Essays
I believe that exhibitions have a reality-making capacity and a role in shaping public opinion. They can uphold, underpin or prop up ideas that are undervalued. Can curating then expand the way time is generally perceived? Can it attend to the crises of hope? An overview of display practices’ history at least reveals that curating has always reflected the current approach to time.
READIn the Crisis of Time
Mariliis Rebane on dystopian narratives and how can curatorial practices contribute to imagining alternative futures and maintaining hope in the time of crisis.
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The Silent “Forest”
Ingrid Fadnes writes about the forced eucalyptus plantations in Brazil and its brutal aftermath on local habitat.
Dolls that imitate the Sámi can be purchased at a souvenir shop or flea market, where they usually end up. There I face these dolls, as our paths cross second-hand and intertwine into a play in the quiet hours, hidden from view. Why do I get the impression that when the dolls are abandoned, they are at their most revealing? The setting is always the same: a brightly coloured gift shelf, a shabby box, or a vague, provocative shelf.
READSeeing My Self-Image in Dolls That Imitate the Sámi People
Helga West on the politics of souvenir dolls that exoticize the Sámi people.
For this digital space given to us, we opened a Pandora’s Box to reveal why today some of us are still excluded from the so-called ‘winner’s table’. We decided to have a conversation to reflect on the Finnish chapters of our lives, our dreams, and achievements, but we also talked about simple things that could unveil sophistication hidden in simplicity if one wishes to see it.
READA Window to Listen
Sepideh Rahaa and Ceyda Berk-Söderblom’s reflections on equity, inclusion, and social justice in arts and culture in Finland.
This is a story about a small group of young artists in Romania (zoom-in on Bucharest, please) and their endeavour of trying to make it in the Art world. We do not know how this will turn out.
READE T A J Artist-Run Space, the ‘Make It’ Experience in the Art World
Ilina Schileru writes about a group of young artists in Bucharest and their endeavors to make it in an art world that offers no guarantees and is frequently a hostile environment for newcomers to the stage.
With this text, we hope to renew a sincere belief that united art workers can do good by calling for candid public discussion on difficult matters. We wish to make clear some of the political affiliations held by the Kiasma Support Foundation, especially in relation to the colonial politics by the State of Israel and hope that this text will open a dialogue with workers of the National Gallery, who despite prevailing uncertainty, remain motivated to better their organization. We hope that art administrators in Finland will usher forward programs, which manifest their political desires and illustrate how they imagine the institutions they lead serving the public.
READOur Efforts to Show Solidarity for Palestine Are Tested at Kiasma
Why is Chaim “Poju” Zabludowicz, a person who funds an influential pro-Israeli lobbying organization serves as a member of the Kiasma Support Foundation?
Sometimes, the role of the facilitator is to take a step back and just let things happen. Sometimes, the role is to steer the subject to where they need to be. And, sometimes, the role can only be defined in retrospect. Hindsight, once again, is a gift. There is a point in our timeline where the potential for all possible outcomes exists. Being mindful of the fact that I, as facilitator, cannot in that moment know for sure which outcome is the best and respecting that potential, I believe, is the key to successful facilitation.
READShrödinger’s Backflip
Julian Owusu’s reflective essay on the role of facilitator, its possibilities and outcomes in retrospect.
Independently from one another, we began reclaiming a loudly crying face to denote the feeling of being overwhelmingly pained by beauty and our inability to grasp it fully.
READAll I Want to Do Is to Hold Your Hand and Cry the Tears of Joy
Vera Kavaleuskaya convinces us to evade the rigid notion of professionalism, to not accept the invisible hand, and to kill the joy but to then revive it on your terms.
From our deepest desire to gather an imagined collectivity around us, we fantasize about going to each and every one of our friends, kin and relatives’ places to collect some garments they no longer use, as if they could be keepsakes of their presence. We sent out one hundred identical letters, with an invitation to send us one piece of their old clothes, no longer useful in their closet. If we united them all—we thought—we would be reunited again.
READCelebration of Distant Bodies
Golrokh Nafisi writes about her collaborative project in Tehran, “An Equivalence of Our Distance,” made in the midst of the pandemic.
Written on Ice: Edible Memories of the Neighborhood of San Juan has been a six-month-long collective exercise where memories and identities have been transformed into six symbolic edible objects: ice-cream flavors.
READWritten on Ice: Edible Memories of the Neighborhood of San Juan
Martina Miño Pérez writes about her project, highlighting a more democratic relationship between contemporary art and food, eating, and tasting.
During this essay, I will reveal how I learned to free myself from work when I was 15 and also amuse you with the intricate ways money developed a firm grip on me later as I fell into a wealth trap at 32 years of age.
READAffordable Views
Narrated through the history of Sami Juhani Rekola’s father’s relationship with work and money, this is a story about the intersecting paths of the body and capitalism.
Burning out led to a long process of defining sustainable practices, learning to say no and, from time to time, relapsing. Now that I have made the decision to say that I don’t make art, I would love to share a few insights about how to make agreements and tackle different collaborations within the arts.
READConfessions of a recovering Artist
Artist and lawyer-to-be, Riikka Kuoppala’s insights on how to make agreements and tackle different collaborations within the arts.