloons, simple portrait sketches and emotional color maps in meetings and to encourage dialogue. As they engaged with the tools, they reported feeling more playful and willing to dissolve odefensive positions. They learned to read the silent communication in bodied gestures to establish deeper trust. And they harmonized in compassion and curiosity to break down the distance to power. From their felt sense, they were able to displace ego with currents of connection.
Image courtesy of Enni-Kukka Tuomala
Stirring our Senses
“My vision as an empathy artist is to transform empathy from an individual feeling to radical and collective power in pursuit of a deeper connection,” says Tuomala.
Through her work, Tuomala transforms empathy from an abstract concept into a tangible and aesthetic experience that can be seen, felt, shaped and inhabited for more intimate moments with oneself, each other, and our environments. We are excited to see her embodied approach evolve to help shift policy-makers further into creative states that shape a more generous and collaborative politics.
Image courtesy ofEnni-Kukka Tuomala
How It Moves Us, Forward
Tuomala is currently working on a multiyear empathy council project with the Finnish cultural foundation to explore how empathy can be more systematically embedded in the structures of decision-making. Her ‘radical planetary empathy’ model now includes an empathy ecosystem that traces the ecological, economic and social role of empathy in collaboration with all human and non-human life.
Image courtesy of Enni-Kukka Tuomala
Enni-Kukka Tuomala
Enni-Kukka Tuomala is from Finland, lives in London and works internationally. Her multidisciplinary art practice is focused on investigating the relationships between empathy, power, space and systems. At the center of her work are spatial and sculptural artworks, site-specific installations, public space interventions and participatory projects that imagine new environments for deeper connection among humans and non-human life.