Susan's Writings

The first Edge of Europe Lab at Kiasma in 2008.

As part of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma’s Edge of Europe’s experimental project, head of education at Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm Ylva Gislén will give a keynote speech on how knowledge is created and distributed in society. The idea behind the project is to discover new ways to mediate knowledge via art and digital media.

Gislén will discuss the underlying assumptions in the construction of knowledge, power and “valid knowers” as well as point at contradictions, basis for productive awareness and ethical and aesthetical counter strategies within artistic knowledge production.

Edge of Europe, designed and co-ordinated by artist Maija Hirvanen and funded by the Nordic Culture Point is part of Kiasma Theatre’s programme.

“What does it mean to be in the geographical edge of Europe? How do artists connect in this part of the world? Questions of the kind were the starting point and previous discussion before the four months’ development of the project,” explains Hirvanen.

The resulting project is put together in the form of meetings, texts on the web and different traditional media, as well as new connections of artists, writers and operators, writing and performance laboratories, seminars, presentations and performances.

The speech, to be given in English, is open to all and is free of charge.

Susan Fourtane – HT
Petri Summanen – Image

Ateneum Art Museum curator Riitta Ojanperä instructing tour guides about Robert W. Ekman’s Väinämöisen soitto (1866).

To celebrate 160 years of the Kalevala the Finnish National Gallery (also called the Ateneum Art Museum) launches an extensive exhibition of over 200 works from almost sixty artists, all inspired by the national epic.

The exhibition introduces the many faces of the Kalevala. The national epic has appealed to visual artists for generations since it was first published. Organised by Ateneum Art Museum’s chief curator Riitta Ojanperä, the exhibition shows paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs from the 1850s to the late 20th century. Featured artists include R.W. Ekman, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Heikki W. Virolainen and Wäinö Aaltonen.

The historical part of the exhibition has a variety of themes, with rooms displaying the artists’ views of Väinämöinen, Kullervo and Aino as well as the birth of the world and the river of Tuonela. The characters and subject matter of the epic represent themes and myths that have a strong universal appeal.

The Kalevala Society commissioned ten visual artists and ten contemporary composers to interpret the Kalevala from a twenty-first century perspective. These works make up a separate part of the exhibition.

Visitors can also see handmade wooden boats designed and built for the occasion in Paanajärvi, a small village in Russian Karelia (Vienan Karjala).

Elsewhere in the city, the ANT Gallery presents a modern view of Kalevala imagery with the exhibition Fist Full of Ash. Paintings, graphics and iron sculptures by six Finnish contemporary artists and Russian Kalevala expert Igor Baranov provide a fresh take on the 160-year-old epic. Baranov’s talents came to public notice in Finland last year through his etching and gouache works.

Susan Fourtane – HT 

Martti Kainulainen – Image

Under the Surface, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Henna Aaltonen’s collection of 21 photos documents her experiences from  around the globe.

In her exhibition, the professional photojournalist explores the feeling of being an outsider, a tourist. “I find it relaxing to take my small camera without thinking I’m working,” says Aaltonen, who has a romantic idea of travelling far away, learning something new about herself, about life and other people.

The photos are a reflection of experiences where melancholy and humor are also present. “The shots are not supposed to be perfect, they would lose the feeling of being a tourist,” she explains. Still, she cannot hide her professional eye. The compositions speak of silent curiosity, yet keeping distance from the people who become part of the scene rather than main characters.

Aaltonen explores and wonders about the motives behind people travelling to certain places, doing the same things. What is there behind the tourist attractions? Her life as a tourist tells about someone who can’t be part of the world she visits. “People are strangers, you can’t connect with them,” she says, a feeling reflected with a subtle exposure of people’s backs or bubbles between the lens and the face of the boy in Bubble Boy.

Bubble Boy, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Susan Fourtane – HT
Henna Aaltonen – Images