The main event of Kiasma, the Process exhibition, explores involvement and creativeness from the viewpoints of the spectator and the artist. Simultaneously, the museum experiments with new forms of exhibition and ways of presenting art. Kiasma Magazine asked art history students to express their views about the Process exhibition.
A MUSEUM OF MY OWN
There is a ballpoint pen in my museum. After two decades it will be a touching piece of cultural history. Schoolchildren, with their noses against the glass cabinet, will wonder about the ancient note-taking accessories dating back to the beginning of the millennium.
The guided tours of the Process exhibition are more process-like, and demand more of one’s own effort and interaction, than usual museum tours. During the tour, I and four other museum visitors stop for a while to assemble a imaginary museum consisting of our own objects.
At first, the atmosphere in our group is reserved. We had waited for a safe, familiar guided tour in which following the guide and nodding our heads in approval would have been enough. Instead, we had to talk and participate. We fish for small everyday objects in our pockets and handbags: pencils, handkerchiefs, mobile phone, lip-gloss… Some place their objects on the table without hesitating, some consider their choices for a long time. How personal are the objects I can display? How much action and interaction will all this require?
A sigh of relief. The guide now leads the discussion. We work out together in which kind of museum these objects belong. To whom does this collection belong and what is she like? She is a woman, of course. But what if we omit the lip-gloss? Now the collection could belong to a man. Our museum changes its shape every time we add or omit objects. We realise in a concrete way that an exhibition is always based on selection; bits and pieces that never reveal the entire truth.
The tour goes on. An activity session makes us discuss with each other. We listen to the tale of the museum and the tales of others even more closely.
Laura Maanavilja ALWAYS INCOMPLETE
Most of the art works are already complete when they arrive in the museum. The Cocktail Wall installation of Jani Leinonen is not such a work: it is always incomplete and under construction. If one were to film Cocktail Wall and watch the film using fast forward, the film would consist of a stream of changing images.
The cute little picture of the tragic lovers in Titanic becomes visible at the end of the wall. The wintry landscape at the lower part gradually disintegrates; a human eye is tried on a horse’s head. A portrait of a man is torn apart and re-emerges a couple of metres away. Small abstract works take shape and disappear like stars… Cocktail Wall consists of a couple of hundred square image plates the size of a pot holder and a wall surface on which visitors may assemble their own combinations – the art works of their dreams as it says in the manual. The different pieces are a contribution of 40 artists, working both individually and as a group. Some have made an image consisting of several plates; some processed the pieces individually. The array of styles and motifs is wide.
When a school class enters, the rumble resembles a bowling alley for a while. The wall structures sway and the images are quickly reorganised. At times the pieces circulate on the wall slower. People swarm around the work, their gaze fixed on some detail. They keep their hands, however, to themselves. Many seem to think that touching a museum object, let alone playing with it, is not a very good idea.
The interactive nature of the works entails more than an opportunity for visitors to form their own works inside it. If the image selection seems inadequate the creators may be asked to add more to it. The feedback box has been in heavy use during the first weeks: there has been much positive feedback, as well as detailed requests for additional images. Some have asked for an image of a foetus (since it is so reassuring), Matrix images, horse’s eyes and pixel art, manga and icons. Leinonen does his best to answer these requests, but reminds us that this may take some time.
Sanna Hirvonen