Petri Juntunen
One Hundred Thousand Years Later
30 May – 22 June 2025
‘One Hundred Thousand Years Later’ is a journey into reverse time and archaeology where, instead of uncovering the past, the future is revealed as we dig deeper. Inch by inch, year by year, we sink into potential futures and possible possibilities. Traces of humanity gradually erode from visibility, and the remaining pieces tell of a silent fragmentation, of eras where biology recedes, giving way to the machine and computation until only pure, invisible information remains.
At the end of a hundred-thousand-year journey, the bottom of these excavations reveals itself as glassy data shards, encoded and encrypted. From these fragments, evidence of our possible futures gradually emerges and accumulates, where only traces of humanity and the basic code of human existence remain. These visions and hallucinations transform into landscapes, blending into artifacts and fragments formed by artificial intelligences. The real, the image of the true, and the virtually constructed interweave, forming metaphysical non-sites. Places that could have been or might come to be.
The imagery of ‘One Hundred Thousand Years Later’ consists of virtual, synthetic, and generative photographic imagery. With the expanded imagery, it becomes possible to contemplate the nature of contemporary photography: Where does a photograph begin, and where does a photograph end?
Petri Juntunen is a Finnish visual artist and doctoral researcher at Aalto University. In his artistic practice, Juntunen investigates social constructs, collective memory, and human-technology interaction. Juntunen employs novel imaging techniques and forms of representation, including VR, AI, and digital installations, to investigate how these interactions influence society and shape the human experience of the world.
He has participated in several group and solo exhibitions across Europe and Finland, and his works are included in both private and museum collections. His monograph ‘At The Heart Of It All’, published by Hatje Cantz, received extensive coverage at numerous art fairs and in the media. The series was widely exhibited throughout Europe, including in Spain, the UK, Germany, and France.
Currently, Juntunen is conducting doctoral research at Aalto University, focusing on computational photography and extended photographic practices. His dissertation, titled ‘Photography’s Transformation Within The Virtual,’ explores emerging technologies and their impact on contemporary visual cultures. In addition to his artistic practice and research, he has acted as a teacher, speaker, lecturer, and course designer at Aalto University.
Artistic practice and doctoral research has been supported by Finnish Culture Foundation, Finnish Museum of Photography and TAIKE.
