EXHIBITION
22 – 25 August 2024
MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre
Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 C, Helsinki
Thu–Fri 12:00–17:00, Sat–Sun 12:00–16:00

GÁTT Nordic Arts Festival takes place in the heart of Helsinki between the 23rd – 25th of August 2024 presenting an array of exciting contemporary Nordic art. www.gattfestival.com

The festival exhibition held at MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre is open to the public from Thursday the 22nd to Sunday 25th of August.

Welcome to the opening night of GÁTT Nordic Arts Festival kicking off at MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre in Helsinki on Friday 23rd of August. The exhibition will be pre-opened at 4 – 5 PM, with artist talks and a speech held by Marko Ahtisaari, the artistic director of the Helsinki Festival. The celebration continues with the exhibition vernissage at 5 – 7 PM and performance by poet Nachla Libre (SE).

The exhibition presents bodies of work on the thematic landscape of the festival on the prefix ‘re-’ by Anna Jarosz (PL), Veera Launonen (FI), Landys Roimola (CO/FI), Nastja Säde Rönkkö (FI), Eero Tiittula (FI) and Yu-Husuan Yao (FI/TW), accompanied with an essay written by Camille Auer (FI). The exhibition is  curated by Nayab Noor Ikram (AX/FI).

Re-’ referring to the past and the future. It means doing something again; a repetition. The repetition also pushes for change and reflection; by doing something again but differently.

The works are made of textile, glass, and recycled materials, creating an exhibition experience that takes you through installations, mixed media, and video.

Artists and artworks of the exhibition

Anna Jarosz (PL) is a visual artist who works with video, installation, painting and sculpture. Her practice deals with intergenerational trauma and contextualises it around gender studies and intersectional feminism. Her work vibrates from Julia Kristeva’s notion of abjection in relation to bodies, sexuality and intimacy. She takes inspiration from the theories of body memory and the collective aspects of trauma trapped in the physical presence of the human and non-human bodies. Jarosz’ recent works take inspiration from ancient slavic systems of beliefs, mythologies and cosmology. She explores rituals passed to her by female ancestors and attempts to draw body–passages of memory. She formulates questions about the inheritance of intuition. annajarosz.com

Veera Launonen (FI) is a visual artist from Kuopio. She strives to find connections between digital and physical materials in her works. At the moment, she works with glass and moving images with the subject of astrobiology and the various related research subjects, as well as the processing of mass, matter and emotional states through form and colours. She also works with public works and community art. kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi/taiteilija/launonen-veera#bio

Landys Roimola (CO/FI) bases her works on observations about societal problems, identity and climate destruction. Understanding her roots deep in the mountains of Colombia, but having lived in a privileged Finland, the artist wants to understand her power and responsibilities through art. We are the ancestral mothers of the future and its important to be aware of the stories and actions we leave behind. Roimola is currently working on the themes of political landscape, otherness, adopted identity and inherited traumas. The artist’s ten-year struggle for nature also finally found its target in Colombia; being adopted, Roimola understands that she may never fully belong to any country, but she can grow her roots deep into the earth. landysroimola.com

Eero Tiittula (FI) was born as the second of three children in Kaivoksela, Vantaa, Finland. By coincidence he moved back to the same house 32 years later, just before the birth of the second of his three children. Somewhere along the way he studied stage design in Arabia (Helsinki), painting in Scotland and sculpture at some shore road next to a huge mound of coal. Tiittula was a statue in Paris and a stay-at-home dad in San Francisco. Tiittula is a Buddhist. Tiittula’s works often combine elements from various disciplines: painting, sculpture, installation, community and performance art. Alongside conceptual starting points, craftsmanship and careful material execution are crucial to his practice. www.eerotiittula.net

Nastja Säde Rönkkö (FI)  is an artist working with video, moving image, installation and text. Her projects investigate the relationship between the digital era, power, humanity and the future of our planet. She is particularly fascinated with how concepts such as love, slowness or affection can be silent yet radical ways to be and act in the world. Her practice dreams about the future and explores presence through politics and poetics of emotion. nastjaronkko.com

Yu-Hsuan Yao (FI/TW) is a Taiwanese visual artist based in Finland, working primarily with video installations, photography, and new media. Her artistic endeavours explore the amalgamation of cultural differences, engage in conversations around sustainable development and social sciences. yuhsuanyaocom.wordpress.com

Camille Auer (FI) is such a fucking bitch. No. She’s a poet. A writer. She has been an artist. She has worked with moving image and sound, performance, installation, words and concepts. She emerges when someone is being transphobic, to be a bitch. Camille Auer once abandoned her art career for three years to study birds and ornithological literature to figure out what kind of biases humans have in their knowledge of birds. Turns out, many. Then she, of course, made an artwork about it. Because when you’re in the art game, you’re in the art game. Fuck. camilleauer.com