Art visits the city
The Under the Same Sky project spreads the Museum of Contemporary Art across different districts of Helsinki. But after a moment, one realises that this cannot be the whole truth. When contemporary art goes out into town in this way - four times four artworks to four different districts during four different seasons - art is not spread on top of the everyday life of these districts. More likely, it has to live in the midst of urban life and people, on their conditions and with them.
Visit, as a noun and a verb, is actually characteristic of contemporary and modern art, the prevalent trends and artistic thought of a century drawing to its end. "Why is this thing visiting here?" is a question which can be imagined to mirror the reactions of many to works of art (even if the question would not be consciously formed exactly like this). While objects and actions are usually normal and parallel to one's expectations more or less, artworks are special and exceptional in their appearance and contents, and in their manner of addressing the creative imagination. The important point here is the fact that an art experience is always filtered into the viewer's life and everyday routines. A work of art can be confusing, interesting, chilling, or lovely in relation to both everyday reality and those issues that we take for granted. Correspondingly, our imagination studies and questions everything we regard as real.
Contemporary art (meaning art that is done today, and to be exact, to its visible tendencies) no longer draws its driving force from identifying with shocking alienation, or from irritating the bourgeoisie and making them gasp, as poet Charles Baudelaire once declared its function to be. Instead of an emphasis on avant-garde movement, i.e., action at the cultural front, at present one hears appreciative talk about those in the back row. Critic Suzi Gablik calls this rear-guardism. Her examples include artists who endeavour to make contact with the contents of art and life, who save and raise the status of values formerly overlooked, who express social criticism (although not in the form of declarations), and who prove that reality is surprisingly complex and rich. In this sense, art does not primarily create new contents, but new ways of understanding. The content of these ways of understanding is the very life which we often fail to stand face to face with, although it does exist. The reasons for our rejection may range from prejudice, indolence, fear, habit, or intellectual laziness.
An uninvited guest?
Although the former is not a description of the works in Under the Same Sky, it is clear enough that the basic concept of the project contains the idea of getting into the midst of things. The Museum of Contemporary Art is behind the project, in the role of producer, and the majority of people are undoubtedly aware of this when they encounter the artworks involved. When operating outside its walls the museum cannot, however, lean on the authority created by its museum status: it has to compete with other phenomena. Urban art will compete for attention with other everyday and scheduled events and chores. In addition, it will be evaluated in the context of life, not only in the context of a more restricted art world.
Owing to its temporary nature, the visit of contemporary art to Helsinki is more subtle than it would be were the works permanent. Unlike permanent works, temporary art does not settle down without an invitation or force its way into outside spaces which people feel belong to them. It visits, sits down for a moment and talks, but not for an eternity or about eternity. Encountering modern and avant-garde art often has an alienating, shocking effect, or is even destructive, and yet nothing is offered to replace what has been destructed. But softer and more playful forms of visitation and presenting strange things also exist, such as the visit of a creature or person who gives us an opportunity to realise hidden things about ourselves, allowing us to find new forms of communication or worlds where dreaming is possible. In fact, I do hope that this happens even partially during the project Under the Same Sky.
The social game of a city always already exists. In established districts, such as Kallio, the challenge for art is not to try to replace the identity - which would be a sheer impossibility. Established urban life does not, however, exclude changes. The population as a whole is constantly changing and individual residents also change. The thoughts and feelings of my neighbours and myself are not exactly the same as they were ten years ago. It is highly likely that the visit of art will leave recollections and traces of longing in our minds. Perhaps encounters with art will also promote encounters between people: perhaps the visitations will encourage us to a similar behaviour.
Pauline von Bonsdorff
Ph.D, works at the Insitute for Art Research of the University of Helsinki as Deputy Professor in the department of Aesthetics.
