Variations on Transcending the Finiteness of Human Vision
On view until 23 August 2009

Jaakko Heikkilä, Picking the Herbs, 2004

The exhibition Variations on Transcending the Finiteness of Human Vision, opening at Riga Art Space on 10 July, includes works from eleven Finnish or Finland-based artists. Among them are Adel Abidin (b. 1973), Joakim Eskildsen (b. 1971), Jaakko Heikkilä (b. 1954), Sasha Huber (1975), Sanna Kannisto (b. 1974), Tuomas Laitinen (b. 1976), Anu Pennanen (b. 1975), Sini Pelkki (b. 1978), Harri Pälviranta (b. 1971), Seppo Renvall (b. 1963), Jani Ruscica (b. 1978) and Jari Silomäki (b. 1975). Each in its own way reflects on the difficulty of seeing beyond marked paths and mental highways, of transcending physical boundaries and zones to create new cultural and political spaces and alternatives.

The works of all of these Finland-based artists were made on the move. So, let’s give impetus to our imagination and think about movements on to other worlds. Let us use it to fly beyond borders, territoriality, mobility… Neither mobility nor being tied to a certain area can automatically lead to freedom, alternative forms of aesthetics or politics. It is clear today that in art as well as in society and politics we should be shifting away from a nostalgic desire for territoriality, for some sort of original, ur-origin of a community. Nothing but catastrophes have ever come of it so far.

What flight-paths might we take, however, when the common sense of our day tells us that people are ego-driven, strategically dishonest and combative individualist consumers? As in Malthus’ horrific theory of biological fratricide (the ideas that inspired a corrupt social Darwinism which laid the foundations for two world-wide wars) we assumed ourselves to be fighting for limited resources and a monopoly of power: all of us, always. Our faculties of dreaming and the aesthetic life of the senses can enable us to see, hear, smell, taste, feel, think, want, act, and love to create other worlds. “Only imagination can show us what to be,” said the poet André Breton.

Artists and works:

Adel Abidin, Tasty, 2008
Joakim Eskildsen, The Roma Journeys, 2001-2006
Jaakko Heikkilä, Unspoken Destinies, 2004
Sasha Huber, Rentyhorn, 2008
Sanna Kannisto, Private Collection and Field Studies, 2000-2006; Bee Studies: Orchid Bee Males, 2004 and Poison Dart Frog Males, 2001-2007
Tuomas Laitinen, Wall Street, 2009
Anu Pennanen, Sõprus - Дружба (Friendship), 2006 and You don’t realise it used to be different, 2004-2007
Sini Pelkki, Passage, 2009
Harri Pälviranta, Prison Sheets,1999 – 2005
Seppo Renvall, Planet Earth – Encyclopedia, 1995
Jani Ruscica, Batbox / Beatbox, 2007 and Evolutions, 2008
Jari Silomäki, My Weather Diary, 2001 -, and Ordinary towns on ordinary days, 2007-2008

For further information please contact Marita Muukkonen, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it