Unfolding Perspectives

The starting point for the ARS 01 exhibition is the increasingly rapid and more frequent encounters of different visual cultures and their reciprocal influences, which are taking place in the present information and communication environment. It is evident that art transgresses previous geographical ties and, in the best cases, is able to create an expression, which will be intelligible in both the original culture and outside it. The theme encompasses, among others, encounters of cultures on the conceptual level, in which the basic syntax of images influence each other while simultaneously the ‘vocabulary/imagery’ can be local. The art of artists living in diaspora is also linked to this, as their art usually begins a new two-way cultural language and reflects the source culture as well as the world of the new place of residence. The content of the interpretation and the emphasis placed on them can, however, vary in different circumstances.

The exhibition aims to tell about the new opportunities for communication created by this development. However, this ‘third visual language/culture’ requires that interpretation is freed from tight cultural bonds. The philosophical starting point for the exhibition is that all people are alike, an idea in which different cultures represent different languages, the understanding of which requires long study.

The subtitle of the exhibition, ‘unfolding perspectives’, refers to this third opportunity in cross-cultural communications which is in a state of being actively formed. The central aim of the exhibition is not comprehensive geographical coverage nor presenting various cultures as such. Rather, it focuses on the artists whose work displays initiatives for a new kind of communication, which transcends the exotic. Thus, this art no longer moves on the continuum where things are either understood or not understood. Instead, it is a question of ‘understanding enough’, which will lead to one’s own interpretation. In fact, the same situation, which operates in inter-personal communication in general.

FINNISH/INTERNATIONAL

The exhibition will also be anchored to the increasingly multicultural Finnish reality, in which the Finnish monolithical view of culture, used to be necessary traditionally and also politically, is crumbling and opening up intellectual space for both minorities residing in the country and to individuality.

International expertise was relied on in the preparation stage of the exhibition, although all the choices were made from a Finnish perspective. The part played by international expertise is also clearly manifest in the exhibition catalogue, in which various authors discuss how the artists chosen fit into their respective cultural backgrounds. The catalogue contains interpretations of the works of art by representatives of the source culture or authors representing the recipient, or European/Finnish, culture.

ROOM FOR ARTISTS

The exhibition has not been subordinated to one holistic model, instead, an attempt has been made to give every artist and work of art room to present themselves on their own terms. This aims to ‘individualise’ the presence of each artist and work in the exhibition. Attention is drawn to the idea conveyed by the artist, not so much the ability of the entire exhibition to represent the chosen theme. As a visual experience, the exhibition will form a network consisting of the best way to present just that work of art in this particular space, this particular circumstance. At the same time, efforts are made to create bridges between works to link them to one another in an interesting way and, thus, to the total landscape of the exhibition. The exhibition, as a whole, will also avoid building internal hierarchies.

Maaretta Jaukkuri
The writer is the chief curator of ARS 01