Time to Change History

The topical focus of the exhibition Faster than history consists of the views of 20 contemporary artists about art, society and themselves in the midst of the far-reaching, turbulent changes now taking place especially in the former Soviet Union. The Baltic countries are creating a space for themselves as new members of the European Union, looking towards the West – but not even the West is what it used to be.

The majority of the exhibition artists represent the so-called new generation, who can now work in a world that is more open, yet also characterized by tougher values and economic realities. It seems that art must repeatedly redeem its place in society, which would rather use for its symbols the icons that over the years have merged with national imagery.

In order for their work to be meaningful in the local and global field of art, members of the younger generation must also be able to bring down the intellectual walls within themselves referred to by terms like ’East’, ’East Europe’ and ’post-communism’. One strategy is to turn one’s back on history and to start afresh from zero. On the other hand, not even art can operate in a vacuum; society and its values have always some effect or another on the standing of artists and their work. This complex situation can also be seen as a positive challenge, providing a subject for intelligent criticism, as well as for comic interpretation.

Finland changes when its neighbours change. The Baltic countries are showing the way with their European identity, bringing Western Europe closer to Finland, strengthening both Eastern and Western cultural influences in this country. The Finnish artists in Faster than History comment on the collapse of monoculture, an age when history is being rewritten.

Jari-Pekka Vanhala,
curator of the exhibition