Point of view: Harro Koskinen

Harro Koskinen: Pig Coat of Arms (1969), Pig Messiah (1969), and Suomalainen elämänmuoto (‘The Finnish Way of Life’) series (1970–72)

Artist Harro Koskinen has been through a lot. His artistic production of the 1960s and 1970s touched a tender spot in the Finnish society of the time. Using the official symbols of Finland in art was too much and Koskinen found himself in court. He was charged with blasphemy, as well as dishonouring the coat of arms and flag of Finland. Thirty years on, Koskinen’s work may not feel as provocative, but the questions raised by him are still worthy of discussion.

Pigs!

Harro Koskinen was an active participant in the social debate of the 1960s and 1970s. Inspired by the underground movement, Koskinen first drew highly critical comics, sending dusty old values packing – often winged by humour. His early comics already had humanised pigs as protagonists. Later pigs transformed into paintings and sculptures in Koskinen’s hands. The pig works of art mocked indifference and the middle-class way of life. The arrows of criticism also hit the state and church. 1969 saw the creation of Pig Coat of Arms and Pig Messiah. The same year Koskinen created the Pig Family, who lived on happily, oblivious to world events, drinking coffee and watching television. ”I have used the pig as a symbol of the swine in people,” Koskinen says.

Justice?

Pig Coat of Arms and Pig Messiah were selected for the young artists’ exhibition, but publicly displaying them in the Kekkonen-era Finland was too much. ”The reception was quite swinish,” Koskinen says. Kyösti Laari, a lay preacher, went to the police to report a crime after seeing the works in the exhibition. Both the artist, Koskinen, and the jury for the young artists’ exhibition were charged with blasphemy and dishonouring the coat of arms of Finland. Harro Koskinen reminiscences: ”Laari had heard that in 1906, local residents on the island of Mauritius carried a crucified pig in their ritual. Immediately afterwards the island was shaken by an earthquake and a volcanic eruption, which killed all the islanders. Laari, who had seen the young artists’ exhibition, feared Helsinki would face the same horrendous fate.”

Koskinen found himself in the middle of legal proceedings. He writes: ”The Helsinki City Prosecutor decided to press charges on the basis of the police report. The case went through all the lower and higher courts, and the final decision was that the jury for the young artists’ exhibition in 1969 and the artist Harro Koskinen were fined for their criminal offence. The works exhibited were not, however, confiscated by the state, on the contrary, they later ended up in some of the most prestigious art museums in Finland.” The trial received a lot of media attention. President Urho Kekkonen was petitioned for a pardon, but to no avail.

Now, thirty years on, Koskinen’s sentence may seem excessive. Koskinen himself says: ”With my pig works, I wanted to criticise, I think relatively leniently, the bourgeoisie set of values and the voids it contains.” Now he has shed his idealism. He says that as a young man, he overestimated people’s capacity for change and flexibility. Koskinen’s statements smack of frustration: ”I don’t know what would be as provocative nowadays. Probably nothing at the moment. This society smothers all criticism with its ostensible freedom.”

Finland stretched to the limit

Despite his setbacks, Harro Koskinen continued to create art critical of prevailing values. Next came an extensive series of works Suomalainen elämänmuoto (‘The Finnish Way of Life’), which was displayed in art museums and galleries. ”In the presidential election of 1970, the rightist parties used the slogan ‘the Finnish way of life’. I began to think what this Finnish way of life really means, in addition to the traditional home, religion, and fatherland,” Koskinen says.

The works in the series consists of two main elements: adapted Finnish flags and corporate logos. The Finnish flag, with its blue cross on white, is transformed in apparently matter-of-fact and dignified serigraphs that were hung above parodies of logos. Or the Finnish flag was served as part of the Finnish way of life, on a plate or in a coffee cup, or laundered clean in a red plastic bucket. Sometimes the flag was flown as a kite in the sky or stretched on the floor.

The official symbols of Finland are still revered, but in the early 1970s they were almost sacred. In addition to Koskinen’s flags, some people's values and sensibilities were stretched so far, that the artist once again landed in trouble. Koskinen was charged with dishonouring the Finnish flag. This time the case was dismissed in Turku City Court by 3-2 votes.

Gulp

In his series The Finnish Way of Life, Harro Koskinen also addressed Finland’s financial ties. In the spirit of pop art, he harnessed striking and visually clear, well-known logos for his art and his message. Koskinen changed the words on the logos, but kept the visual appearance: service station chain Gulf became Gulp to Koskinen. Another service station logo, Esso, changed into Esto (Finnish for inhibition) in Koskinen’s hands. The famous shell logo also received a new text: Shell became Smell.

Nokia, which was already one of the largest private companies in Finland in the 1970s, also found its way into Koskinen’s art. The well-known black-and-white logo of the company, which at the time concentrated on the rubber, cable, and paper industries, appeared in the form Noki! (Finnish for soot) in Koskinen’s art. Above the pun, Koskinen hung pictures of Finnish flags. ”…Nobody really understood those works at the time. The flags, of course, caused enough disquiet to bring charges. It seems that couldn’t be done about the logos as there wasn’t an applicable law,” says Koskinen in 2002.

Minna Raitmaa

Sources:
E-mail correspondence with Harro Koskinen, April 2002
Maritta Mellais, 2002: Harro Koskinen, artist introduction in the Popcorn and politics exhibition
Website of Harro Koskinen
Eilispäivän sika on tämän päivän pekoni – viipaleita 70-luvun kuvasta, YLE 1991