The way to ARS: ARS11 Artists Visit Kiasma

Kiasma has already hosted visits by Georges Adeagbo, Samba Fall and Odili Donald Odita. They came to study the facilities and Finnish culture with which most of them were still relatively unfamiliar. These artists differ from each other, in terms of both their background and their art. They give a foretaste of the range and diversity contained within the umbrella term of African contemporary art.

ARS 11 will open in April 2011. The show will feature new projects, site- or situation-specific works and events. The uniqueness of ARS 11 will be based on these works either designed or adapted for Kiasma.

Georges Adeagbo
Georges Adeagbo (b. 1942), from Benin, is one of the most famous names in African contemporary art. Visiting Kiasma in July to collect materials for his work, he was surprised to discover that many Finnish artists were familiar with his homeland. There was even an exhibition in Kunsthalle Helsinki of work by artists who had been in residency at Villa Karo in Grande Popo. While still in Finland, Adeagbo created his first installation on the couch of the place where he stayed in Töölö. Using material from magazines, books and printed matter, the assemblage gave an idea of the large installation Adeagbo will create for ARS 11, from predominantly Finnish materials.

Samba Fall
Born in 1977 in Senegal, Samba Fall has lived in Oslo since 2002. One of the youngest artists in ARS 11, Fall works with animation, installation and interactive projects. The topics of his art are the laws of society and economics that affect all of our lives on a global scale. In his animations, he analyses our current consumerist culture and its global impacts. Fall spent the month of August at the Helsinki International Artist-inresidence Programme, HIAP, at the Cable Factory preparing the new work to be shown in Kiasma.

Odili Donald Odita
Odili Odita was born in 1966 in Nigeria, but his family moved to the United States when he was still a child. He is currently Professor of Painting at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Odita makes site-specific paintings that engage in a close dialogue with the architecture of the venue. He creates large colour surfaces composed of wedge-like shapes that introduce a new event into the space and create a multi-dimensional spatial experience for the audience. The palette in the works is based on things that the artist has seen and experienced around the world. Odita visited Kiasma in May to study its architecture, and will compose his future wall painting on the basis of it.

Jari-Pekka Vanhala, Kati Kivinen, Arja Miller