Hydra is a small fresh-water organism of the class Hydrozoa. Hydra can clone itself and regenerate from a small cluster of cells. Contrary to most animals, Hydra vulgaris does not age – at all.
Visual artist Maija Tammi and composer/performer Charles Quevillon have created an exhibition that combines Greek myths, spirituality, technology, scientific research, and the Hydra.
The installation titled Relic and Tammi’s photographic and video works pursue the human place in the continuum of existence and aging. The video installation The Problem of the Hydra examines practical and metaphysical questions raised by hydra all the way from the 1700s to this day.
Quevillon’s interactive sound sculpture Le Refuge des Cordes is a meditation on the sanctity of technology. The sculpture is also part of a solo performance by Quevillon, which will be shown each day at 1 pm during the gallery opening hours. The audience is limited to ten people per show. (max. capasity updated 26.6.)
In Mediabox there is Tammi’s and Quevillon’s video work Unheroic Labours #2. The work is a commission by the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes, and it was done during the COVID-19 spring lockdown.
An integral part of the exhibition is also Tammi’s and visual storyteller Ville Tietäväinen’s book Immortal published by Aalto ARTS Books.
Tammi and Quevillon are an artist duo based in Helsinki, Finland.
Maija Tammi (b. 1985) is a Finnish artist and Doctor of Arts, whose photographs, videos, and installations examine the borders of disgust and fascination, science and art. Tammi’s work has been exhibited in Paris, Berlin, Rome, London, New York, Melbourne, and Tokyo, and she has four published books. Tammi currently holds the honorary title Artist Professor and a grant for 2020–2024.
Charles Quevillon (b. 1989) is a Canadian composer/performer. He has a master’s in composition from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal. He has worked for nine years with choreographer Tedd Robinson on 23 projects which were presented across Canada. In 2018, they co-authored an hour-long opera presented in Ottawa. Quevillon is a doctorate student at the Sibelius Academy in the Music Technology department.
The exhibition essay is written by curator Lucia Longhi. The exhibition has been supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, University of the Arts Helsinki, Zoological Museum of the University of Turku, and Artek 2nd Cycle.
Mediabox