Once upon a Time there Was a Woman

Six experts from different fields introduce the reader to the themes of the ARS 06 exhibition. Two psychoanalysts, an art historian and researchers of philosophy of law, criminal law and politics examine how art meets ambivalence and the reality based on duality.

ARS 06 raises questions about the meaning of art in our time. The exhibition book transports the reader to the worlds of ARS 06: the worlds of good and evil, and joy and sorrow dissolving in the boundaries of opposites. In their articles, the writers examine the works displayed in the exhibition and seek new interpretations. At the same time, great narratives get retold.

“Once upon a time, before there was time or history, in a garden called Eden, there was a woman. The garden had been created by a god, who is also known as the Lord God. The woman was naked and happy because she was innocent – and she was innocent because she was innocent of good and evil. But in this very same garden, the garden of innocence, there was also a serpent, “more subtil than any beast of the field” as is told in the Bible, which means ‘the book’. This wise serpent, eloquent and well-mannered, asked the woman: “Hath God said: ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” The woman was not surprised to hear a serpent talking – these things happened in the Garden of Eden. And so she replied to the animal correcting its understanding of God’s commandments: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which isin the midst of the garden, God hath said: ‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.’” However, the serpent was better informed, for it really was cleverer than any other animal in Eden. It said to the woman: “Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And the woman, who is also known as Eve, believed the serpent. And she wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil. And so she ate the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden and her eyes opened: she became wise and now she knew both good and evil.”

This is how Mika Ojakangas begins his article. The events follow each other and lead to their inevitable conclusion. Or do they?

Contributors to the exhibition book ARS 06 – Sense of the Real are Ari Hirvonen, LL.D, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy of Law, University of Helsinki, Bracha L. Ettinger, PhD, artist, psychoanalyst and theoretician, Mika Ojakangas, DScS, Senior Lecturer, Sami Santanen, researcher of aesthetics, Pirkko Siltala, psychoanalyst and Riikka Stewen, PhD, art historian.

The artists in the exhibition are introduced in the articles providing an in-depth look at the works and their themes.

ARS 06 – Sense of the Real
Edited by Marja Sakari.