Martta Tuomaala: Am I calling you at a bad time

The Finnland-Institut presents Martta Tuomaala’s “Am I Calling You at a Bad Time” at Basel Social Club 2026: Office, on view 14–20 June in Basel 

This year’s edition occupies a vacant office building near Basel SBB, activating its floors through exhibitions, performances, music, gastronomy, and informal encounters. 

Positioning the office as both subject and scenography, Basel Social Club engages with evolving conditions of work, time, and production in the context of digitalization, remote infrastructures, and artificial intelligence. 

Am I Calling You at a Bad Time (2025) 

X is growing up in the 1990s, she makes prank calls as a child and gets her first job in telephone sales as a teenager. Office smells, heavy breathers, and meaningless greetings follow her from one workplace to another. 

Through archival material and amateur video footage, the narrative reflects X’s actions as a faceless subject playing with her voice as a commercialised asset. Am I Calling You At A Bad Time is an experimental documentary with fictional elements based on recollections of true events. 

The artwork was supported by The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture – AVEK, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse, Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation. The artist is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Director: Martta Tuomaala
Script: Martta Tuomaala
Cinematography: Farbod Fakharzadeh, Danai Anagnostou, Johannes Valkonen, Martta Tuomaala
Sound:  Lou Strömberg
Editing: Sakari Suuronen, Martta Tuomaala
Music: R. Liininen
Graphic Design: Johannes Valkonen
Producer: Danai Anagnostou, Farbod Fakharzadeh, Martta Tuomaala

Biography

Martta Tuomaala (b. 1983, Lieto) is a Helsinki-based visual artist whose practice moves between documentary and fiction, combining film, video, and installation. Her works address work culture and workers’ rights, drawing from her own background in low-income and service-sector jobs. Tuomaala combines militant research, music-making, video, and performance to highlight the realities of precarious labor and collective resilience. She combines humour and critical reflection, utilising satire and physical performance to challenge hierarchies of visibility, value, and power. 

Tuomaala’s works have been presented internationally, for instance at BAFICI Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (2026), Docpoint Helsinki (2026), ZINEBI – The International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (2025), Nordisk Panorama (2025), 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2022–23) and the Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019, with the Miracle Workers Collective). She is a co-founder of Kenno Filmi co-op that operates at the intersection of cinema, research, and social critique, emphasising collaborative production models. Currently, Tuomaala is one of the artists selected for Jan van Eyck Academie’s residency program. 

www.marttatuomaala.com
www.kennofilmi.com