7 DAYS BEFORE THE DELUGE
HONKASALO-NIEMI-VIRTANEN
Exhibition at HIAP Gallery Augusta
On view: 4 Nov-3 Dec, Tue to Sun, noon-16:00
*Opening: Fri 3 Nov, 17:45-20:00 — Take 17:20 HSL boat from Kauppatori*

A recent visit to the San Diego Zoo confirmed my conviction that people reaffirm many of their beliefs about each other and about what kind of planet earth can be by telling each other what they think they are seeing as they watch the animals .
— Donna Haraway, “Otherwordly Conversations; Terran Topics; Local Terms”

The disappearance of the only form of life that we know of in the universe has awakened the human species to its role as a unique, planetary force. In 7 Days Before the Deluge we investigate how the management of nature and its species is increasing, partly to save the disappearing wild life. We look at the power structures in which animals are turned into abstract information and numbers that make the maintenance, recording, identification, and tracking of data related to animal bodies and their geographies possible.

The institution of zoos, with their collection of extinct species, are becoming living archives of all that is diminishing. For two years we have been documenting the complex transfers of zoo animal in trucks, ships, planes, at airports, harbors, and custom areas. Through our work we ask: How, when and why are animals moved? Who is saved and who is banished?

Our project looks at the social and political problematics of the representation of animals in today’s society that has paradoxically rendered them spatially and morally invisible. On the one hand the work is a monologic and totalitarian in its narrative, and on the other it creates a space where images visually overlap and different cycles of information form, consisting of mute images. Our methodology is to create different types of narratives that question those ideologies that rule our lives. We want to believe it is possible to think and to live differently, by giving space to that which is forgotten, hidden and invisible.

—Honkasalo-Niemi-Virtanen

Honkasalo-Niemi-Virtanen is a Helsinki based collective of three artists working in the fields of music, theatre, sculpture and time-based arts. The exhibition 7 Days Before the Deluge consists of a three channel video work, an installation and a text piece. The project is supported by Kone Foundation, AVEK and HIAP. The exhibition at HIAP is curated in dialogue between Honkasalo-Niemi-Virtanen and HIAP curator Marina Valle Noronha.