Sami Sänpäkkilä

8000: AN ART ODYSSEY (Anssi Kasitonnin maailma)

Why spend days chiseling a sculpture when you can use a chainsaw?

Bursting with epic imagination and an uncompromising passion for making things his own way (and mostly with his own two hands), Anssi Kasitonni is the kind of artist who never colors inside the lines. When he’s juggling his biggest exhibition to date, shooting a French film with Oscar-award dreams in its eyes, and fine-tuning a brand-new skateboard toy, it’s no wonder his off-the-wall solutions tend to leave people around him stunned. For Kasitonni, a guitar case can morph into the mold for a dragster seat, and a friend can just as easily step in as the back wheel of the Le Saboteur bus.

This documentary directed by Sami Sänpäkkilä about Ars Fennica–winning artist Anssi Heinonen captures Kasitonni’s relentless energy and infectious positivity in a way that’s impossible not to catch. The crazier the idea, the better the result. With Kasitonni, absurdity isn’t a dead end - it’s the fast lane.

And hey: who in Joensuu hasn’t once posed next to the “most unknown poet in Finland” statue down in Penttilänranta? Of course, that’s Kasitonni’s work too. His art doesn’t just live in galleries. It sneaks into everyday life, sparking surprise and delight wherever it lands.