Heikki Leis “Storm Before the Silence”

Estonian artist and photographer Heikki Leis’s solo exhibition “Storm Before the Silence” explores the primal connection between humans and water, and how our bodies, movement, and habitual ways of seeing shift when submerged. In the photographic series “Streaming Lines” and “Rippled Surfaces”, bodies twirl, spin, flex, and intertwine in water, while the ripples and flickering of its surface distort faces and familiar forms. Water blurs boundaries and momentarily shakes the body free of physical and social constraints, creating space for lightness, movement, and freedom.

The exhibition brings together two photographic series: portraits from “Rippled Surfaces” and people photographed inside an aquarium in “Streaming Lines”. In both, water is more than a backdrop or decorative element – it becomes an active co-author of the works, shaping bodies, faces, and their movement. The exhibition features 23 photographs and one video, accompanied by a soundscape created especially for the exhibition.