A longing for something written in memory: Library as Archive as Excavation Site
exhibition review of Kirjasto/Library exhibition, (pub.) NO NIIN online magazine, Helsinki
Walking into the gallery space of Forum Box during the exhibition Kirjasto/Library (11.12.2020 – 3.1.2021), one is greeted by multiple expanses of the processual and procedural – a methodically arranged exhibition sections drawings, a grid of paintings, imprints, technical metadata, index cards of conversations, logs, videos, scrolls of automatic writing, soundscapes, as well as collected and found objects (both revealed and hidden).
The mood of the exhibition is ‘minimal soft punk’: naturally grunge brick walls of Gallery Forum Box offset the minimal interventions of tables and other structural elements and accentuate the DIY aesthetic of the exhibition. The exhibition is curated by Jonni Korhonen, Lin Chih Tung, Noora Lehtovuori and Ria Andrews, a recently formed curatorial team. During a conversation with the curators, Lin clarifies that the team is essentially a formalisation of friendship, “We formed this working relationship because of the Praxis [Master’s] programme [in Exhibition Studies in University of the Arts Helsinki], who worked previously for the ‘Surrender?Surrender’1 exhibition: we found ways of working together, familiarizing ourselves with how each of us works, forming new insights, and we didn’t kill each other in the end, so we knew that it’s definitely possible to work with each other, not just as a collective but definitely as friends, peers, or colleagues.
Kirjasto/Library poses several questions, two of which headline its curatorial note, asking “What is the state in which an artwork continues to exist after its finalization, after the last stroke, last edit, last rehearsal, last dot has been laid down? What happens to it when it is left unfinished?”
These questions related to the afterlife of the ‘artwork’ once it leaves the controlled space of the artist and their studio, and ‘when is an artwork complete’, may be old, but are entangled with the changing notions art, object, and practice…
- excerpt from Essay
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