Framework: The Finnish Art Review
Issue 1 May '04: Double-lenght Launch Issue/Borders

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The first issue of Framework contextualises contemporary art in a North European cultural, historical and geographical framework. The entire contents of the publication - metaphorically but also quite concretely - is constructed around a central concept: borders. The magazine includes the sections:

Locating, which broadens geographical and cultural horizons by several scientists and cultural actors, such as Pertti Haapala, Jaan Kaplinski, Olli Löytty, Viktor Miziano, John Peter Nilsson, Gertrud Sandqvist, and Ivor Stodolsky. One point of view is offered by the exhibition Faster than History: A Contemporary Perspective on the Future of Art in the Baltic Countries, Finland and Russia, shown at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki during spring 2004.

Focus is directed at Lapland and North Calotte as a whole, spreading over the northern reaches of the four nations - the Nordic countries and Russia on the Kola Peninsula - where artistic practices are crossing both cultural and geographical borders in great and multi-layered variety. A number of cultural actors, scholars and specialists unveil some of major issues of the ongoing identity struggle, both internal and external.

Features is presenting the work of Tellervo Kalleinen, Kaija Kiuru, Jukka Korkeila, and Roi Vaara. Also reviewed are Lauri Anttila, Johanna Billing, Blue Nose, Olafur Eliasson, Annika Eriksson, Jaakko Heikkilä, Jussi Heikkilä, Marja Helander, Henrik Håkansson, Fanni Niemi-Junkola, Anu Pennanen, Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts, Ene-Liis Semper, Ann-Sofi Sidén, Jari Silomäki, Leena Ylipää, Dmitry Vilensky, Ylva Westerlund, and many others.

Opinions, Analyses & Letters offers a forum for both invited and submitted texts by actors in the fields of art and science to discuss different perspectives on cultural criticism, as well as institutional and cultural policies. To open the forum, five professionals from different fields have provided statements or examples for a general inquiry: Is art / must art (still) be critical in contemporary culture?

Global Watch comments on international events. In the first issue of Framework Pavel Büchler and Charles Esche wonder: “Whatever Happened to Social Democracy?”; Mika Hannula reviews the exhibition Berlin-Moscow / Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000; Nataša Petrešin traces the deepness of Europe from the perspective of the Balkans; Raul Zamudio reviews the exhibition American Effect, shown recently in New York; and Taava Koskinen discusses the dilemma between theory and practice in art criticism in her report on the 37th Annual Congress of AICA/IAAC (International Association of Art Critics), held from 11 to 16 November 2003 in the Caribbean.

Interviews with Ute Meta Bauer, Isabel Carlos, Marta Kuzma and Massimiliano Gioni provide information about the 3rd Berlin Biennial, 14th Biennale of Sydney and Manifesta 5.