25.1.2025 - 31.5.2025

Statuomania

Statuomania as a name refers to the compulsive need to install public monuments, statues and sculptures. The name is primarily associated with nationalist projects and the development of nation-states and nation-feelings through various monuments, depictions of great men and other emblems.

In the Statuomania exhibition curated by Porin kulttuurisäätö, the nature of memorials and the processes involved are being reflected: Who can claim the right to celebrated and immortalized memories and visibility? Whose memories are entitled to be heard and taken into account? Who is in charge of urban space and under what conditions can these regulations be breached? Public art reflects society’s values, but also shows the limits of its imagination.

The exhibition constructs its own imaginary public space, in which everyone’s representation and participation is constantly and equally negotiable, and where this representation and participation is not divided according to the division of power that has been carried out in the past. The exhibition emphasizes the aesthetical and experiential: it explores forms and ideas that can in turn shape what our future looks and feels like.

The works in the exhibition declare themselves as monuments and fulfill their function by creating places of encounter and community. In doing so, they naturalize, justify and normalize the narratives, events and histories they tell, which are not represented by existing monuments. They do not even pretend to be truths set in stone, but by suggesting, questioning, implying, guiding and seeking ways of expressing what has not yet been articulated the works give shape for transformations and changes. The works scent, vaporize, melt, disappear, build and mold. They are soft, solid or fragile, large and small, and can be cocooned in. They are public and exposed stills of private lives, longings, encounters, passages.

The works in the exhibition can challenge, nurture and act as an empathic lens, and watching through it we may see the wounds of the past healing and the future appearing more hopeful. The artworks embody resistance and compassion, potential, hiding places, clumsy humanity, corporeal presence and stories told up close/intimately in a quiet voice – stories that, as you listen, the airflow of breath brushing against earlobe can be felt and the scent and warmth of a skin carry the story as much as the words do.

 

CURATORS

Porin kulttuurisäätö (Anna Jensen, Eliisa Suvanto, and Sanna Ritvanen) is driven by research, site-specificity and activism. Previous exhibitions have taken place, for example, in Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, Yyteri dunes, and various urban spaces. In response to the traditional and one-sided portrayal of Finland during the centennial celebration of Finland’s independence, Porin kulttuurisäätö initiated a large-scale project called The Truth about Finland (2017), involving over a hundred contributors, two exhibitions, and a publication.

ARTISTS

Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman (CA)

Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman is a graduate of the Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2020). Her mixed media paintings, collages, and video works illustrate topics of memory, caretaking, and the notion of home. She has been awarded the Salt Spring National Art prize Joan McConnel Award and is a recipient of the Canada Council of the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council grant (2023). She was a finalist for the Emerging IBPOC Artist Award (2023).

Henri Airo (FIN)

Henri Airo is a visual artist interested in human interaction. His research-based projects relate to different social phenomena through photographs and other lens-based mediums, text, and archival material. Alongside a subject matter, Airo’s works make visible the functioning of the mediums that we use to form and maintain social narratives. Airo completed a BA in Photography from LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts in 2021 and his works have been exhibited among others in the PhMuseum LAB gallery in Italy and at the Karkow Photomonth photography festival in Poland.

Benjamin Orlow (FIN/GB)

Benjamin Orlow works mainly with sculpture and moving image. His sculptures have recently exhibited at the Horst-KANAL Centre Pompidou in Brussels, Kohta kunsthalle in Helsinki and Des Bains gallery in London. He was taken on various art commissions in Finland, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Orlow’s video work has exhibited among others at the ICA London, Tetley in Leeds, Tramway in Glasgow, Fahrenheit in Los Angeles and Hordaland Kunstsenter in Norway. Orlow curates and manages the St. Chads project space in London.

Oskari Ruuska (FIN)

Oskari Ruuska’s woks are spatial installations that combine sculptural techniques, moving image, text, light and other sensory materials. His latest work Beach on Uranus was exhibited in the Nuoret 2023 exhibition at the Helsinki Kunsthalle. Ruuska’s works have exhibited in the Kuvan Kevät 2021 exhibition at Titanik in Turku, and ACUD macht neu and Ohrenhoch Der Geräuschlade galleries in Berlin.

Enni Vekkeli (FIN)

The key element in Enni Vekkeli’s artistic work is to stretch the boundaries of sculpture and moving image towards each other. has graduated from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences in 2018. has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions and screenings in Finland and abroad.

Valreza Collective (Tekla Vály and Tereza Holubová, FIN)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valreza Collective is an art collective formed by video and photography artist Tekla Vály and painter-sculptor Tereza Holubová. In their work, the artists use photography, moving image, sculpture, painting, costume design, and performance to create ghostly works that explore both light and darkness and horror and joy – often navigating places where these opposites come into play. Valreza Collective has collaborated with music makers and the music industry, particularly in the form of music videos, album art, promotional videos, set design, and various art events. The collective’s clients have included Astrid Swan (Soliti Records), Roadburn Festival (Tillburg, NL) and Dust Mountain (Svart Records).

 

 

 

 

Photo: Kolya Kotov. Oskari Ruuska, Cruising.