KAUKANA KAVALA MAILMAA - FAR FROM A DECEITFUL WORLD -
FJÄRRAN DEN VILLANDE VÄRLDEN
June 10th – October 1st 2006
Saarijärvi Museum
Adva Drori, Israel and Artists without walls Israel/Palestine
FA+ , Ingrid Falk & Gustavo Aguerre, Argentina/Sweden
Andrea Hvistendahl, Sweden
Kaija Kiuru, Finland
Zadoc Nava, England
Anni Rapinoja, Finland
Rúri, Iceland
Mitra Tabrizian, Iran/England
Tuomo Blomqvist, Finland
Saarijärvi Museum/Outdoor
Peter Johansson & architect Nike Karlsson, Sweden
Alvar Aalto Museum
Matilda Hyttsten, Sweden
Thomas Bernstrand, Sweden
Jyväskylä summer festival. July. Performance with Adva Drori
Jyväskylä Universitet, Seminar ”September 11th”
Can you protect yourself from threats of terror, nature disasters, diseases, and assaults? The Tsunami catastrophe, 11th September, the bird influenza and HIV exist in our everyday lives. At the same time there are alarms, surveillance cameras and weapons creeping into our society. Fear builds new walls against the unknown. What does it mean for democracy in the future if we do not participate in society? Is the mental space, our thoughts and secrets, the only thing we can protect?
Do we really want a totally protected ans “safe” home, city or country? What is the sweet home of dreams - the one that Timo sings about in Alexis Kivis novel “Seven brothers”? Is it the refuge of the squirrel that slumbers high upon a branch of spruce fur, far from the madding crowd, that we dream about? Another scenario could be the control-society that Georg Orwell wrote about in “1984”.
Or a Europe like a gated community, with both mental and physical barriers towards “the others”.
In the exhibitions we show some artistic interpretations of safety. It is not a complete inventory and there are no answers, only questions. The project can be seen as a platform for debate and discussions. Our hope is that Kaukana Kavala Mailmaa will result in more satellite-projects. The blazing red house of Peter Johansson evoked around one hundred articles and broadcasting in media. Both glad and mad. Will it evoke the same feelings in Finland? His provocation towards the Swedish welfare state has now changed. The house was last seen as a symbol of Sweden in a tourist advertisement!
The idea for the first project was influenced by Karlskrona in Sweden, a city of military and defence. The title SAFE was used for installations in many different places, both in- and outdoor. With the cities of Saarijärvi and Jyväskylä as background and contrast the exhibition will take another form. The existential and philosophical sides of being and feeling safe are imbued with a lot of works, rather than the military tradition. Johan Ludvig Runeberg might have been right in his writing about the minds of the people living in this area,
the poetic and calm way of thinking have given reflexes also on the exhibition. But then, also, some parts are screaming and disturbing in both content and form. Time for both meditation and attention.
The possibility to interact with Åsa Ståhl and Kristina Lindström in a workshop gives the project more dimensions and other angles of approach. In their projects they mix new media with old forms of storytelling. They are interaction designers and their workshop will be together with youths from Saarijärvi during autumn.
In co-operation with: Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland; Kulturfonden för Island-Finland; Keski-Suomen liitto;
Keski-Suomen taidetiomikunta; Saarijärven Mannilan Taidesäätio and Marja Kolu.
Torun Ekstrand, curator.
