---
title: "Abstract Art | Panu Ruotsalo | Negotiator 93"
titleOriginal: "Abstrakti taide | Panu Ruotsalo | Neuvottelija 93"
episodeNumber: "93"
guest: "Panu Ruotsalo"
datePublished: 2021-08-07
duration: "21:09"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["negotiation","leadership_governance"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one. The marks are genuine: eighteen of them, with gaps from 26 to 143 seconds, tracking the recording rather than a grid. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. Disclosure: the four works discussed were commissioned by the host, and their subjects are the themes of a book he co-wrote, so the episode is a conversation between a patron and the artist he commissioned. The works themselves are not reproduced on this page."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/105-abstrakti-taide-panu-ruotsalo-neuvottelija-93"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep93-abstrakti-taide-panu-ruotsalo/
---
# Abstract Art | Panu Ruotsalo | Negotiator 93

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=0s) Panu Ruotsalo, and the title of installation artist
- [00:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=36s) From photorealism to abstraction by way of Särestöniemi
- [02:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=131s) The Sisu Partners work, and an auction for the children's hospital
- [03:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=212s) A commission with tight constraints, and the first glass sculpture
- [04:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=271s) The Simpsons and Pictionary: can the abstract be depicted
- [05:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=334s) The four themes from the book Neuvotteluvalta
- [06:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=379s) Power, and whisky-coloured glass
- [07:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=475s) Principle: a smoky, rising form
- [08:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=522s) Wood, 22-carat gold and glass as materials
- [09:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=599s) Sociability: a clean encounter
- [10:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=634s) Analytical thinking, and an endless deep blue
- [11:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=706s) Why Panu avoids influences, and Banksy in Mänttä
- [12:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=765s) Rapport as a negotiating technique
- [13:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=826s) Aalto EE, Runeberginkatu and Pekka Mattila
- [16:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=969s) Billnäs against Fiskars, and Olli Muurainen's ironworks
- [19:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=1144s) Making the glass in Riihimäki, with Helmi Remes
- [20:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=1210s) The next material: emptiness
- [20:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs&t=1244s) Thanks, and an invitation to subscribe

## Summary

The installation artist Panu Ruotsalo comes in from Billnäs to describe how the four glass-embedded works commissioned from him — Power, Principle, Sociability and Analytical Thinking — came into being. The subjects are the four core themes of Neuvotteluvalta, the book by the host and Juhana Torkki, and the question the episode turns on is whether an abstract concept can be depicted abstractly at all. Ruotsalo opens up the materials and symbolism of each piece: goat willow as the root of growth, 22-carat gold as the plane where everything is refined into something higher, glass as the sphere of the human psyche where anything is possible — and the colours, from whisky-toned Power to the endless deep blue of Analytical Thinking. The most unusual passage is his account of why he deliberately avoids seeing other artists' work.

## The problem the commission sets

Depicting power, principle, sociability and analytical thinking is hard in a specific way: the subjects have no appearance. Ruotsalo's approach is to assign each one a material and a colour and let the meaning sit there, which converts an impossible representational task into a series of decisions that can be argued about.

## Declared symbolism

Willow for the root of growth, gold for the plane on which things are refined, glass for a psyche in which anything is possible. Stating the code rather than leaving it to interpretation is unusual, and it makes the works readable in a way abstraction usually resists.

## Avoiding everyone else

He deliberately does not look at other artists' work. The cost is obvious and the reason is the same one negotiators give for rapport: what you spend time with shapes what comes out of you, whether or not you intend it.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Abstrakti taide | Panu Ruotsalo | Neuvottelija 93](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb3iXisrvLs).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/105-abstrakti-taide-panu-ruotsalo-neuvottelija-93).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep93-abstrakti-taide-panu-ruotsalo/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep93-abstrakti-taide-panu-ruotsalo/).

## Explore the ideas in depth

- [Negotiation Strategy, Leverage and Power: Reading the Counterparty You Actually Have](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/negotiation-strategy-leverage-and-power/): A negotiation guide from the co-author of Neuvotteluvalta — the sources of leverage, BATNA and anchoring in practice, using information asymmetry, breaking deadlocks, and what to do when the counterparty negotiates on power rather than consensus. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and two decades of negotiation writing.
- [New Negotiation Power: The Definitive English Framework](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/new-negotiation-power-framework/): The authoritative English presentation of Sami Miettinen and Juhana Torkki's New Negotiation Power framework: Power, Analytics, Interaction and Principles; preparation, roles, team design, trust and long-term negotiation performance.

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Abstract Art | Panu Ruotsalo | Negotiator 93, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep93-abstrakti-taide-panu-ruotsalo/, 2021-08-07. For quotes include episode 93 and timestamp.