Middle Eastern art in the spotlight with the reopening of the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki
The Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki has been opened two years after it had to close due to pandemic restrictions, a renovated interior and an exhibition that extends over five floors of the building.
ARS22 – Living Encounters features state-of-the-art visual art, performances and movies from around the world. The exhibition is on display on 16.10. until.
It is the 14th series of major exhibitions showcasing the latest in contemporary art. ARS exhibitions began in 1961 at the Ateneum in Helsinki. ARS22 is the 10th Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiasma.
It includes 15 works of art specifically commissioned for ARS22, as well as works by 55 artists from 26 countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. The works reflect on the themes of the coexistence of the exhibition and our relationship to the planet.
“The idea of ARS22 was to build a whole where several voices would appear in parallel. In order to create a museum as a platform for encounters, we curated an exhibition with many narratives instead of one linear story, says Piia Oksanen, one of the curators of the exhibition.
“For this reason, invitations were sent to artists from different backgrounds, from different geographical areas, working with different media.”
The exhibition features a space dedicated to Middle Eastern art. According to Oksanen, “interest in artists in the Arab world is growing.”
Among other things, an emirate visual artist has been invited from the area Farah Al QasimiIraqi textile artist Kholod Hawash, an Iraqi-American multidisciplinary artist Michael Rakowitz and the art collective Slavs and Tatars.
Al Qasim’s works feature images of butterflies sitting on a slice of orange, a hawk in a hospital, and a woman watching anime on her iPhone. The images reflect on the concept of paradise in contemporary culture, religion, desire, and the entertainment industry.
Meanwhile, Hawash presents vibrant quilts depicting humanitarian issues such as the refugee crisis, religious freedoms and social justice.
Mother tongues and cucumbers is a five meter high carpet that depicts the mouth open and shows where certain letters of the Arabic alphabet come from. The carpet was created by Slavs and Tatars and hangs in another work by the collective called PrayWay.
The installation combines the shape of a rahle reading stand with the Carpet Takht found in traditional tea rooms. The work also refers to magic rugs found in fairy tales in the Middle East, such as Aladdin.
“The works on display at ARS22 explore the daily lives and dreams of individuals and communities, ”the museum’s website reads. “They raise questions about our relationship to the world, nature and history, spirituality and technology.
“The exhibition offers places for encounters and interaction. It also reminds us that individuality is ultimately always based on shared living conditions. The stories told in the works are entertaining and at the same time create their own reality. They give us the opportunity to think and see differently, but they also show the way forward.
Updated: April 22, 2022 at 2:31 p.m.