Mediabox is an exhibition space for media art, located in Forum Box. The programme presents recent media art pieces and is coordinated in collaboration with AV-arkki – Centre for Finnish Media Art. The space is currently an important outlet for media art.
There are 11-12 exhibition times available for Mediabox in 2025. The space includes a fixed projector, media player & active loudspeakers.
The Open Call has ended, thank you everyone who applied!
Forum Box’s Open Call for 2026 is now running!
Artists, curators and working groups can apply for an exhibition slot at Gallery Forum Box. More detailed information as well as the application form can be found on our website.
The deadline for applications is Monday, September 30th 2024 at 3 pm (Helsinki time, UTC+3).
The exhibitions are selected by Exhibition Committee that is chosen annually among Forum Box’s member artists. The exhibition selection is carried out according to Forum Box’s strategic guidelines. Our aim is to improve artists’ working possibilities and to create an outstanding, multi-faceted, flexible exhibitions programme.
The exhibition program for Autumn 2024 is published! More information about each exhibition will be updated on the site later.
20.9.–13.10.2024
Elina Autio
Mediabox: Reija Meriläinen
18.10.–10.11.2024
Juhana Moisander
Panu Rytkönen & Jan Ijäs
Mediabox: Emilia Ukkonen
15.11.–8.12.2024
Einari Hyvönen & JP Köykkä & Juha Vanonen
Mediabox: Martta Tuomaala
13.12.2024–12.1.2025
Aleksi Tolonen
Veikko Björk
Salla Myllylä
Mediabox: Juha Mäki-Jussila
Photo: Elina Autio.
The gallery is closed June 21–22, 2024.
On Sunday June 23rd the gallery is open as usual from 12 to 5 pm.
On view are Anna Fröman’s, Mari Mäkiö’s and Jussi Pyky’s exhibitions.
Welcome!
Photo:
Jussi Pyky: Karsina (2024)
Cooperative Forum Box is delighted to welcome six new member artists: Riikka Anttonen, Taru Happonen, Kaija Hinkula, Juuso Noronkoski, Leonor Ruiz Dubrovin, and Päivi Takala. Read more about each artist below.
RIIKKA ANTTONEN is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works in the expanded field of sculpture and painting. They hold an MFA degree from the University of the Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, and an MA degree from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Their space-sensitive works combine sculptural elements with marble mosaic and painted relief surfaces. Currently, Anttonen is working towards their next solo exhibition at Sinne Gallery in Helsinki, and their works can be seen in different group exhibitions, for example at Pesula Gallery in Sipoo, Kai Art Center in Tallinn and in Kunsthalle Helsinki.
Riikka Anttonen’s solo exhibition Acorn Hunt was on view at Forum Box January 5—28, 2024.
Photo: Arto Marttinen.
TARU HAPPONEN (b. 1989, Lahti) is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works with paintings, sculptures, and drawings. She graduated with a Master’s degree in 2023 from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki.
In her works, Happonen examines the environment and organisms from both microscopic and cosmic scales. Her works blend figurative and abstract elements, featuring patterns found in nature and utilizing diverse materials such as oil paint, recycled plastic, and mineral resin. Her artworks convey the significance of wonder, viewing the world as complex and constantly changing.
Her next solo exhibition will open in November 2024 at the HAM Gallery in the Helsinki Art Museum.
KAIJA HINKULA (b. 1984) works in the field of expanded painting making sculptural paintings, installation and video performances. Her artistic practice deals with the role of fantasy as a part of everyday reality and future images construction. Hinkula has graduated as a master of arts from the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts. She has exhibited solo in Forum Box, HAM Gallery and Oulu Art Museum, and as a duo with Henna Aho in KCCC Lithuania and Tartu Art Hall 2024 (upcoming). Her works are featured in the Finnish State Art Deposit Collection and in the collections of HAM Helsinki Museum of Art. She`s the stipendiat in the residency program ISCP in New York for the year 2025 by Academy of Fine Arts & Saastamoinen Foundation. Her next solo show is coming up in Turku Art Hall during the summer 2024.
Kaija Hinkula’ solo exhibition Fire Hose Bar 50 was on view at Forum Box September 17—October 10, 2021.
JUUSO NORONKOSKI (b. 1983) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. He graduated from the Master’s program in Photography at Aalto University in 2015. The relationship between a photograph, place and time duration plays a central role in his work. Noronkoski’s works are installations where he combines photography, video, sound, sculpture and text fragments. Noronkoski has held solo exhibitions in Finland, Germany and Japan. His works have been on view for example at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Loko Gallery, Tokyo, Sinne Gallery, Galerie Anhava, SIC, Hippolyte, and Forum Box, Helsinki.
Juuso Noronkoski’s joint exhibition Two Million Seconds together with Joonas Siren and Tuomo Rainio was on view at Forum Box April 8—30, 2023.
LEONOR RUIZ DUBROVIN is fascinated by the physical properties of oil painting. Her work focuses on maximizing the possibilities offered by this medium. Through various blending and layering techniques, Dubrovin seeks to create depth, imbue intricate details, and create complex visual effects. Her artistic work is a fusion of diverse dualities, such as the representative and the suggestive, reality and fiction. Through different portraits and embodiments, her paintings depict the exaltation of the individual and the search for an authentic self. Dubrovin’s motifs reflect a profound concern with the construction of the self, the multifaceted ways in which personal identities are formed, restricted, or enhanced, and how external perceptions and labels shape us.
Dubrovin graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2008. Her contributions have been exhibited in Finland and abroad, including venues such as the Finnish Cultural Institute and the Gallery Modus Operandi in Madrid, Tool Box Gallery in Berlin, and Helsinki Contemporary Gallery and Forum Box Gallery in Finland. Her works are featured in collections in Finland and abroad. Including the Wihuri Foundation, Pro Artibus Foundation, Finnish State Art Deposit Collection, Päivi and Paavo Lipponen Trust’s Art Collection (deposition) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finnish Art Society and Private collections in Finland, Spain, Germany, Austria and Denmark. She was awarded the Grönqvistska Foundation Prize in 2023.
Leonor Ruiz Dubrovin’s solo exhibition Bolthole was on view at Forum Box March 10—April 2, 2023.
During her career PÄIVI TAKALA (b. 1970) has explored the disintegration and modification of paintings over a long period. She has painted illusions of disintegrating images on canvas and then perforated the paintings with three-dimensional objects. In her latest pieces she has focuses on the gesture of repair. Repairing is a way to study the material nature of the painting and it opens up opportunities to consider in broader perspective the meanings of fixing and patching things.
Päivi Takala, Pia Euro and Elena Näsänen’s group exhibition was on view at Forum Box May 5—27, 2007.
Forum Box is excited to announce our Exhibition Program for Summer 2024! More information in English will follow soon.
24.5.–16.6.2024
Vappu Johansson
Marjo Levlin
Tuomas Linna
Mediabox: Azar Saiyar
23.6.–14.7.2024
Anna Fröman
Mari Mäkiö
Jussi Pyky
Mediabox: Ville Koskinen
26.7.–18.8.2024
Maija Helasvuo
Mediabox: Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa
3.8.–15.9.2024
Forum Box presents Norwegian contemporary art:
Moderne Ruiner (Astrid Findreng, Elisabeth Engen & Grethe Britt Fredriksen)
Bianca Hisse
Magnhild Opdøl
Tonje Bøe Birkeland
Qi Tan
The gallery is closed on Friday, March 29 and Sunday, March 31.
On Saturday, March 30 the gallery is open 12–4 pm.
Welcome to see Tarmo Paunu’s exhibition Parsimus Maximus!
On Mondays the gallery is closed.
Photo: Pietinen (1930) / Museovirasto.
Forum Box’s Spring 2024 exhibition program has been published! More detailed exhibition-specific information will be updated on our website during the spring.
5.–28.1.2024
Riikka Anttonen, Petri Kaverma, Kasper Muttonen
Mediabox: Risto-Pekka Blom
2.–25.2.2024
Riikka Aihinen, Ewa Górzna & Katarzyna Miron, Sara Pathirane
Mediabox: Kati Roover
1.–24.3.2024
Adel Abidin
Mediabox: Nastja Säde Rönkkö
30.3.–21.4.2024
Tarmo Paunu
Mediabox: Antti Tanttu
24.4.–19.5.2024
Taneli Rautiainen
Mediabox: David Muth
Ewa Górzna and Katarzyna Miron are visual artists working together in the field of moving image. In their artistic practice they are interested in human relationship with nature and our coexistence with other species. Their artistic methodology balances on the border between observatory documentary and fiction, exploring various forms of visual and sound narratives. Both artists hold Master of Fine Arts degree from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Their films and installations have been shown at various exhibitions in Finland and abroad and screened on numerous international film and video festivals. Currently they live and work in Helsinki.
Adel Abidin (b. 1973) was born in Baghdad and currently resides between Helsinki and Amman. He received a B.A. in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad (2000) and an M.F.A from the Academy of Fine Arts in Time and Space Art in Helsinki (2005). He works with various media such as videos, video installations, multi media sculptures and sound based installations and photography to explore the issues of the contemporary world that we are living in. His main point of departure is always linked to his intention to explore the complex relationship between visual art and politics & identity. Using a sharp palette of irony and humour he finds himself gravitating towards different social situations dealing with elusive experiences and cultural alienation.
Since his representation of Finland at the Nordic Pavilion in the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007), his work has been the subject of major exhibitions worldwide. Abidin’s work continues to be well represented in both private and public collections.
The Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation, in collaboration with the Forum Box cooperative, is awarding the Linnamo Prize for the second time, with a value of 15 000 euros. The prize is awarded to visual artist Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl (b. 1948) in recognition of her dedicated exploration in artistic practice. The prize committee characterises Kytösalmi-Buhl’s work as follows:
”Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl is one of the pioneers of Finnish video art, and her work from the 1970s and 1980s is undeniably considered a starting point for video art in Finland. She studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts in the 1970s, under the guidance of figures such as Joseph Beuys and Nam Jun Paik. Kytösalmi-Buhl approaches the body as a plastic and sculptural material in a complex interaction and interdependence with the video camera, her preferred medium of choice in her earlier works. Here the artist’s own body deconstructs and constructs the concepts of gender and subjectivity performatively. In more recent works, the body is physically more distant; it is mnemonic, fragile, and symbolically present, always in relation to various materialities. For Kytösalmi-Buhl, art has always been a way to restructure her relationship with the surrounding space and reality, regardless of the context or medium of the works. Awarding the Linnamo Prize in 2023 to Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl recognises her significant, individual artistic practice that has paved its own path in the field of Finnish art.”
MERVI KYTÖSALMI-BUHL
Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl was born in Imatra, Finland, and studied in Germany at the Cologne University of Fine Arts and the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. Notably, her instructors at the latter institution included Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik. Kytösalmi-Buhl currently resides and works in Cologne, Germany, while spending her summers in Ruokolahti, Finland. Between 1978 and 1984, Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl created an extensive body of video works, widely regarded as the starting point for performance-based video art in Finland. The key elements of her works are body, movement, space, and time. In more recent works, Kytösalmi-Buhl has produced photographs, object assemblages, and textile sculptures. Her works can be found in the collection of institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.
LINNAMO PRIZE
The Linnamo Prize is a Finnish fine arts prize awarded by Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation biannually. The award is given in recognition of committed exploration shown in artistic practice. It is worth 15 000 euros and will be awarded for the second time in 2023.
The prize is awarded in close collaboration with the artist-run cooperative Forum Box: in addition to the monetary acknowledgement, the prize includes an opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at Forum Box gallery. With the award the foundation seeks to acknowledge work that invigorates the expressive potentialities of art, modes of experimentality that often take place in the margins of the art world.
The Linnamo Prize is awarded to an experienced artist or artist group whose work can be anticipated to lead to interesting paths in the future. The recipients of the prize are expected to be either Finnish citizens or permanently living and working in Finland. The recipient is decided by the board of trustees of Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation based on a proposal by a three-person jury composed of artists. In 2021-2023 the jury includes the following members: Markus Konttinen (b. 1957), Jani Ruscica (b. 1978) and Man Yau (b. 1991).
The exhibition selections for 2025 based on Forum Box’s Open Call have been completed.
Both those who got an exhibition time and those who were left without one this time have been informed of the decision.
We received more than 300 applications this year, thank you once more to everyone who applied!
Forum Box Autumn 2023 exhibition program is here! Read more about the artists and the themes of the upcoming exhibitions below. The more specific information about each exhibition will be updated to our website during the fall.
❦❦❦
8.9.–1.10.2023
Teemu Saukkonen
Mediabox: Marja Viitahuhta & Ánnámáret
6.–29.10.2023
John Court
Mediabox: Kristoffer Ala-Ketola
3.–26.11.2023
James Prevett
Mediabox: Liinu Grönlund & Okku Nuutilainen
1.–23.12.2023
Noora Nio-Juss
Mediabox: Jade Kallio & Remi Vesala
The beginning of Teemu Saukkonen‘s career 1978-1982 coincided with a boom in painting.The movement he represented was called neo-expressionism, a style that was characterised by figuration and a striving after individual emotional expression. Initially, Saukkonen’s subject was the human being, but later conceptual ready-made elements and abstraction entered his work. In the early 2000s Saukkonen used old cross-stitch patterns in his paintings, thereby returning to figuration. The themes of his most recent paintings have been vulnerability and ephemerality of life and the relationship between man and nature. Saukkonen has always applied contemporary artistic and social stimuli to his own art.
John Court (b. 1969, Bromley, Kent, UK; lives in Tornio, Finland) produces art that springs from personal experience, focuses on the body and, most importantly, hinges on process and the passage of time.
Court graduated from London’s Camberwell School of Art (1994) and obtained a 1st Class Honours Degree in Sculpture from the Norwich School of Art and Design (1997) and, although the general character of his projects has evolved over time, the artistic footing he developed while a sculpture student continues to be a mainstay of his approach. Colour, for example, never requites consideration, since it is predetermined by the materials he uses. And while he continues to produce sculptural objects and draw, these processes are frequently adapted to respond to specific contexts and/or dovetailed into time-based works. The resulting transformations greatly expand the scope of these artistic approaches and generate outcomes that are unexpected and intrigue. Moreover, Court’s interest in process is so far-reaching that he does not differentiate between work produced in the studio or live before audiences. He considers all to be performative.
Court has exhibited extensively and has been invited to perform at major events such as Navigating North KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (2023) Belfast International Festival of Performance Art Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK (2023, Das Dicke Ende in Bern Art Museum Switzerland (2018), MA, Art Museum in Rouyn-Noranda Canada (2018), UP-ON Live Art festival Chengdu China (2017), SIGNAL Festival in Brussels Belgium (2017), Beijing Live in China (2016), Viva! Art Action festival in Montreal, Canada (2015), 7a*11d in Toronto, Canada(2014), DigitaLive in Guangzhou, China (2014), SpaceX Gallery Exeter in UK (2012), Guangzhou Live Art Festival in China (2010), ANTI Contemporary Art Festival in Finland (2010 and 2018), the Venice Biennale (2005) and the Liverpool Biennial (2004).
James Prevett was born in Cambridge, England and currently lives in Helsinki. He makes things to gather around – objects, events, text, video, often combined together as sculpture, and is interested in sculpture as means to explore the limits of minds and bodies, both personal and collective.
His two intersecting modes of artistic practice, studio based making and a social practice, both explore sculpture and its social relations. James often works with other people as a way of exploring this bringing alternative voices to the work.
He has exhibited widely including in UK, Finland, Thailand, USA, Austria and Brazil, and was part of a team that represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006. His works are in the Kiasma, Finnish National Gallery collection and numerous private collections. James is a Lecturer in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. In 2021 he was awarded the inaugural Linnamo Prize, by the Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation for committed exploration shown in artistic practice.
Noora Nio-Juss (b. 1976) is a visual artist from Helsinki. Noora graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Fine Arts with a master’s degree in fine arts in 2017 and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts in 2000, majoring in painting.
Nio-Juss has held several solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions both in Finland and abroad. The latest exhibitions in Turku Art Hall, Galleria Sculptor in Helsinki, Tallinn Art Hall Gallery, Riihimäki Art Museum and VS Gallery in Fiskars. Nio-Jussi’s works include e.g. In the collections of the National Gallery of Finland, Helsinki City Art Museum, Paulo Foundation, Mänttä City and Tampere Art Museum. Noora Nio-Juss was nominated for the 2020 Queen Sonja Print Award and in 2021 she received the William Thuring Award.
In recent years, Nio-Juss has been working on large-scale woodcuts. His wood drawings move between painting and wood graphics. Noora is looking for new ways of presenting wood graphics and ways to make and experience it.
This exhibition embraces the shifting nature of movement—of layers of time, space and materiality, hence the title Shift. The artist, Inka Bell, explores these subtle movements through the materiality of paper. A material used universally due to its accessibility and most widely understood for its ability to hold knowledge, the paper, in this case acts as a catalyst for the sense of movement that permeates the space. The cuts, incisions and arrangements create shapes within the paper that play with light and allow the audience to move their bodies in relation to the work for a complete spatial experience. The lightness of the paper is contrasted with the metal frames that encompass it. These frames hold the work together while obscuring the paper’s lightness, grounding the work in weighted reality.
The materiality of the piece effectively communicates the intentions while the subtle conceptual framework underlying the process is increasingly visible with each moment spent with the work. Inka Bell’s creations transcend verbalization and external interpretations. They prioritize the sensory realms established between the observer, the artwork, the surroundings, and the moment. These sculptural bodies dynamically change, bend, and transform in response to the position and perspective of the observer. This moment of encounter fosters active engagement and encourages the observer to shift their own position. To experience the work in its totality is to reach, crouch, lean and twist—exploring the potentials of one’s own body while simultaneously exploring the possibilities offered by the artwork. It is through this movement that the changes become apparent.
Beginning with these tangible physical elements, and acting through the body of the observed, the works conclude with a deeper evocation at a subconscious level.
Marianne Siri’s Least Concern includes plaster and ceramic sculptures that predominantly feature female figures, alongside a few animals and a young boy. This exhibition was prompted by the concept of humans as ‘least-concern species’–referring to a type of species classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as abundant in the wild and therefore not requiring conservation efforts. While critiquing the anthropocentrism of such conceptual frameworks, Marianne’s sculptures also unveil a captivating array of three-dimensional pieces, each with its own unique story to tell. The artworks aim to highlight the diversity of nature, the sacredness of life along with the influence of social media–ultimately challenging the perceptions of nature existing solely for human consumption.
While thematically the work dives into greater environmental concerns, the formal elements of the artwork showcase a profound level of artistic techniques and craftsmanship. Through meticulous attention to detail and experimentation of materials, every artwork captivates and holds the viewer’s attention. The towering Marie (painted plaster and ceramic, 2021) occupies the central location of the install. She draws great attention due to the height of her hair and the intensity of color inspired by French aristocracy. Marie stands in stark contrast to the white sculptures that encompass it––standing in homogeneity to each other and inviting a close inspection. The exhibition offers a diverse range of styles and mixed materials.
–Najia Fatima
Photos: Anna Autio.
Forum Box is again part of Art Fair Suomi Goes Galleries contemporary art festival. You can find the other participating galleries and the complete program from the event’s website.
The vernissage of the festival takes place on Tuesday, June 6th. Forum Box among other galleries will exceptionally be open until 7 PM, welcome to see Inka Bell’s and Marianne Siri’s solo exhibitions! At Mediabox on display is Artor Jesus Inkerö’s Jab (2020). Some refreshments will be served on the AFS opening night. Welcome!
Art historian Jane Vuorinen’s article Photography and the Organic Nonhuman: Photographic Art with Light, Chlorophyll, Yeasts, and Bacteria (open access) published in Konsthistorisk tisdkrift. Vuorinen examines the artistic practise of Jenni Eskola amongst others. Jenni Eskola’s and Antti Oikarinen’s exhibition Välissä took place in Forum Box in October–November 2021.
Forum Box is now included in the City of Helsinki’s Think Sustainably service. The service helps citizens to make more sustainable and responsbile choices by presenting actors who have passed the service criteria. You can familiarize yourself with the service criteria here. Forum Box is committed to acting responsibly and strives to promote more ecological and fairer ways of living on our shared planet.
Forum Box is closed on Friday, April 7 and Sunday, April 9 due to Easter holidays.
On Saturday, April 8 we are open 12–5 PM as usual, welcome!
On view is Juuso Noronkoski, Tuomo Rainio & Joonas Siren’s joint exhibition Two Million Seconds and Leena Kela’s Rest of Time (2021) at Mediabox.
Forum Box Summer 2023 programme has now been published! Read more about the artists and the themes of the upcoming exhibitions from below. The more specific information about each exhibition will be updated during the Spring.
❀❀❀
5.5.–28.5.2023
Simo Ripatti
Mediabox: Jukka Silokunnas
2.6.–25.6.2023
Inka Bell
Marianne Siri
Mediabox: Artor Jesus Inkerö
30.6.–23.7.2023
Aiko Tsukahara
Mediabox: Arttu Nieminen
11.8.–3.9.2023
dylan ray arnold
Eeva Hannula & Ville Kumpulainen
Pilvi Ojala
Mediabox: Helka Heinonen
This is the third year of Bærum Kunsthall’s Nordic look at curating. This year the jury consisted of Antti Oikarinen, Riikka Puronen and Vesa-Pekka Rannikko from Forum Box, and was led by Oda Broch from Bærum Kunsthall. Together they chose a total of 11 artists/artist groups to exhibit at Bærum Kunsthall in 2023.
The chosen artists/artist groups are: Sibylle Eimermacher, Qi Tan, Sissel Fredriksen, Samuel Brzeski, Miguel Rozas Balboa, Sanna Helena Berger, Jens Stegger Ledaal, Clara J:son Borg, Johan Urban Bergquist, Jonas Liveröd, and Gorjeoux Moon.
The first exhibitions opened on January 5th with Sibylle Eimermacher’s Antiomony and Qi Tan’s Cosmic Garden. Both exhibitions are on display until the 29th of January.
Read more: https://finno.no/en/articles/baerum-kunsthalls-program-for-2023-juried-by-forum-box
The jury’s work and Baerum Kunsthall’s collaboration with Forum Box is supported by The Finnish Norwegian Cultural Institute.
Forum Box spring 2024 exhibition program has been published! Read more about the artists and the upcoming exhibitions from below. More detailed information about the exhibitions will be updated on our website during the Spring.
13.1.–5.2.2023
Ilya Orlov
Mediabox: Sini Pelkki
10.2.–5.3.2023
Markus Konttinen
Mediabox: Pasi Autio
10.3.–2.4.2023
Pekka Niskanen & Mohamed Sleiman Labat
Leonor Ruiz Dubrovin
Jenni Haili
Mediabox: Ninni Korkalo
8.4.–30.4.2023
Noronkoski–Rainio–Siren
Mediabox: Leena Kela
God Out of a Washing Machine is the first large solo exhibition by Helsinki-based artist Ilya Orlov, probably best known in Finland for his conceptualist re-enactment of the former Lenin museum-apartment in Hakaniemi in 2017, the Dadaist intervention into Seurasaari museum display in 2016, and internationally, for participating in Manifesta-10 in 2014, as well as, recently, co-founding and co-editing Shy Plumber, Anti-War Journal of Art and Anti-Art.
In Orlov’s new show, his trademark strategy of hacking traditional exhibition formats, toying with contemporary art clichés, and poeticising art administration jargon is pushed a little further. A solo exhibition looks like a group show of mutually incompatible artists; wall texts that normally explain the exhibits become exhibits themselves, to be explained by the works. Finally, the exhibition statement, instead of telling explicitly what it is all about, offers a piece of ‘international art English’ so convoluted that it makes one nostalgic about the clarity of e-flux announcements:
“Marrying Duchamp’s eroticist mechanics with forgotten baroque landscape painting; scrupulously recreating Malevich’s craquelures (only for the sake of switching on gravity in his weightless utopia); putting the artist’s own witticisms into the mouths of contemporary philosophers like Timothy Morton and Donna Haraway; planting inverted perspective of Byzantine icons into constructivist axonometry; and finally, turning Sol Lewitt’s cube into a ‘metaphysical washing machine’, the exhibition invites the viewer to look at culture and art itself through a psychedelic conceptualist kaleidoscope of sorts.”
The exhibition presents works in varied mediums, including painting, lithography, watercolour, kinetic sculpture, text, readymade, photography, assemblage, installation. The works are available for purchase via Forum Box. Half of the artist’s benefit from the works sold will be directed to charity organisations helping Ukrainian refugees.
Ilya Orlov (b. 1973) is an artist, theorist, journal editor, and Kuvataideakatemia doctoral researcher residing permanently in Finland since 2015. Orlov’s works have been shown as part of Manifesta 10 (2014). In 2018, Orlov was shortlisted for the Finnish Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale (in collaboration with Joanna Warsza, Minna Henriksson, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Ahmed Al-Nawas, Gianni Talamini). Orlov is co-editor of the independent international anti-war art journal Shy Plumber published in Finland (ISSN 2736-8203), presenting artists and writers from Finland and abroad holding a strong anti-war and anti-putinist stance.
Näyttelyssäni näkyvät valon synnyttämät ja värin energian muovaamat elävät muodot, maalauksen kielen kautta. Teokset ovat öljyvärimaalauksia kankaalle sekä värikynäpiirustuksia ja vesivärimaalauksia paperille.
Markus Konttinen (s. 1957) on toiminut kuvataiteilijana vuodesta 1978. Hänellä on ollut noin satakolmekymmentä yksityis- ja yhteisnäyttelyä yhteensä Suomessa ja ulkomailla vuodesta 1982 lähtien. Konttisen teoksia on kaikissa keskeisissä julkisissa kokoelmissa Suomessa ja sekä monissa suomalaisissa ja ulkomaisissa julkisissa ja yksityisissä kokoelmissa. Hän on valmistunut Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemiasta ja toiminut siellä myös lehtorina, professorina, vararehtorina, rehtorina ja dekaanina. Tunnustuksia: Vuoden Nuori Taitelija (Tampereen Taidemuseo), Pro Finlandia -mitali (Suomen Valtio), Taideyliopiston Kunniatohtori (honoris causa).
Photo: Sandstorm in Sahrawi refugee camp in Hamada Desert, Sahara by Mohamed Sleiman Labat
Small scale family gardens started to emerge in the Sahrawi refugee camps in the Hamada Desert, southwest Algeria around 2002. Leading figures in the process are Sahrawi agricultural engineers and gardeners who have been researching and developing the garden practices together with the families. The theories and practices have become rulebased knowledge in the community.
Gardens and agricultural knowledge are starting to change the food production for this community where dependency on international aid has been the case since the arrival of the Sahrawi to the refugee camps in 1975. Earlier the Sahrawi were pastoralist nomads in Western Sahara. Pekka Niskanen and Mohamed Sleiman Labat follow in their artistic research project the multi-layered story of phosphate in the Baltic region as well as in the Sahrawi Refugee camps in Hamada Desert. The project deals with phosphate and its effects on two vastly different environments. Phosphate from Western Sahara has ended up in the Baltic Sea to cause eutrophication.
Pekka Niskanen: In the previous research on “Family Gardens, an Emerging Discourse in the Sahrawi Community” Niskanen and Mohamed Sleiman Labat have observed the emergence of small scale family gardens in the Saharawi community in the Hamada Desert. The article appreciates how gardens and agricultural knowledge are starting to change people’s perception about food production and diet. Especially for this community where dependency on international aid has been the case since the arrival of the Saharawi to the refugee camps in Algeria in 1975. Niskanen was an artist in residence at Villa Lante at the end of summer 2022 invetigating community gardens in Rome.
Mohamed Sleiman Laba: Born and raised in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps southwest Algeria, my art draws upon the past and present life of the Sahrawi people. In 2015 I created Motif Art Studio after destructive floods in Samara Camp. The studio was built from the discarded materials and broken furniture. The studio organizes different art collaborations, interactive sessions and art talks. It also includes an experimental garden to grow vegetables and plants next to the studio. The garden provides some food for our family as well as an escape from the harsh desert hot environment. My art practice aims to address pressing social and environmental issues.
The exhibition will consist of oil paintings that will interlock to form installations. It will revolve around the notion of identity and will explore different concepts such uniqueness, sameness, alterity, alienation…
As a whole, the works will form a fictitious social scenario where different roles and idealized identities will interrelate with each other. Oil paintings of different dimensions will represent a series of scenes and portraits that will form a narrative unit that will go beyond the real, promoting the irrational and dreamlike.
My work is formed by the synthesis of a variety of dualities such as the representative and the suggestive, reality and fiction. The paintings collapse these antagonistic dichotomies that dialogue with each other in order to create alternative conceptual spaces.
Leonor Ruiz Dubrovin (b. 1978) lives and works in Helsinki. She graduated (MFA) from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2008 and has since then been exhibiting her work in collective and individual exhibitions in different galleries and museums in Finland, Spain, Austria, Denmark and Germany. Such as Taidesalonki Husa, Helsinki Art Museum, Korjaamo Galleria, Galleri Elverket (Pro Artibus Foundation), Finland, Galleri Heike Arndt in Berlin and Denmark, Galerie Toolbox, Berlin, Finnish Cultural Institute in Madrid and Espacio Alexandra, Santander, Spain. Her work has been acquired by several Public and Private collections in Finland and internationally such as the Jenny ja Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, Pro Artibus Foundation Collection , Finnish State Art Deposit Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (deposition) of Päivi and Paavo Lipponen Trust’s Art Collection and the Finnish Art Society, Finland.
https://leonorruizdubrovin.com/
Jenni Hailin valokuvainstallaation Voyage Out lähtökohtana toimivat hänen iso-isotätinstä Fannyn ja isotätinsä Signen emigroitumismatkat Amerikkaan.
Fanny (s. 1894) oli kotoisin Suurperolta ja Säiniöstä Viipurin maalaiskunnasta. Hän muutti yksin 16-vuotiaana New Yorkiin, meni naimisiin ja työskenteli taloudenhoitajana, miehensä merillä.1930-lopulla hän muutti Kaliforniaan, avioitui vielä kahdesti, kunnes kuoli vuonna 1969 Fresnossa.
Signe (s. 1902) lähti täysin vastakkaiselta puolelta Suomea, länsirannikolta Kaskisista New Yorkin kautta Bostoniin 25-vuotiaana. Hän löysi aviomiehekseen ruotsalaisen Alfredin, jonka kanssa avioitui Manhattanilla. Myös Alfred työskenteli merillä. Heidän viimeisin asuinpaikkansa oli Malmössa Ruotsissa.
Installaation muodostamilla aikajanoilla Hailin kuvaamien kuvien rinnalle lomittuvat kuvat eri lähteistä: arkistoista, verkosta, kirjoista sekä tekoälyohjelmien luomat kuvat. Teoksen kuvat on vedostettu historiallisella märkälevyambrotypia-menetelmällä.
Jenni Haili (s. 1980) on Aalto yliopiston Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulun Valokuvataiteen koulutusohjelmasta valmistunut valokuvataiteilija. Keskeistä hänen tuotannossaan on piilottamisen ja esittämisen tematiikka, kuten myös valokuvahistoria niin tekniikoiden kuin sisältöjen kautta. Hailin teoksia on nähty useissa yksityis- ja ryhmänäyttelyissä Suomessa ja ulkomailla. Taiteellisen työn ohessa hän opettaa pääasiassa valokuvauksen analogisia menetelmiä Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemiassa Helsingissä.
Tuomo Rainio: Space-time Graininess (2022), reaaliaikainen tietokonegrafiikka
Huhtikuussa Forum Box -galleriassa nähdään ja kuullaan Juuso Noronkosken, Tuomo Rainion ja Joonas Sirenin teoksia. Näyttely on taiteilijoiden yhteistyössä toteuttama kokonaisuus, jonka keskeisiä teemoja ovat erilaiset ajalliset kestot ja niiden havainnointi. Näyttelyssä hahmotellaan kuvaa maailmasta, joka rakentuu kappaleiden sijaan tapahtumista. Nopeat ja hitaat tapahtumat – digitaaliset generatiiviset prosessit, kemialliset valokuvat, kivi, vesi ja ääni – lomittuvat yhteen. Kerronnallisen, yhteen suuntaan etenevän aikakäsityksen sijaan, aikaa tarkastellaan kestojen välisten suhteiden kautta.
Juuso Noronkoski (s. 1983) on Helsingissä asuva ja toimiva kuvataiteilija, joka on valmistunut valokuvataiteen maisteriohjelmasta Aalto-yliopistosta vuonna 2015. Valokuvan, paikan sekä ajallisen keston välisellä suhteella on keskeinen rooli taiteilijan työskentelyssä. Noronkosken teokset ovat installaatioita, joissa hän yhdistelee valokuvaa, videota, ääntä, veistoksia sekä tekstikatkelmia. Noronkoski on pitänyt yksityisnäyttelyitä, Suomessa, Saksassa ja Japanissa. Hänen töitään on ollut esillä muun muassa Künstlerhaus Bethanienissä, Berliinissä, Loko Galleryssä, Tokiossa sekä galleria Sinnessä, Galerie Anhavalla, SIC galleriassa ja Hippolytessä, Helsingissä.
Tuomo Rainio (s. 1983) on helsinkiläinen kuvataiteilija, jonka työskentelyssä yhdistyy digitaalinen valokuva, video ja ohjelmointi. Hän on valmistunut Taiteen maisteriksi Valokuvataiteen koulutusohjelmasta Aalto-yliopistosta vuonna 2011. Rainio työskentelee taiteen ja teknologian lehtorina Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemiassa. Hänen teoksiaan on esitetty yksityis- ja ryhmänäyttelyissä Suomessa ja ulkomailla vuodesta 2005 alkaen. Viimeisimpänä hänen teoksiaan on ollut mukana Riga Photography Festivalilla vuonna 2020. Hänen teoksensa Untitled (Gravitational Waves) on koettavissa osana Nykytaiteen museo Kiasman ARS17+ Online Art verkkotaiteen kokoelmaa. Rainion teoksia on mm. Nykytaiteen museo Kiasman, Suomen valokuvataiteen museon sekä EMMA – Espoon modernin taiteen museon kokoelmissa, sekä Valtion taidekokoelmassa.
Joonas Siren (s. 1983) on helsinkiläinen ääni- ja mediataiteilija. Hän on valmistunut Kuvataideakatemiasta kuvataiteen maisteriksi tila-aikataiteen linjalta vuonna 2013 sekä Nordic Sound Art -maisteriohjelmasta vuonna 2012. Tärkeimpiä Sirenin näyttelyitä ja projekteja ovat mm: yhteisnäyttely “Toinen laji” Milka Luhtaniemen kanssa Forum Boxissa kesällä 2021, Nordic Sound Art -maisterinäyttely Roskilden nykytaidemuseo 2012, Kuvan kevät 2013, ääniteos Jussi Koitelan Skills of Economy –projektissa Kiasmassa 2016, OFF -performanssi-installaatio Tiivistämössä 2018 (yhteistyö Milka Luhtaniemen, Nicolina Stylianoun ja Elena Rekolan kanssa) sekä yksityisnäyttely “Softbed” Kosminen galleriassa 2019. Lisäksi hän tekee kokeellista elektronista tietokonemusiikkia Forces-nimellä, jolla on hän julkaissut lukuisia levyjä sekä remixejä eri kansainvälisillä elektronisen musiikin levy-yhtiöillä.
Last week while the gallery was on summer break, Forum Box organized an art camp for Ukrainian children and youth at the Annantalo Art Centre. The camp was organized together with Ukrainian Community Centre, All Our Children NGO, and the City of Helsinki. Ukrainian artist Maria Lenova and Forum Box member artists facilitated art workshops for the participants, in which they, for example, created collages, painted still-lives with charcoal and watercolors, and fabricated figurines from silk clay. On the last day of the camp the participants got to visit Kunsthalle and Helsinki Art Museum (HAM).
Forum Box’s autumn 2022 program has been released! More detailed information about each exhibition will be updated to our website during autumn.
The paintings in the exhibition iiris ≈ siiri pose questions about the facts of life. How a tree becomes a tree, how a flower becomes a flower? How and when did I become me? What does individuality or having a free will mean, when the development of our eyes and brains are dictated by our genes and affected constantly by our surroundings. We only see what our eyes are able to see. The world is filtered to us trough our eyes and bodies, which are shaped by the life lived. The emergence of a painting resembles humans’ orbicular being and traces of life materialize in them through a similar process.
Siiri Haarla (b. 1986) is visual artist based in Helsinki and Berlin. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (MFA) in 2011 and from University of Helsinki (BA) in the faculty of Comparative Literature in 2020.
At Mediabox Valter Tornberg’s audio essay In Medias Res.
Paavo Räbinä’s exhibitions explore war, violence and struggle for power and the suffering they cause.
At Mediabox Milja Viita.
Yassine Khaled is a visual artist based in Helsinki. His work discussses digital communication, freedom of movement, and societal power relations.
Elina Oikari is a filmmaker based in Helsinki. She works with fiction, documentary and experimental film and also takes photographs.
At Mediabox Timo Bredenberg.
Päivikki Alaräihä explores the relationships between places, works of art and bodies through painting and installation.
Henna Aho plays in her work with features characteristic to painting and reflects the shape and materiality of painting.
Taru Happonen works in the expanded field of painting and examines in her work the environment and its organisms both from microscopically close and from the faraway cosmic perspective.
At Mediabox Leda Vaneva.
Lasse Juuti (b. 1990, Tampere) works in the large and all-encompassing scale, reflecting on the possibilities of painting and its relationship with body, space and daily life.
Emma Jääskeläinen (b. 1988 Espoo) makes sculptures using slow handcraft methods while contemplating on the meaning of touch and time. Jääskeläinen is the Young Artist of the year 2022.
At Mediabox Joonas Hyvönen.
The Open Call for Bærum Kunsthall this year is a collaboration with Forum Box in Helsinki. The jury for 2023 is Antti Oikarinen, Riikka Puronen and Vesa-Pekka Rannikko from Forum Box and Oda Broch is leading the jury for BK.
This is the third year of Bærum Kunsthall’s Nordic look at curating. The BK jury for 2021 was Kling & Bang from Iceland and the BK program for 2022 was juried by A Kassen from Denmark. Now it’s time for a Finnish jury and Bærum Kunsthall is happy to announce the collaboration with Forum Box, one of Finlands eldest artist-run venues.
The international perspective on curating is innovating and fair. Jurying happens on different terms when the curators do not already know the artists and their story. Mixing up the backgrounds of the jury members ensures a fresh look at the Norwegian and Nordic art scene. A fair amount of the applications to Bærum Kunsthall’s open call arrive from outside of Norway and inviting various Nordic jury members makes us sure that Norway-based artists are juried fairly on equal terms as their international colleagues.
Application deadline is Monday April 25th! More info about applying can be found here.
Forum Box’s spring 2022 program has now been released! Once again, we proudly present an incredibly versatile range of contemporary art in the form of group and solo exhibitions.
14.1.–6.2.2022
Sampo Apajalahti, Hanna Vihriälä
Mediabox: Liinu Grönlund & Okku Nuutilainen
11.2.–6.3.2022
Annette Arlander, Jaakko Kahilaniemi, Saku Soukka
Mediabox: Annette Arlander
11.3.–3.4.2022
Hanne Ivars
Mediabox: Leena Lehti
8.4.–1.5.2022
Restlessminds, Muriel Kuoppala
Mediabox: Axel Straschnoy
6.5.–29.5.2022
Harrie Liveart
Mediabox: Kristoffer Ala-Ketola
3.6.–26.6.2022
Eveliina Hämäläinen, Kim Jotuni, Milla-Kariina Oja
Mediabox: Flis Holland
1.7.–24.7.2022
Johanna Väisänen
Mediabox: Joel Karppanen
Press release 24 November 2021 6 p.m. | Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation and Forum Box cooperative
In collaboration with the Forum Box cooperative, Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation awards for the first time the Linnamo Prize, a new fine arts award worth 15 000 euros. The first prize is awarded to the Helsinki-based sculptor James Prevett (b.1977) in recognition of committed exploration in artistic practice. The award committee elaborates the selection as follows:
“The sculptor James Prevett’s art practice can be described as contemporary sculpture in a state of constant change. He embraces that which is going on around him and often the end result is something unpredictable and surprising. Instead of being limited to an embodied practice with materials, Prevett’s art combine elements of research and social action, focusing on situations, spaces and the people engaging in them. What resonates underneath all this is a profound fascination for the social significance of art, for that which is created by activating and engaging with one’s surroundings and its participants with a view to new and unfamiliar configurations of the everyday. By expanding both the spatial and the social reach of sculpture from the institutions of the art world towards the city space, the domestic realm, as well as the range of social media, James Prevett’s work has provided the field of contemporary sculpture in Finland with inspiring and invigorating new perspectives.”
JAMES PREVETT
James Prevett is a British artist living and working in Helsinki since 2013. He creates things to gather around – objects, events, text, video that are often combined as sculpture. Prevett is interested in sculpture as means to explore the limits of minds and bodies, both personal and communal. His work draws on many influences from music to poetry to the histories of monuments. Prevett enjoys collaborating with other people, embracing the creativity and unpredictability that comes with making things together. He thinks everybody can and should ‘make’, and that this can bring unexpected beauty to the world.
Prevett has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally in countries such as Finland, Thailand, Singapore, USA, Austria and Brazil. He was part of a team of artists, musicians and architects selected to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006. His ongoing series Patsastellaan: Parties for Public Sculpture invites artists to make something new for an existing public sculpture in Helsinki. He is currently a Sculpture Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki.
Images:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jujLtPi94E8Eed2UqBLiwXMzOTpBRCzh?usp=sharing
Further information:
Marko Karo
Chairperson
+358 50 547 1836
Member of the jury
Jani Ruscica
+358 40 708 5361
Links: https://jamesprevett.com/
The annual sales exhibition includes works by Gallery Forum Box member artists, including sculptures, photographs, graphics, paintings and media art.
All available artworks are on display here! You may reserve works through the webstore, further instructions available on the site!
Works for sale e.g. by the following artists:
Sampo Apajalahti, Petteri Cederberg (second from the left in the picture), Petri Eskelinen, Kaisaleena Halinen, Mika Hytti, Anita Jensen, Kirsi Jokelainen, Kaisu Koivisto, Arto Korhonen, Raakel Kuukka, Johanna Lecklin, Tiina Elina Nurminen, Thomas Nyqvist (first from the right), Eeva Peura, Pekka Pitkänen, Riikka Puronen, Vesa-Pekka Rannikko (second from the right), Satu Rautiainen (third from the left), Teemu Saukkonen, Joakim Sederholm, Antti Tanttu (far left on the picture), Kain Tapper, Nora Tapper, Fanny Tavastila, Tommi Toija, Pauliina Turakka Purhonen, Samppa Törmälehto, Kristiina Uusitalo, Ilona Valkonen, Timo Wright, Magdalena Åberg.
For more information, contact:
Kersti Tainio
Forum Box Market -sales exhibition producer
The autumn program of Forum Box has been published! The new season is filled with versatile and high quality contemporary art by artists representing different art forms and generations.
The season opens with an international group exhibition, Companions, that is tied around London Feminist Library and combines art with activism. The year 2021 will close with Kaarlo Stauffer’s solo exhibition. In addition to the exhibitions in our main space, Mediabox is once again filled with contemporary media art, co-curated by AV-Arkki and Forum Box.
AUTUMN 2021
COMPANIONS Aug 20th – Sept 12th
Hanna Saarikoski / Kaija Hinkula / Minna Suoniemi Sept 17th – Oct 10th
Antti Oikarinen ja Jenni Eskola Oct 15th –Nov 7th
Christian Langenskiöld Nov 12th –Dec 5th
Kaarlo Stauffer Dec 10th –Jan 9th, 2022
In Mediabox:
Sasha Huber: The Firsts – Edmonia Lewis Aug 20th – Sept 12th
Aino Aksenja: Small town girl Sept 17th –Oct 10th
Nina-Maria Oförsagd: Arrangement non-existent Oct 15th – Nov 7th
Ewa Górzna & Katarzyna Miron: Surround (Working title) Nov 12th –Dec 5th
Jan Ijäs: Belgrade Forest Incident …and What Happened to Mr.K? Dec 10th – Jan 9th, 2022
Introducing our Artists is a new series for presenting the fantastic member artists of our cooperative that was founded over 25 years ago! There are now over a hundred members in the cooperative, representing several generations and genres of top-notch artists.
The first artist to be introduced is visual artist Kaisu Koivisto and her latest installation Siirrettävä monumentti.
At the heart of Kaisu Koivisto’s work are the special features of the northern landscape and changes in societies. The surprising combinations of subject and material are characteristic of Koivisto’s works, in which she reflects on the interfaces between nature, technology and culture. Kaisu Koivisto’s works have been exhibited e.g. in the following places : Kiasma (Helsinki), Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova -museum (Turku), Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid), PS 1 (New York), Estonian Art Museum Kumu (Tallinn), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Porin taidemuseo, Galleria Sculptor, Forum Box.
http://www.kaisukoivisto.com
@kaisukoivisto
Facebook
Kaisu Koivisto: Siirrettävä monumentti
Installation (textile, security fences), 2021.
250 x 450 cm
I follow the news of the world closely. Protest movements are demolishing monuments that are offensive from the perspective of our time. Some are protesting for democracy, others for other issues. The unifying factor is the security fences that restrict or attempt to restrict the movement of people. Siirrettävä monumentti (Movable Monument) is an idea of a peaceful monument that can be moved from one place to another. The textile part of the work folds softly over the structure I made of security fences into a tent-like shape.
Forum Box is open as usual Tue–Sun from 12 to 5pm. We limit the amount of visitors in our 300m² gallery space to a maximum of 6 people at a time. We kindly ask you to wear a face mask and keep a 2 meter distance to our other visitors as well as our staff. We take thorough care of the hygiene of surfaces. Welcome to enjoy art safely!
The first stage of the art competition Taidetta Jätkälle – Art for the Port has ended. We want to warmly thank all the participants!
We received 93 proposals, and the jury selected 5 of them to the second stage. The participants who were selected to the second stage have been informed personally. The winners of the competition will be published on Forum Box’s website at the latest in August 2021.
The open competition Taidetta Jätkälle (“Art for the port”) in two parts seeks a public artwork for the port area in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki. The competition started on 28 August 2020 and ends on 4 June 2021. The aim of the competition is to find a site-specific artwork that reflects the identity of Jätkäsaari.
Read more about the competition.
The first questions and answers concerning the Taidetta Jätkälle – Art for the Port public art competition have now been published. We are still open for more questions!
See the Questions and Answers as well as general information concerning the competition here.
The first phase of the competition started 28 August 2020 and it will last until 20 January 2021. The participants must ask their questions concerning the first phase by 15 November 2020 via email to the contact person of the competition: Virpi Näsänen, virpi.nasanen[at]forumbox.fi. The questions will be answered on Art for the Port -page of Forum Box’ website as soon as possible, however, no later than 1 December 2020.
Forum Box is an artist-driven actor that values freedom of the arts, communality and diversity. We strive to develop our activities so that they would meet our values even better, and thus observe the impact of our activities on our society.
One tool for measuring the observations on our activities is our equality plan that was approved in August 2020 by the Board of Cooperative Forum Box. The goal of the plan is to monitor and promote the realisation of equality in both internal and external activities of the cooperative and the gallery.
The plan is used for monitoring how equality is being promoted in the following sections in our activities:
Read more about our equality plan and its goals here.
Forum Box joined The Ministry of Justice’s Discrimination-free Zone campaign in August 2020.
Gallery Forum Box’s Open Call for exhibitions in 2022 is now closed.
We thank everyone who applied!
We will inform all the applicants about the results by the end of November 2020.
From August 2020 onwards Gallery Forum Box is open from Tuesday till Sunday at 12–17.
On Mondays the gallery is closed.
As we want to reach better Swedish-speaking friends of art, we have published our web page in Swedish! Go to the Swedish version of our website by clicking the SV link in the left hand side of the main page or directly from here. Välkommen!
Elämän vesi / Lífsins vatn / Water of Life
25.1.–29.2.2020
At Kling & Bang -gallery, Reykjavik opens up the exhibition Elämän vesi / Lífsins vatn / Water of Life, produced in collaboration with Forum Box. The artists in the show are Hermanni Saarinen, Ilona Valkonen, Kristiina Uusitalo, Petteri Cederberg and Vesa-Pekka Rannikko. The exhibition is curated by Juha-Heikki Tihinen and it is open from January 25th to February 29th, 2020.
Juha-Heikki Tihinen: Water of Life
The Water of Life exhibition presents works of five contemporary Finnish artists. They are Petteri Cederberg, Vesa-Pekka Rannikko, Hermanni Saarinen, Kristiina Uusitalo and Ilona Valkonen. The name of the exhibition, Water of Life (Aqua vitae), can refer to different things: e.g. the Book of Revelation, the fairytale of Brothers Grimm, distilled spirit and the Fountain of Youth. It can be mystical and spiritual, or very matter of fact and mundane. The choice of approach is yours.
The exhibition is a continuation of the co-operation between Forum Box and Kling & Bang. In 2016 the Pro Artibus Foundation organised an exhibition called By Water in Finland and exhibited works of 14 Icelandic artists. One of the venues were Forum Box. Forum Box is an artist driven gallery space and an artistic collective which has been active from 1996. The very idea of Forum Box is to create a forum for all arts and artists.
The exhibition shows the diversity of Forum Box artists and also the variations on how to treat the exhibition theme. The artists treat the theme in various ways which make clear how Water of Life can be seen from sublime or from carnivalesque perspectives. This diversity creates a parallel to the Forum Box activity which combines artistic practice with ordinary tasks.
Petteri Cederberg (b. 1976) works with different mediums, paintings, drawings, animations and installations. His piece in the exhibition is Median life and / or death (2019). The piece is a good example of Cederberg’s oeuvre. His works are dream-like or some kind of apparitions. He mixes both geometrical and organic forms which start out as abstract but turn into figurative. Cederberg turns animation into an uncanny, but at the same time humorous experience.
Vesa-Pekka Rannikko’s (b. 1968) Fall (2020) is about the contact between human and nature, and between the sacred and profane. The work is a drawn animation which is projected on paper, which hangs on an installation structure. Fall outlines the transit area of the narrative, open up a no man’s land between words and drawings and the content they represent. Rannikko works with installations and sculptures which create associations to nature, materiality, society and human experience.
Hermanni Saarinen (b. 1979) creates sculptural installations which can combine readymades or be made of wood. His installations create a sense of wonder by the unusual combinations of materials and forms. In a way he creates a piece of art in the form of scenography, which turns the exhibition place into a presentation. Simultaneously, presentation and representation initiate a dialogue.
Kristiina Uusitalo (b. 1959) has been active in the Finnish art scene from the early 1980’s. Her paintings are quite often related to experiences in nature. Her concern of plastic pollution in our seas has become a part of her work and has created a series of painting which can be related to the micro flakes but also to light and the sublime. In her works, she shows how painting can refer to aesthetics, ethics and politics, and comment on both todays environmental crisis and have art historical references.
Ilona Valkonen (b. 1980) is a Finnish visual artist who works in both traditional and experimental ways. She has been exhibiting paintings but is most well-known for a performance piece called Vieno Motors. In Vieno Motors the participating artists turn the audience into living sculptures by dressing them in flowers and other materials, subsequently turning them into human flower bouquets. In Water of Life Valkonen exhibits an installation version of her performance. The performance is carried out during the opening of the exhibition.
Juha-Heikki Tihinen works as a curator at the Pro Artibus Foundation. He is a PhD in art history from the University of Helsinki (2008). Tihinen has been working as a curator, critic, researcher, teacher and writer from the late 1990s.
Land Beyond the Sea 25th of January to 5th of April, 2020
The exhibition Land Beyond the Sea is on view at The Nordic House in Reykjavik January 25th to April 5th, 2020. The exhibition is produced by the Pro Artibus Foundation and is curated by the foundations curator Juha-Heikki Tihinen. The group exhibition features five Finnish artists: Erik Creutziger, Marjo Levlin, Carl Sebastian Lindberg, Susanna Majuri and Pauliina Turakka Purhonen.
Read more about the exhibition here.
It follows up By Water – Icelandic Artists on the Shores of Finland, an earlier exhibition presenting the work of Icelandic contemporary artists held in Helsinki and Tammisaari in 2016.
The works of art have been selected by Pro Artibus’ Director Nina Toppila.
This year in Mediabox starts on the 27th of March with Nina Lassila’s Verket (Laitos, The Plant).
Mediabox is a space for media art located in gallery Forum Box. The space is offered and the annual programme is planned as a collaboration between Forum Box and AV-arkki. In collaboration with AV-arkki we curate a programme of a selection of the newest media-art. Mediabox operates as one of the main channels for media-art. Read more about the collaboration of AV-arkki and Forum Box here.
