In 2024, Finlayson Art Area will be held for the tenth time. The event is open for the public 14.6.–25.8. Featuring 11 artists, the event will spread around the Finlayson area, indoors and outdoors, Finlayson Church and Finnpark.
EXHIBITIONS AND ARTISTS
Art event Finlayson Art Area (FAA) will take place 14.6–25.8.2024. This is the 10th event of FAA. The exhibitions are located in indoor galleries, in the courtyards and streets of the area, in the Finnpark parking hall and in Finlayson Church. Free admission to all venues. All sites are accessible except the lower level of Terde and the staircase in Finnpark. Finlayson Art Area is produced by the Printmaking Studio Himmelblau and the main partner is Finlayson Area / Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
Artists at FAA24
Klaus Haapaniemi, sculpture installation Nomads and prints. Iron Hall, and Terde, lower level.
Kaarina Haka, installation Passage. Old Factory’s Iron Staircase.
Marja Helander, video works, Finlayson Church and Minicinema, photographs, Finnpark Plevna’s staircase and the exterior wall of Itäinenkatu-street.
Ola Kolehmainen, photographic art. Kutomosali 3.
Teija Lehto, woodcuts. Himmelblau Printmaking Studio.
Charles Sandison, video installation Zodiac. Kutomosali 2.
Teemu Saukkonen, 70th anniversary exhibition. Gallery Himmelblau and Puuvillasali.
Katja Tukiainen and Matti Hagelberg, paintings from Tukiainen and installations and prints made with Hagelberg. Kutomosali 1.
Raimo Utriainen, sculpture exhibition. Curated by Timo Valjakka. In cooperation with the Raimo Utriainen Foundation. Rullaamo and Kutomosali 3.
Tapio Wirkkala, silverware and jewellery, as well as gems from Collection Kakkonen of prints and drawings. In partnership with Collection Kakkonen, curated by Juhani Kukkonen. Vooninki.
Himmelblau’s 10 artists, prints from Himmelblau’s own collection. Gallery Himmelblau’s sales gallery.
ARTISTS
Klaus Haapaniemi
Known for his imaginative and decorative works, designer Klaus Haapaniemi (b. 1970) created large-scale installation Nomads in the Old Factory’s Iron Hall. The installation consists of a number of tents, light totems, three-dimensional sculptures, textile art, a soundscape and moving images, all of which have been custom-made for the exhibition.
Science, psychoactive plants, modern esotericism and occultism have all been sources of inspiration for Haapaniemi. In the abstract light totems, one can sense a similar formal language to the leaded-glass windows of medieval churches. Tent’s wood shingle roof is made of linen with handmade geometric details. Inside on the black polished planks, there are sculptures of animals, among other things, made in Nuutajärvi. The tapestry woven florals, made in Belgium, draw inspiration from herbal remedies, nurturing plants and floral motifs.
The myth of being a nomad is often associated with the idea of being a citizen of the world. Klaus Haapaniemi himself is a kind of globetrotter: he has lived and worked with his wife, Mia Wallenius, creative director of Klaus Haapaniemi & Co, in Italy, the UK and Germany – while building an impressive career in Japan and elsewhere.
Terde will feature a diverse selection of Haapaniemi’s prints, which he has created over the spring at the Himmelblau Printmaking Studio. Haapaniemi’s works contain references to mythology and folklore, from Finnish tradition and the Kalevala to Slavic and Japanese culture. For the Finnish public Haapaniemi is particularly well known from Iittala’s Taika collection.
Klaus Haapaniemi: installations and prints, Rautahalli and Terde. Väinö Linnan aukio 13.
Kaarina Haka
The colourful and organically growing textile work, Passage, by Helsinki-based artist Kaarina Haka (b. 1974) is on display in the Old Factory’s Iron Staircase during the summer. Haka’s works make use of various flea market finds, fabrics such as organza and tulle, and various recycled textiles. The workability of the material is essential; whether the material can be attached by sewing, glueing or tying. Haka prefers light and soft materials. The structures of her works are often made of iron wire or supporting fabric. ”Recycling is an important factor in my work. I find interesting materials that have passed through some kind of life cycle unknown to me and have their own story. As part of the work, they become something else and yet everything that is already there is, remains. As objects and their stories, they form different layers.”
The artwork Passage includes tarlatan fabrics by Himmelblau Printmaking Studio. Tarlatan is a hardened gauze fabric used to wipe off excess ink from a printing plate. Some of the tarlatans in the installation are black: the colour is the result of the darkening of long-used fabrics during the printing process of hundreds of plates. In Kaarina Haka’s work the history of the work and the art of the craft are visually intertwined.
Kaarina Haka: installation Passage, the Old Factory’s Iron Staircase. Entrance Väinö Linnan aukio 15.
Marja Helander
Marja Helander (b. 1965) is a Sámi photographer and video artist. Helander has explored Sámi identity, culture and global issues through her work. In her work, she has depicted, among other things, the impact of the mining industry on the fragile nature of the Sámi landscape: ”Humans are just one species among many, dependent on nature and the land”. Helander’s works show the devastating effects of encounters between humans and nature, but they also contain humour. The conflict between the Sámi way of life and modern society is often dealt with in a playful way. Recently, Helander has focused on experimental short films. Her works are in numerous collections in Finland and abroad.
The short film Eatnanvuloš lottit – Birds in the Earth – presented at Finlayson Art Area won the Risto Jarva Award and the main prize of the national competition at the Tampere Film Festival in 2018. The film stars two young Sámi ballet students, Birit and Katja Haarla. The film explores the issues behind the ownership of Sámi territories. The work will be performed in Finlayson Church without sound and in Finlayson Art Area’s Minicinema with sound. There are also four other video artworks by Helander in Minicinema.
Marja Helander: video work Eatnanvuloš lottit, Finlayson Church and Minicinema, Business Centre Siperia.
Ola Kolehmainen
An impressive dialogue between photography and sculpture is on display in Kutomosali at the back of the Old Factory. Ola Kolehmainen’s (b. 1964) large photographic works are like time jumps into another reality, but at the same time they complement the visual formal language of the historic factory hall. Kolehmainen’s photography is shown alongside Raimo Utriainen’s sculptures. Ola Kolehmainen is one of Finland’s most internationally renowned photography artists. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 2005. Kolehmainen is known for his large-scale, minimalist photographs of architecture and the surprising details of buildings. Colour, light, form, surface and depth find new elements with Kolehmainen’s insightful and perceptive eye. Repetition and composition give a new perspective on the construction of the image and ways of seeing.
Ola Kolehmainen, photographic exhibition, Kutomosali 3. Finlaysoninkuja 9, floor 3B.
Teija Lehto
Teija Lehto (b. 1965) works primarily in woodcutting. Her works are often still lifes and their subjects are found in the artist’s own life. Details related to home, everyday life and local nature are present in Lehto’s work. She wants to make the everyday and the ordinary the subject of her images, thus emphasising the importance of everyday observations for the experience of the meaningfulness of life. Teija Lehto describes how she focuses her gaze close up, cuts out the outside and dives into the micro-landscape. Lehto’s woodcuts are pictorial extracts from her everyday reality. Through them the artist seeks to reflect on the nature of time, memory and memories, the fleeting nature of moments and the transience of everything.
Teija Lehto: woodcuts, Himmelblau Printmaking Studio. Finlaysoninkuja 9, floor PB.
Teemu Saukkonen
Tampere-based painter Teemu Saukkonen (b. 1954) offers Finlayson Art Area visitors a large body of work in his exhibition Earthly Delights and Holy Terror. This exhibition celebrating Saukkonen’s 70th birthday is a retrospective of his work from the 2000s, including The Magic of Earthly Delights, a collection of 26 works that was only shown in Bali in 2014–2015. The paintings are mostly made in Bali, where Saukkonen has visited and worked several times since 2009.
Teemu Saukkonen’s works are characterised by expression, strong colours, an abundance of paint marks and rich treatment of large surfaces. Saukkonen’s art has its roots in Western modernism. His visual language has also been influenced by numerous trips around the world, especially to Southeast Asia. Finlayson Art Area presents a varied and interesting selection of works from the 21st century by an artist who started in the late 1970s.
Teemu Saukkonen: 70th anniversary exhibition Earthly Delights and Holy Terror, Gallery Himmelblau and Puuvillasali. Finlaysoninkuja 9, floor 2B
Katja Tukiainen ja Matti Hagelberg
Visual artist, Doctor of Fine Arts Katja Tukiainen (b. 1969) brings paintings to Finlayson Art Area, as well as installations and prints created with her husband, comic artist Matti Hagelberg (b. 1964). The exhibition invites you to enter different worlds.
Katja Tukiainen’s lusciously coloured paintings follow the Circus theme, inspired by the old-time circus and the nostalgia of travelling life. Most of the paintings are new. The girl characters lead the viewer to the frontiers of fairy tale and reality, to a world where all good things are possible.
Katja and Matti’s Detective Agency will present two series of works: an interactive sculpture installation Fortune Teller and a series of prints created during the spring at Himmelblau Printmaking Studio. The prints show real craftsmanship and at the same time a team effort with Himmelblau’s printmakers, with up to 37 small plates used to create one work.
Katja Tukiainen and Matti Hagelberg: paintings, installations and prints, Kutomosali 1. Finlaysoninkuja 9, floor 3B.
Raimo Utriainen
Raimo Utriainen (1927–1994) was one of the reformers of Finnish sculpture from both an aesthetic and a technical point of view. He began his career with traditional sculpting methods, but in the early 1970s switched to industrial materials and manufacturing methods. Utriainen’s sculptures emphasise kinetic and dynamic structures that express experiences of time and space. His sculpting technique was aluminium or steel slats, from which he created his works assembled on a vertical or horizontal axis. Raimo Utriainen created public sculptural monuments not only in different parts of Finland, but also in Sweden, Norway, Israel and Japan. Utriainen achieved international fame even before he held his first solo exhibition at Galerie Artek in Helsinki in 1974. He was the most successful and international monument sculptor of his generation.
Raimo Utriainen’s exhibition at Finlayson Art Area is curated by art critic Timo Valjakka. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Raimo Utriainen Foundation. Utriainen’s sculptures are on display in the Rullaamo gallery on the ground floor of the Old Factory and in Kutomosali on the fourth floor, where the sculptures are placed alongside Ola Kolehmainen’s photographic art.
Raimo Utriainen: sculpture exhibitions, Rullaamo, Finlaysoninkuja 6 and Kutomosali 3, Väinö Linnan aukio 15, 4th floor.
Tapio Wirkkala
The long-standing collaboration between Finlayson Art Area and Collection Kakkonen continues with an exhibition of silverware and jewellery by Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985). In the same space, there are also print gems from Collection Kakkonen on show. The exhibition is curated by Juhani Kukkonen.
We want to offer the public a lesser-known side of the famous designer’s work. Tapio Wirkkala designed several classic pieces, such as the Kantarelli vase, Iittala’s Ultima Thule glassware and the Finlandia and Koskenkorva vodka bottles. Wirkkala won the Milan Triennal several times. He designed silverware and jewellery for Kultakeskus.
Tapio Wirkkala passed on his impressions from one piece of work to another and the familiar forms from ceramics can often be found in the production of silverware. He designed many nature-themed objects, of which the leaf-shaped bowls in particular have enjoyed a steady popularity since the international exhibitions of the 1950s. In addition to representational subjects, he also produced abstract works that approach sculpture. The jewellery designed by Wirkkala in the 1960s and 1970s is still in high demand.
Tapio Wirkkala’s silverware, jewellery and prints from Collection Kakkonen. Vooninki, Väinö Linnan aukio 13.
Charles Sandison
Charles Sandison (b. 1969) presents a large video installation, Zodiac, with 12 projectors at Finlayson Art Area this summer, in the Old Factory’s Kutomosali 2. Sandison is a media artist living in Tampere and one of the most internationally known artists in Finland. In his works, he deals with evolution, biology, language, genealogy, genetics and artificial intelligence. Sandison’s works have been seen not only in galleries and museums as installations, but also as large-scale outdoor works. Sandison’s computer-based light installations and video projections combine words, symbols and movement, allowing the viewer to enter inside the works’ swirling world of signs. Charles Sandison moved to Finland in 1995. He has participated in the Venice Biennale 2001 and the Singapore Biennale 2011. In 2008 he had a solo exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Sandison won the Ars Fennica award in 2010.
Charles Sandison: video installation Zodiac, Kutomosali 2. Finlaysoninkuja 9, floor 3B.
Himmelblau’s ten artists
To celebrate Finlayson Art Area’s 10th event, Gallery Himmelblau presents works from its own printmaking studio by ten artists. The diverse exhibition features well known classics as well as works from the younger generation. Himmelblau Printmaking Studio has been the producer of Finlayson Art Area since the beginning of the event in 2015. The printmaking studio has been operating in the Finlayson area for over 30 years. Himmelblau’s exhibitions are open all year round. In summer, Himmelblau’s premises are part of the Finlayson Art Area.
Himmelblau’s ten artists: Gallery Himmelblau’s sales gallery. Finlaysoninkuja 9, floor 2B.
Street paintings
FAA’s street painting area will feature themes based on the art of Klaus Haapaniemi, Katja Tukiainen and Matti Hagelberg. The painting designed by Haapaniemi continues the same visual themes and colour scheme as his installation Nomads. The painting will be located next to the stage in Väinö Linna Square. Street painting by Tukiainen and Hagelberg is based on their own prints made this spring in the Himmelblau Printmaking Studio. The street painting will feature funny characters from the series Katja and Matti’s Detective Agency.
As in recent years, the front of Media 54 is decorated with the well known Finlayson classic, the blue and white Wave, designed by Eine Lepistö in 1977. The tenth summer of Finlayson Art Area is being celebrated in Päämääräkuja-alley, and the event’s project manager Katja Villemonteix has designed the colorful street painting Balloon Sea. Among the balloons there are also some familiar names: all the artists who have participated in the Finlayson Art Area over the years. The balloon theme is continued by glass artist Janne Rahunen’s mirrored round glass works, which the public can admire along with the area’s plantings. Rahunen’s glass sculptures were exhibited at the Finlayson Art Area in 2022.