One may ask: it is certainly a nice exhibition, but why? What is the point of these works?
What is the point of paintings by Juss Piho? This is absolutely not our world. These characters here are some sort of cranks, wearing their long raincoats and having their elbows fastened with metal discs. Do we know any of them? Maybe we have met any of them? No, this is unknown land, terra incognita, somebody else’s problem. This world does not exist or if it has ever existed, it has been created in the artist’s head (which is most probably also being fastened with discs). No, we do not need anything so weird, this is point incognita.

One of the most important leads of paintings by Juss Piho seems to be continuous escape from the foreseen matters. Romantic haze of colours, nostalgic moods, sentimental themes lead the viewer all the time “somewhere else”, beyond the colour haze. The artist suggests circumstances which seem to be impossible, his characters are doubtlessly siblings of imagination, but still he does not talk about the other, the strange one, of the different. It seems that while painting, Piho does not offer us new worlds, but offers the same worlds where we hustle day by day. But Piho is not interested in the everyday hustle, he takes fancy in its other side which is being idealised, is harmonious, always remaining impossible, but is still alluring. Paintings by Piho are like the hidden side of the Moon: nobody has ever seen it, but its other side looks into our windows every night.

But let’s imagine three possible tests, which all strive for the impossible: to classify, columnize, clarify the paintings by Piho. Firstly: a detective bureau which has determined to find out, who are the persons on Piho’s paintings. Most probably they would start from their description and in the files we could see such pages as “a slightly stooping man, his height is about 1.85, but in different light 1.51 (?), a long coat reaching the place where the ankles should be, but there are no ankles, there is only the edge of the coat” or “a dummy, but maybe a human being, most probably wooden, joints are fastened with bolts and discs (bolts are iron, discs are copper). No special signs. Mood is absent, puppet-like, maybe slightly blue – it is not even possible to determine at a close distance”. It is clear that no detective of a sound mind would make use of such description.

Secondly. The atlas which is trying to chart Piho’s world. Instead of a peninsula there would be fog which changes its place every week. More important than the state border would be weird-shaped rivers and clouds that change places already every hour. Furthermore: while going to fieldwork, the atlas compilers would discover that also all possible laws of physics have become invalid, people can stand next to each other, but actually be miles away from each other. And vice versa. The big ones become small, hills change into valleys, people hang in the air and echo can not only be heard by neighbours, but sometimes it also carries across the sea. What atlas can you draw up under such conditions!