We thought we knew enough about it:
Finland's first novel.
Written by Aleksis Kivi in 1870.
The story follows seven brothers living somewhere in the backwoods, drinking and brawling.
So, we decided to ask the brothers themselves what they remembered. We found them easily—cruising at the top of a hill. But the brothers didn’t recall much, not even their own names. We gave them new ones since we couldn’t remember all the originals either. We also handed each of them a copy of the book to jog their memories. Some read without issue, while others couldn’t make sense of a single word. None of the brothers had seen the book before.
Viljami Nissi’s The Seven Hot Brothers is a gay man’s attempt to endure reading Aleksis Kivi’s novel The Seven Brothers. Rather than offering a new interpretation of The Seven Brothers, he presents an independent work that honors both Kivi's novel and Finnish queer history.
Viljami Nissi (b. 1994, Kannus) is a visual artist based in Helsinki, whose work is inspired by the concept of homosion: homosexuality as an erosive force, with the natural power to shape and wear down its surroundings. Nissi graduated as a visual and performance artist from Kankaanpää Art School and is now completing his master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki.
The Seven Hot Brothers exhibition concludes the Gallery’s Rebellious Body series (2023–2024), which featured works selected through an open call. The exhibitions in this series have examined the politicization of bodies, acts of resistance, and the control, norms, and relationships imposed on them.
Working Group:
Viljami Nissi, Aleksi Holkko, Roy Boswell, and Liisa Mudist.
The exhibition is supported by the Kone Foundation.
The exhibition has received funding from the Finnish Heritage Agency.
The Finnish Museum of Photography
Basement floor
The Cable Factory, Kaapeliaukio 3, Helsinki
