Aapo Nikkanen on Hypnosis and Cognitive Art

Finnish artist Aapo Nikkanen is an artist, researcher, and hypnotherapist. His current work focuses on hypnotic performances and photography. In his performances, the guests visit speculative realities through hypnosis. The works address how contemporary systems increasingly operate at the level of cognition, shaping how we interpret, trust, and respond to the world — often bypassing critical reflection.

In his photographic practice, subjects are captured while in a hypnotic trance. Rather than posing for the camera, they inhabit imagined states, producing images that allow temporary detachment from the social roles and masks normally shaping one’s behaviour.

Aapo Nikkanen came to New York as our Artist-in-Residence at Pioneer Works in April. It is now sadly time for him to leave and take on new challenges. We wanted to catch up one last time and discuss what his time in New York has had to offer.

What made you want to come to New York for this residency?

A few different things. I was very drawn by the program of Pioneer Works, which mixes not only different artistic discplines, but also science and academia – something that I feel very related to. 

The second was the resources here. I'm researching Ericksonian hypnotherapy, which emerged in the US, and most of the knowledge is located here. I got access to the archives of the New York Society of Ericksonian Hypnosis, which was amazing.

Also, it’s New York baby! I love that very specific NYC energy.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you get into hypnosis?

Half by accident. I was invited to do a performance at the GB Agency gallery in Paris in 2022, and I'd been thinking of a piece with no physical production – something that would only exist in the imagination of the audience, where they would be the protagonist, the stage, and the public. 

My initial idea was not to use hypnosis, but techniques used for meditation, visualisation, and memory improvement. When I researched the piece, I found that hypnosis had absorbed many of those same techniques, but in a much more structured, A-B-C-D-type of format. I had been hypnotised before, so I knew it’s nothing like in the movies. So I decided to use the structure of hypnosis as a dramaturgical tool. I started with youtube videos, then some reading, and the first piece was a mix of all the different techniques. 

For me it was an amazing experience — a different way to make art. A lot of my work deals with how new technologies influence us cognitively, so it made sense for the artwork to exist in the cognitive sphere too. I decided to take six months off from other projects to see if hypnosis could be something more significant. I quickly realised that because it's so technical, the best route was formal training, so I found a hypnotherapist course and enrolled. Since then I've kept learning. 

You have lived in Paris for the past years, how do you feel New York differs from an artist perspective compared to Paris? 

Quite different scenes, in practical terms. NYC is very expensive, but at the same time there's so much money circulating in the city — mostly private, though, which makes for a huge art market. I imagine it's hard to make ends meet there without a gallery or private patrons.

This also affects the art being produced: if you're a painter, it can be great, but if you're doing something more conceptual or harder to sell, you either need a side hustle, a more commercial strand of work, or you start to think big — which isn't necessarily a bad thing (maybe everything's bigger in America for a reason). I didn't find that many alternative contemporary art spaces relative to the size of the scene — mid-sized institutional ones especially. Music-wise, there's much more: people throwing their own events in lofts and off-spaces.

Paris is a gallery city too, but public funding still exists there and supports art forms that are harder to commercialise. Maybe this is more of a US–Europe comparison. In my view, public, no-strings-attached funding is the key to diverse, thriving art scenes. I think Pioneer Works is a good example of how to keep that freedom alive in an art-market-driven city.

While you’ve been here, you have both been doing individual hypnosis sessions as well as group performances. Is there something you have tried here in New York that you hadn’t done before?

During my stay, I’ve been studying Ericksonian hypnotherapy, which is a conversational method of hypnosis. It has been an eye-opening learning experience for me. I feel like there's a huge leap in my skills happening right now.

I also finally started, after two years, printing photographs from my ongoing series with hypnotised subjects. It was so gratifying to experiment with scale and watch the files on my computer finally take a physical form.

What have been some of the highlights or most memorable moments of your residency? How has it been working at Pioneer Works?

So many! All the performances. All the individual sessions. All the food and drinks, and all the people I met. Taking a taxi from Brooklyn to Manhattan at night is one of the most incredible views one can experience.  

I loved Pioneer Works. It has an amazing team and spirit. 

After being in New York for three months, what are your best NYC-tips for people visiting?

Too many, but here’s one good one: 

Go after the sunset to Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square. Ask the person operating the elevators to get you a lift to the cocktail bar. Have a drink. 

What are your plans when this residency program ends?

I'm heading back to Paris, where I still have a couple of weeks of work before the holidays. I'm preparing a performance to be shown in a cinema at the Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen, in the last week of August. After that, a hypnotic performance in Paris, then premiering my biggest production of the year at Baltic Circle in Helsinki in November 2026, followed by some touring in Europe. 

If you want to hear more about Nikkanens work in New York, watch and listen to their podcast episode, joined by artist and educator Flora Bouteille: Withstanding Season 5 Episode 3: On Hypnosis and Cognitive Art as an Space of Simulation. You can access the podcast on Spotify, Youtube, Apple Podcast and SoundCloud

Website: aapoaapo.com

Interview questions by Eva-Li Teir
Published: July 13 2026