Maintenance policy is a thematically structured online exhibition showcasing nine video works from HAM’s extensive media art collection. As the global coronavirus pandemic upsets the lives we feel, the importance of treatment has shed new light both socially and in our personal relationships.
Care, which plays a key role in sustaining our society, is not limited to human relationships – sustaining life also requires constant interaction with the environment. Viewed in this way, treatment is part of a network of interdependence that has become increasingly and visibly fragile, in part due to the effects of climate change.
The works selected for the Politics of Care exhibition can be seen through such a concept of care: as the relationship between the individual and the community and the world around them. Treatment is not just about kindness and positive emotions. Someone has to take care of the things we remove from our daily lives, such as waste, pollution, suffering, and death. The need for care is a source of inequality: care is a way of exercising power that determines who deviates from norms and who is marginalized. Category-based, effectiveness-based treatment allows for structural violence, social exclusion, and the invisibility of certain groups.
The works emphasize the themes of care in different ways. The main character is involved Aarne’s window (2016) author Pasi Auto looking out the window as the seasons and weather change behind the screen. His inner monologue emphasizes how people living in isolation long for contact with the outside world. The temporary arrangements required by the pandemic have brought to light the reality that was already normal for many people before the crisis.
In Practical ecology (2017) author Minna Suoniemi, the protagonist presents a variety of items that he has repaired and recycled. Saving and recovering old materials is more than saving – it reflects an understanding of how the material world extends beyond our physical body. In the installation, custom objects also include reminders of relationships with other people. Fluctuation theme author Jani Ruscica is part Contrasting trilogy(2005). It shows a bunch of people singing as they wander the terrain where radical excavations and construction are underway, as if trying to convey some sort of message to the landscape. Care is essential to building a fairer and more equal society, and it is also a bond that permeates interdisciplinary relationships.
Other artists in the online exhibition are Alli Savolainen, Jenni Eskola, Azar Saiyar, Maria Duncker, Tuulia Susiaho and Maria Ylikoski. Through their works, you can reflect on care-related issues such as family, environment, or education. Seeing care as part of our physical and mental well-being puts it at the center of political action.
The total duration of the collection of nine media works is 45 minutes.
The works of the Politics of Care online exhibition are: Pasi Autio, Aarne’s window, 2016; Alli Savolainen, 6 minutes, 8 pictures, 2001; Jenni Eskola, Contour, 2017; Azar Saiyar, History is bleeding under your fingernails, 2017; Jani Ruscica, Contrast point / Fluctuation theme, 2005; Minna Suoniemi, Practical ecology, 2017; Maria Duncker, One in a million, 2005; Tuulia Susiaho, Lisa’s empty head, 2006; Maria Ylikoski, And No Swing!, 1998.
The exhibition is curated by HAM Curator Petronella Grönroos.
Source: City of Helsinki Department of Culture and Leisure