Takes on Memory & Flight Paths – the third annual summer exhibition by residency centre HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme – will open to the public on Wednesday, June 20, 2012, at Gallery Augusta on the island of Suomenlinna, Helsinki. The exhibition will be on view until July 29.

Seven international artists have been invited to take part, and nearly all of them have produced a new work for the occasion. The starting point for many of them has been the unique local context of Suomenlinna, which the artists use to approach universal questions on a more general level. Each work, in its own way, reflects on the nature and subjectivity of remembering from the viewpoint of history, politics and art.

Alongside issues of remembering and forgetting, the exhibition highlights the theme of global mobility from various new perspectives. Katja Aglert’s videowork On Invasive Ground uses the island’s unique vegetation, which mainly consists of non-native species, to cast new light on its colourful, international history. Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger have created an Immigrant Garden out of common ornamental and useful plants in front of Gallery Augusta. Although these plants have taken root as part of Finnish identity, most people know nothing about their distant origins.

Kristina Norman has interviewed immigrants in Helsinki, who have been political prisoners in their home countries. She draws a parallel between these contemporary experiences of imprisonment and the conditions in the prison camp set up on Suomenlinna in the aftermath of the Finnish Civil War (1918–1919). Norman works with the physical and emotional dimension of the concept of imprisonment. From historical sources she calculated that in the prison building, now Gallery Augusta, each prisoner had only 0.8 square metres of floor space. In her videowork Norman has made these cramped conditions visible and tangible.

Zsolt Tibor’s new installation reflects the political situation in Hungary and right-wing populism in Europe more generally, along with the accompanying spread of kitsch symbolism. Damir Očko’s poetic videowork encourages us to see, feel, think, want, act, and love in order to find new flight paths. The work reminds us that the poetic and political weight of the spoken word should not override the other senses.

The exhibition finissage will take the form of a street artwork by Timofey Radya and Sergey “Monobrow” Kleschev. The artwork is being produced in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and the URB festival and it will be visible for public during the festival time on August 3.

You are warmly welcome to the opening on Tuesday, June 19 at 5 pm.
The exhibition will be opened by Minister of Culture, Paavo Arhinmäki.

Exhibition Artists:

Katja Aglert (b. 1970) Stockholm; Kalle Hamm (b. 1969) Helsinki & Dzamil Kamanger (b. 1948) Mariwan / Helsinki; Kristina Norman (b. 1979) Tallinn; Damir Očko (b. 1977) Zagreb; Timofey Radya (b. 1977) Ekaterinburg; Zsolt Tibor (b. 1973) Budapest

The exhibition has been curated by Marita Muukkonen.

The exhibition is part of the Paths Crossing residency project for artists from new and applicant EU Member States. HIAP is running the project together with four other European residency centres. The project is co-funded by the Culture Programme of the European Union.

The Ministry of Education and Culture has also supported the project and the exhibition.