The Aalto Pavilion
Jussi Kivi, Fire & Rescue Museum
7.6.-22.11.2009

This year the wooden Aalto Pavilion in Giardini, designed by architect Alvar Aalto in 1956, hosts a collection of Fire & Rescue Museum by Jussi Kivi. The artist's museum project is based on his long-term passion of collecting every imaginable item that ever has had something to do with firefighting.

Jussi Kivi (born 1958 in Helsinki) has up to now kept separate two of his roles in life: he is a visual artist by profession, but ever since he was a little boy, he has shown a passionate interest in the world of firefighting. But in spring 2008 an unexpected turn of events occurred. As an artist member of the Romantic Geographic Society, Jussi ended up on an expedition with his friends in an old, Soviet underground nuclear bomb shelter in eastern Estonia, abandoned when the country had gained independence. Scattered on the walls and floors of the former training bunker was a huge amount of partly moldy Soviet information boards and posters presenting civil defense and fire fighting procedures before and after the nuclear fallout.

The romantic adventurers rescued some of the material and, by force of the inevitable, Jussi's fire museum came to a new level. Now the relationship between firefighting and art was realigned: personal nostalgia was transformed to communicate new meanings. Childhood adoration for rescuers was mirrored against a kind of threat of total destruction for which artifacts of heroism, or underground bunkers, can no longer provide protection.

The institution of organized firefighting dates back to the great days of Rome, but it was forgotten for centuries after the empire fell. Not until in the Age of Enlightenment did Europe give birth to similar safety innovations, which in turn - paradoxically - were tied to a cycle of crises and catastrophes. Today that cycle compares with the apocalyptic fates of the ancient empires. But what, in the end, can be salvaged after a nuclear catastrophe? Even if the organized society carries out its protection plans to a T and fire brigades fight more valiantly than ever, there can be new sparks and flames - growing into fires - which no fire brigade in the world can put out.

Organizers:

The exhibition at the Aalto Pavilion is the first co-production between FRAME - Finnish Fund for Art Exchange and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. The commissioner for the Aalto Pavilion is Director Berndt Arell, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. In the curatorial team are Director Marketta Seppälä and Curator Marita Muukkonen, FRAME - Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, as well as Chief Curator Arja Miller, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

The Publication:

FRAME publishes the 10th issue of Framework The Finnish Art Review on the occasion of Jussi Kivi's Fire & Rescue Museum to offer it a wider framework. The title of the issue, Rescue Plan, refers to the state of the world after the bursting of the financial bubble. The consequences are still unfolding; prospects concerning the future of the global society merge together with the ongoing climate change and its impact on the global environment. Keeping the demise of neoliberal ideology in mind, the contributors have been asked to sketch out alternative starting points for today's economic, political and aesthetic practices and draft outlines for alternative models. One of the key questions is, what role can the visual arts, broadly understood, play in broadening the scope of cultural practices?

The Aalto Pavilion:

The Finnish Pavilion designed by Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) for the Venice Biennial grounds was built for 1956 biennial. It is one of Aalto's most unassuming building projects, and also one of the smallest exhibition pavilions in the Giardini Park in Venice. It was initiated by Maire Gullichsen (1907-1990) and realized by the Nykytaide (Contemporary Art) association of Finland.

Since the beginning the pavilion has been used by Finnish organizers of exhibitions in the architecture biennials, and since 2007, similarly as in the first years 1956-1960 of the pavilion, it will be used also in the visual art biennials. The pavilion is in the ownership of the state owned real estate company Senaatti Properties, which takes care of it and rents it for the use of the Finnish organisations, the Finnish Museum of Architecture and FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, both funded by the Finnish Ministry of Culture.

For further information on the history of the Aalto Pavilion, see:
http://www.framework.fi/7_2007/focus/artikkelit/kruskopf.html

The Opening:

A professional preview opening of Fire & Rescue Museum at the Aalto Pavilion will take place at 13:00 on Friday, 5 June 2009.
Fire & Rescue Museum will open to the public on Sunday, 7 June 2009 at the Giardini, Venice as part of the 53rd Venice Biennale, and remain on view through 22 November 2009.

Press Accreditation Information:
Accreditation for the press preview of the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia must be requested directly to the Biennale Press Office.
Please go to: http://www.labiennale.org/en/press/art/accreditation/

Please note that applications for press accreditations have to be submitted by April 30, 2009.

For additional press information please check: www.frame-fund.fi/en/press
For press inquires related to this announcement and the project, and for interviews with the artist, please contact: Marita Muukkonen, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Read Colin Martin's article about Jussi Kivi's 'Fire and Rescue Museum'  in British Medical Journal pdf