Looking for Paradise – a Wonderful Adventure
Human existence is based on the union of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, love and hate, strangeness and familiarity, joy and sorrow, dream and wakefulness – on the dialogue of contraries, in which the first term denies the latter and the latter the first. Yet they only become real in connection with each other, good cannot be comprehended without evil, sorrow without joy, or life without death. Fundamental human experiences are shared and universal, they are facts independent of cultures and time.
A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING
People live in the chaos of their emotional space and try to comprehend life that in itself is incomprehensible. The grand narratives of various cultures differ in content but their function everywhere is to bring order to the chaos that is life and build a framework for understanding. They frame, console and structure. They provide an opportunity to get in touch with the time before the Fall, time before Eve offered the apple. The theme of return to Paradise is evident in many of the works exhibited but the line between Paradise and Hell has become transparent and very ambiguous. Modern man has no certainty about right and wrong, everything has become increasingly complex and relative.
Everyday life in Paradise
Paradise has inspired many contemporary artists and several different and sometimes very questionable takes on Paradise are included in the exhibition. The starting point for selecting the works was Lars Nilsson’s video work In Orgia, which takes place in a paradise-like suburb bathing in the sumptuous golden light of the sunset. The people in the video demonstrate indifference that is crueller than hate towards each other and their inner frigidity is only emphasised by their beautiful surroundings.
Motohiko Odani’s video work “Rompers” also takes place in a sort of Paradise. A young girl sits on a tree branch singing in gloriously colourful and beautiful scenery. However, despite its magnificent splendour, the scenery has already passed its peak and its sumptuous beauty has turned into something frightening and horrifying. A literal Paradise is the setting of Sergio Vega’s work Genesis According to Parrots, in which parrots present their view of how the creation of the world and the Fall really happened and what were the consequences.
The Swiss artist couple, Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger construct a new world in Kiasma, which may remind many of Paradise. Situated in the second floor lobby, this work has been constructed from various twigs, roots and rubbish, as well as waste oil and swans, considered a sacred bird in Finnish mythology. Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s and Thomas Nordanstad’s video work about the island of Hashima in Japan brings to mind Hell or the world after a nuclear explosion. This formerly very densely populated area grew up around the mining industry but after the natural resources ran out the inhabitants were forced to abandon their island. It had been a mere commodity, which was used up and when it turned unprofitable it became unnecessary and forgotten – problem waste. At present, it is as horrifying as a landscape after a nuclear explosion. And yet its demise was brought about by mundane everyday matters – uselessness, time and loneliness.
LIFE ON THE MARGINS OF PARADISE
The name of the exhibition is Sense of the Real. Sense, not an absolute truth about reality. The extremes of human experience are never far apart. In fact, they are the same, only dependent on the perspective. Our experiences are multifaceted, changing and dependent on who experiences them. One person’s Paradise may be another’s Hell. Sometimes the first impression may be misleading. Opportunity may present itself in the form of losing the way – it is precisely what may trigger new thoughts and break through habitual ways of thought.
The works in ARS are approachable and readily experienced and yet very complex. They also open up vistas to horrifying and hurtful things, such Juan Manuel Echavarria’s video work Mouths of Ash. In it, Columbian survivors of massacres sing songs of praise to God after their harrowing experiences. The songs are a way of giving thanks for having survived bloodshed in which many of their relatives were killed. There is no hint of revenge or willingness to continue the cycle of violence in the songs. Works by Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz are like childhood snow globes, the shaking of which covered Santa or baby Jesus in the manger in snow. It is just that the subjects of the snow globes of the artist couple are quite different: cruel everyday events in a beautiful setting.
The installation by the artist group El Perro has a glass booth in which you can hide from the evils of the world, natural disasters and terrorism. But just when you think you are safe and sound in the booth, you are at your most vulnerable and defenceless, as so often happens in the real world. The paintings by Brazilian Adriana Varejao are seemingly realistic images of tiled surfaces. However, a mass of flesh and hidden interiors pushes through the cracks in the tiles and spreads over the neat exterior. Large drawings by Juul Kraijer are tied to trends and classics of art history and are so controlled and beautiful that they make your heart ache. However, another look can pick out something from the works that transports the viewer towards a surprising and unfamiliar world. This is close to what Angelo Filomeno says about his exquisite but simultaneously horrifying neo-baroque works embroidered on silk cloth: This is not an amusing presentation. The same could be said about many of the works in the exhibition.
Tuula Karjalainen
Director of Kiasma, ARS Curator
