Showing work at a gallery is undoubtedly a highlight for any emerging artist but it can also be a cause of stress. It might take a whole year of hard work to put together a show but as soon as the exhibition is taken down it all fades away.

– It is often difficult to sell the artworks and after the exhibition one has to figure out what to do with them. Many artists don’t have a studio or storage space because renting one is too expensive, tells Andrea Coyotzi Borja, a Mexican-born artist and a doctoral student at Aalto university.

To address this matter Coyotzi Borja and his fellow artworker and curator Farbod Fakharzadeh came up with a concept of acquiring a big space where these artworks are offered another chance by making them visible to anyone: the public, other artists, collectors, and curators. They titled their project Taidekirppis, which humorously refers to the way the artworks are recycled after an exhibition.

The missing link

Taidekirppis is about to kick off in March 2020 and the funding covers the project for one year. Coyotzi Borja and Fakharzadeh will be managing the space and the website, picking up artworks, handling social media, and organizing open calls for artists to take part in the project.

Part of their plan is to engage resident curators to work with the collection while the artworks are in the space. If someone wants to buy a piece of art, they can contact the artist directly but Fakharzadeh and Coyotzi Borja say that selling is not their main intention and there is no profit involved. Their goal is to create a space and an archive of exhibitions and works by emerging artists in the Finnish art scene.

– In order to look at art or any other phenomena in a meaningful way you need to look at it in historical context. But there is no wholesome record of exhibitions and works by Finland-based emerging artists so everything seems a bit scattered. A big part of this project is to put together a physical and digital archive that can be looked back on to give a historical context to how things were, how they are, and what can be, explains Fakharzadeh.

Addressing important issues

Another key objective is allowing Taidekirppis to be a platform for new ideas and discussions, and to critically address complex issues in the emerging art scene. Fakharzadeh points out that making ends meet is difficult for most artists who often don’t get compensated for the hours they put in – yet they have decided that art is what they want to dedicate their lives to.

– Contemporary art is not always made with an eye on the market, and young artists are not necessarily taking into account how to make money out of it. There should be alternative ways that are more protective towards the people putting their lives in to this. Artworkers are people too, they have mortgages, lives, and children, Fakharzadeh tells.

Both Coyotzi Borja and Fakharzadeh are excited to see how the project will unfold and how it will be received, hoping to make a change for the better.

– First this was just an idea, which is now turning into an actual project with this funding, Fakharzadeh says.

– My motivation comes from doing something about a situation that really frustrates me.

taidekirppis.com/
instagram.com/taidekirppis/
facebook.com/taide.kirppis

Text: Laura Iisalo

Women are expected to invest plenty of time and effort in caring for their looks. The requirement remains, even as beauty ideals change from one society and generation to another. In current Western society, you must first and foremost be skinny. It is a prerequisite for being seen as beautiful.

A prime manifestation of the requirement are the weight loss shows on TV.

– There are structures of discipline and control in these shows. Participants’ diets are controlled and they are subjected to extreme exercise situations that cross the line, Susanne Ritter says.

– There is an aspect of surveillance, too, as participants are basically watched all the time, either by the coaches, cameras or viewers.

According to the shows, being fat is the worst, being skinny is great, and being fat and happy is just not possible.

– I think it is important to research these shows that influence people so much. If there is enough awareness, maybe things can change.

The shows dangle a carrot in front of people’s noses, making them think they should change, too, instead of being content with themselves the way they are. It has become the norm for women to always be dieting, and this starts already in childhood.

– Obviously, I am not against exercise, just this ideal set in stone. It discourages women from participating in public life, unless they fit a certain mold. If you are fat, then necessarily you are lazy, too, and undisciplined as well. You won’t be hired, you can’t get married or be a proper bride if you are fat. Thin is equated with healthy, which is not true. People, and women especially, would have better things to do than worry about their looks.

Ritter sees a vested interest in the preoccupation with thinness.

– So you have to be fit to be seen as productive, which means you have to buy gym memberships etc. There are far too many parties benefitting financially for the pressure to stop.

Originally from Dusseldorf, Germany, Ritter moved to Helsinki in 2013 to study for her MSSc. Since 2018, she has been with Åbo Akademi University in Turku as a PhD student.

– I have a BA in Journalism from the University of Vienna. Media research into the way overweight was portrayed on TV interested me already then. I was lucky enough to be accepted to the Media and Global Communication program of the University of Helsinki. I did my Master’s thesis on makeover shows. In it, I researched the thin ideal in relation to oppression. I wanted to expand the concept into a doctoral thesis.

In her thesis, Ritter will compare Finnish and US TV makeover shows.

– There are differences in Finnish and US societies. The American Dream permeats the local shows, too; you can achieve a thin body, if you just want it bad enough. Finnish society is more collective and in the Finnish shows there is more emphasis on working as a group.

Text and photograph: Susanna Bell

“In 2017 the Cultural Foundation established the practice of encouraging larger-than-usual grant applications related to a specific field each year. The additional funding has until now pertained to the fields of agriculture and medicine,” explains Jari Sokka, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

“In research related to technical sciences and economics it is beneficial if the research team comprises a diverse group of people from the worlds of academia, research institutions and business. Traditionally, Finland has been strong in collaborations between universities and business, but now special support is needed to ensure that different perspectives will meet and knowledge transfers can take place,” Sokka says.

The additional grant funding, totalling up to EUR 1 million, will be awarded to between one and five research projects. Applications may be made in the name of teams of several researchers, but not entire universities or research institutions. A research proposal in Finnish or English may be appended to the application, but the abstract on the application form must be in Finnish.

The Cultural Foundation’s October round of applications will be open between 1 and 31 October 2019. All in all, there will be approximately EUR 25 million in grants open for application.

For further information go to skr.fi/million2020

It is as if a woman is whispering “OK” amidst the noise. Unto K. Laine, professor of acoustics at Aalto University, is playing a recording made in North Karelia during a display of the Aurora Borealis.

It is as if a woman is whispering “OK” amidst the noise.

According to Laine, the sounds produced by the Northern Lights may also recall a waterfall, crackling or banging. For centuries, people around the world have told stories of the sounds, but many scientists remain sceptical.

– As recently as fifteen years ago, such stories were dismissed as products of the imagination, Laine explains. He decided to look into the subject. After spending hundreds of nights making recordings, Laine is probably the only person in the world to document the sounds of the Aurora Borealis.

Laine is the first acoustics expert to study the phenomenon, and he believes that this has been crucial to his success. He has built much of the equipment himself, and he needs hypersensitive microphones. Laine uses three microphones so that he can determine the direction accurately.  The site must be open and very quiet.

– Picking the sounds is like hitting the jackpot. It must be dead calm and not too humid, and there must be a real show going on in the sky.

Laine started studying the phenomenon in the year 2000, and his first successful recording followed shortly after that. In April that year, one of his students phoned and asked him to look out of the window.

– There was a fantastic light show going on. There was no time to waste, says Laine, recalling the situation.

He grabbed his recording equipment and soon found himself standing in the freezing cold and listening to the crackle with a cheap microphone.

– That prompted me to buy better equipment.

How can the sounds of the Aurora Borealis still be a source of controversy? Laine, too, is puzzled by this.

– The Northern Lights have inspired fear all around the world, and this may still be the case.

The fact that the sounds have been dismissed as imaginary is one reason why Laine started studying the subject. Many people have been reluctant to talk about the sounds that they have heard because they are afraid of being branded as crazy.

– I have read stories of people that had heard these sounds and experienced an ethical awakening. I thought that maybe these people are right and have simply been unfairly derided. I felt that I had to take a closer look at the subject.

The physical origin of the phenomenon remains a mystery.

Laine believes that as the aurora is moving, the electromagnetic field also changes and triggers off a phenomenon that creates sounds at altitudes of less than 100 metres.

Laine is now planning to make new recordings, and he is checking the old ones. He hopes that one day computers will be able to pick the right sounds automatically from the recordings. Ultimately, findings by independent research groups are also needed as the final proof.

However, Laine has already convinced many of his colleagues. In summer 2014, a research team from Northern Ireland studying meteorite sounds contacted Laine and expressed its willingness to cooperate on the subject. As meteors burn up at an altitude of 20 kilometres, the sounds produced by them should not be audible. However, meteor sounds have been recorded and they may originate in the same manner as the sounds produced by the Northern Lights.

Text: Jenni Heikkinen
Photos by Janne Kommonen and Harri Tahvanainen