Wounds
Yö Galleria 26.7.-18.8.
Henrik Jacob, Germany
Ilkka Sariola, Finland
Said Baalbaki, Germany
Jussi Pyky, Finland
Juha Sääski, Finland
Sahar Vandy, Iran
Farhad Gavzan, Iran
Minoo Kiani, Iran
Peter Hock, Germany
Nadja Schöllhammer, Germany
Vulnerability
The title of the group exhibition, ‘Wounds’, fit into the larger discourse of vulnerability, which today is perhaps of greater significance than ever before in the modern Western world, given the wars in Ukraine and Israel and the experiences of the Corona pandemic.
Finding oneself vulnerable, the awareness of the possibility of suffering, is always a topos characterised by great ambivalence, in some ways it is even paradoxical.
On the one hand, there is the phenomenon of the strange disproportionality of actual personal safety: the relation between how many people in a society actually become victims of violent assaults on the one hand and the personal sense of safety on the other, which is widespread in the Western world, here, with regard to the participating artists in Northern and Central Europe, Finland and Berlin in particular: the safer people are, the greater the perceived insecurity – vulnerability – seems to become.
Furthermore, vulnerability is a topos in art, being an artist is associated with a special vulnerability, namely as a special openness that also entails the willingness to be hurt. Openness, not least towards one’s own feelings, allowing and recognising pain is supposed to be a prerequisite for creating art.
In recent decades, society has more and more become aware of real wounds, whether physical or psychological, traumatisation through psychological and sexual abuse have become an issue, and have been picked up as a topic in art. Here, too, an ambiguity can be observed: physical and psychological, personal and group-specific, social traumas are not only depicted in art, but artistic paths can also contribute to their healing, art can convey hope and optimism.
In the special situation today, as noted above, after the corona pandemic, uncertainty has increased, the belief in the omnipotence of medicine, that wounds, diseases, can be healed, has faltered. Finland in particular has experienced an acute threat from the Ukraine war in Northern Europe, and the peace between Russia and Finland has become a precarious one.
Text: Anna E. Wilkens
Näyttely- ja tapahtumahaku Yö Galleriaan touko-joulukuulle 2025 sekä tammi-helmikuulle 2026.
Ilari Vanhatalo - SACRED LOVE
7/6-16/6 2024 @ YÖ Galleria
Lönkka33
avajaiset
kuudes kuudetta kuudelta
Maalauksia rakkaudesta.
Ilari Vanhatalo (s.1978) on helsinkiläinen outsider taidemaalari.
YÖ in BERLIN
1.6.-22.6.2024
Opening 31.5 6 PM - 10 PM
Galerie/Projektraum TOOLBOX
Yö ry Artists' Association is an advocacy organization for professional artists from various fields, primarily operating in Helsinki. YÖ in BERLIN is a group exhibition organized by Yö ry, featuring works by its member artists. Yö has over 300 member artists and a gallery in Helsinki on Lönnrotinkatu. The space is free for all exhibiting artists, not just members of the association. At the core of Yö is its members' desire to act. Yö ry is not merely an artist-run gallery but a coalition of proactive and enthusiastic professionals from various fields. Yö is a movement and community, whose large membership enables even the most ambitious initiatives to be realized.
YÖ IN BERLIN is the first exhibition exchange between Yö ry and Galerie Toolbox. The exhibition is curated by Toolbox's founding members together with Yö ry members Mia Makela and Henriikka Pöllänen.
Yö's exhibition at Galerie Toolbox includes video art, visual art, and a portfolio showcase, where you can browse the works of Yö's member artists on a screen. The video works and portfolios were selected through an open call.
All the videos have been produced during 2020´s. The video works have been curated into 3 different screening programs. Remnants of the Wild presents videos exploring our partnerships to non-human world from Earth Forces, Mia Makela and Lau Rämö. Tapestry of Time contains video works unraveling the echoes of past in the present time from Johanna Väisänen, Hanna Råst, Joonas Jokiranta and Airbakers (Toivola & Wager).
Close Encounters presents a collection of videos focused on exploring intimacy through performance art from Juhani Koivumäki, Kainulainen&Latva, Mari Hokkanen, Eoin O`Dowd,
To Kosie, Henttu&Nummi&Kin and Ginko Shu.
The paintings and sculptures in the exhibition bring forth the diversity of materials. Isabel Pathirane's paintings are bound together by the strong use of color and expressiveness. Tuomas Holst blurs the lines between painting and sculpture with works that are made from recycled materials. Krista Blomqvist's series "Creatures of the Night" consists of paintings on copper, which evolve over time as the copper itself changes. The glass sculptures of Henriikka Pöllänen and Kimmo Reinikka bring out different dimensions of glass as material.
Curatorial team consisted of Toolbox founding members Maija Helasvuo and Niina Räty in collaboration with Yö Association board members Mia Mäkelä and Henriikka Pöllänen.
Opening program includes a performance from Tapani Pirog and an opening talk by Yö curatorial team.
Address:
Koloniestraße 120
13359 Berlin Wedding
we-sat 3-7 pm
U Bahn Osloerstraße
More information on the schedule will be available later on Yö's and Toolbox's websites.
https://www.yory.fi/fi/etusivu
https://www.galerietoolbox.com/
The starting point of Laura Kopio's (b.1981) artistic practice is the study of problems related to power and violence as philosophical questions, through painting. In her works, she reflects on the invisible suffering and social problems caused by violence, as well as questions related to history and remembrance from the perspective of power. Her work focuses on exploring and dismantling the forms, mechanisms, rituals and subtle connections of power relations in society. She graduated as a visual artist from the Turku Art Academy and studied art history and philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä.
Emma Eats Bread and Butter consists of works of various sizes, mainly painted on canvas in oil.
In my artistic work, I examine power and its different forms, as well as the human suffering caused by them. The theme that sustains the whole is crystallized in the thinking of the German thinker and composer Theodor Adorno, and it can be summed up in the phrase "The condition of all truth is the need to give a voice to suffering." In Adorno, as a thinker, I am fascinated not only by his ideas, but also by his ability to write about art in a way that makes visible the historical conditions in which the key philosophers and aesthetes of this century wrote. His thinking also embodies a broader intellectual mission, at a time when the utopian horizons of modernity have disappeared.
The exhibition as a whole is an overview of the role from the point of view of structure: humanity as womanhood in its many forms, in a world where the role as a human being is still something that someone other than a woman or someone who defines herself as a woman defines or wants to define. What are we as women, what are we allowed to be, to whom, how much and in what way?
In my works, gender is emphasized especially as a class issue. Through roles, the topic also appears as a societal and social position, in how othered roles (not roles chosen through gender) are still stigmatized and given from above. Through or in the form of the characters depicted in my works, I reflect on the oppressive structure hidden in class society, which our capitalist system supports, for example, in the form of economic inequality and violent treatment of women, both on a concrete and structural level. Being human appears in the form of power relations in society and, through the oppressive structure that this causes, as a broader social question, the forms, mechanisms and rituals of which I reflect on in my works.
Through my paintings, I try to highlight hidden broader manifestations of power, as well as the problems arising from these forms of power. I have tried to highlight the positions associated with women and issues related to history and the present from the point of view of an oppressive structure. We live in a world where weakness, lack of livelihood and failure are seen as individual choices. Erasing class differences into individual choices is society's way of hiding the problems of the disadvantaged from our eyes.
My ever-changing and occasionally disintegrating effort is to portray the conflict of human nature in the riptides of pressures built between private and shared social reality.
Yö Kekri vol.3 Open Call - SURREALISM / ART EXHIBITION
The Surrealist art movement began approximately 100 years ago with the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto (15.10.1924). The Artists’ Association Yö celebrates the centennial legacy and continuity of this art movement in the form of the Yö Kekri vol.3 multidisciplinary festival from October 15, 2024, to November 3, 2024. The festival highlights the ideas that influenced the Surrealist movement and, above all, their relevance and impact on contemporary art.
We are currently seeking visual artworks from members of the Artists’ Association Yö for a Surrealist art exhibition, which will be held at the Yö Galleria from October 17 to November 3, 2024. The theme of the artworks is free artistic interpretation of Surrealism. The technique and execution of the artworks are free, including audiovisual works. We particularly welcome artwork series consisting of multiple pieces and installations that expand into space.
Artists participating in the exhibition will receive an exhibition fee in the form of a €100 compensation.
Please send your informal artwork proposals to the association coordinator of The Artists’ Association Yö at producer@yory.fi. Include images or sketches of the proposed artwork/artwork series, along with information about the artwork's technique, dimensions, length (audiovisual works), year of creation, and price (in addition to the price, specify whether value-added tax is charged on sales).
Also, include a brief description of your own relationship with Surrealism in your proposal.
Only artworks from member artists who have paid the membership fee for the year 2024 will be accepted.
The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2024.
ENGLISH:
Yö Kekri vol.3 Open Call - SURREALISM / PERFORMANCES
The Surrealist art movement began approximately 100 years ago with the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto (15.10.1924). The Artists’ Association Yö celebrates the centennial legacy and continuity of this art movement in the form of the Yö Kekri vol.3 multidisciplinary festival from October 15, 2024, to November 3, 2024. The festival highlights the ideas that influenced the Surrealist movement and, above all, their relevance and impact on contemporary art.
We are currently seeking performances from members of the Artists’ Association Yö to be part of the festival. The performances should be based on some of the festival's three themes. The themes are:
-A surrealist perspective on the unconscious mind and its forms such as dreams, visions, hallucinations, and psychological anomalies.
-A surrealist perspective on nature, including forms of both non-human and human nature, as well as the boundaries between different forms of nature.
-A surrealist perspective on cultural values, social dimensions, the sacred, and cultural forms of its negation.
The method and duration of the performances are free. They can be music, poetry readings, performance art, puppet theater, circus, or any other form of performing arts or combinations thereof. The performances will be performed at the Yö Galleria during the festival from October 15, 2024, to November 3, 2024.
The artists/teams performing the works will receive a performance fee in the form of a €100 compensation. Unfortunately, we can only pay one fee/performance regardless of the size of the team.
Please send your free from performance proposals to the association coordinator of The Artists’ Association Yö at producer@yory.fi. Include information about the duration of the performance and technical requirements. Also, include a brief description in your proposal of how your work relates to one of the festival's themes (1. The Unconscious Mind, 2. Surreal Nature, 3. Totem and Taboo).
Only performances from member artists who have paid the membership fee for the year 2024 will be accepted.
The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2024.
Yö Fest vol. 4.5
2.5.-12.5.2024
Ohjelma
2.5 Josef Ka
3.5. Lotta Suomi ja Heli Keskikallio: Kuvitteellisten olentojen tanssit
4.5. Five Penny Black Magic / Lepäävät naaraat / Mirka Keini / Jukka Nevalainen: Kosmiset Säkeet
5.5 Ilari Edelmann
8.5. Röntgen meeting
10.5 SPEEEDO
11.5 Suvi Tuominen and Dash Che
12.5 Zhang Yan
Yö Fest vol.4 on kahden ja puolen kuukauden kestoinen maksuton taidefestivaali Helsingin ytimessä. Taideyhteisö Yö ry:n vuotuinen monitaidefestivaali rikastuttaa ja elävöittää pääkaupungin kulttuuritarjontaa. Yö Fest vol.4 sisältää laajan kattauksen eri taiteenalojen ja tekijöiden teoksia.
Tapahtumaa tukevat Suomen Kulttuurirahasto ja Helsingin kaupunki.
[Klöb Fröd] Yö Fest vol.4 Edition
Ma 29.4.2024, klo 19.00.
Ohjelmassa:
19.00 Poku-Poku: ”The Electrical Presence of a Performance. An Application of Ohm's Law to Performance Art.”
Poku-Poku is a Finnish performance artist.
19.40 Jan Jankowski: Gruidah Nui
Jan Jankowski is a Polish cryptomythologist, asemiotician and a metagraphic artist specialised in the study of ancient Hyperborean culture.
Gruidah Nui is an audiovisual performance based on late-archaic Hyperborean lullabies.
20.10 Tapani Pirog: Splat
Tapani Pirog is a Helsinki-based ultramodernist and post-expressionist.
As part of the official meeting of the metaphysical discussion group [Klöb Fröd], Pirog will present his latest performance Splat, at Yö Galleria, Helsinki, in April 2024.
Yö Fest vol. 4.4
”Yksi tavallinen päivä”
19.-28.4.2024
Avajaiset: 18.4.2024 klo 18-21
Näyttelyn taiteilijat: Kalle Ahonen, Sahar Ajami, Heli Hamid, Hannes Helki, Rosamai Kirjokangas, Laura Kopio, Elias Langi, Kristiina Lähteenmäki-Hein, Outi Ruottinen, Pauliina Waris.
