Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa, Maisa Majakka, Hannele Richert, Katie Shannon, Virpi Stjerna
THE TIDE OF FORGETTING AND REMEMBERING
curated by Athanasía Aarniosuo
DECEMBER 7–29, 2024
Opening on Thursday December 5th, at 5–8 PM
Sitting in a café in central Helsinki, Virpi is showing Athanasía her newest work, a series of photographs portraying seemingly ordinary moments. A windowsill, a close-up of a face, an inner courtyard. Athanasía starts crying, doesn’t quite understand her emotional response.
Moments later, she remembers. The courtyard in one of the photos looks almost identical to one she often looked at years ago, through the window of the small apartment of a then boyfriend, one she has not thought of in two decades. With recognising the memory, a wave of fragments of the past starts forming. She decides to ride on it.
The exhibition The Tide of Forgetting and Remembering, curated by Athanasía Aarniosuo, brings together five artists: Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa, Maisa Majakka, Hannele Richert, Katie Shannon, and Virpi Stjerna. During the process of preparing the exhibition, the group met several times; they drank coffee, told each other stories, remembered what parties felt like in one’s youth, realised they had more in common than they originally knew, laughed a lot, and cried, too.
The resulting exhibition deals with how one’s own nostalgic memories are often re-lived through popular culture, the significance of sharing memories, and the formation of communities through a shared past. The artists explore different ways in which pop nostalgia is expressed visually and textually, and share their stories through the use of nostalgic media: analogue film, installations incorporating vintage landline phones and television sets, hand-crafted and hand-drawn artworks.
Each artist has a story to tell.
In the installation she has created for the exhibition, Guzmán Figueroa draws on her memories of her traditional 15th birthday party in Colombia. She has used photographs and video footage of the event as well as the dress she designed for the party as source material. The themes of her work include pop music, nostalgia, family history and the traditions of her home country.
Majakka's new works draw on girl culture from the 90s to the present day. The works are inspired by the artist's own teenage experiences, the misogyny of the late 90s and early 00s, friendship between girls, and girls' self-destruction related to, for example, substance abuse and sexuality.
Richert approaches the subject of pop nostalgia through the use of CRT television, in order to re-create and distort the viewing experience of the 1990s (especially the police series Prime Suspect and David Lynch's television series On the Air and Twin Peaks).
The idea behind Shannon's installation is a distorted memory of Glasgow's Vic bar, the floor of which resembles the floor of the Oksasenkatu gallery. The time code shifts; powering ‘the girl(s) on Art School floor’ within a new narrative setting. Shannon transfers her experience as a DJ, performer and bar worker to the exhibition space.
Stjerna's contribution to the exhibition consists of photographs taken in 2009, combined with song lyrics. In finding the old photographs, Stjerna experienced a joy similar to the one felt upon reconnecting with an old friend. The specks of dust on the surface of the original negatives, like traces of memories, were preserved in the digital reproductions. The work brings together depictions of melancholy, friends, music, memories, and the tolerance and gradual love of imperfection.
Artists’ websites:
The 24th Fine Arts Summer Exhibition in Art Center Haihatus, Joutsa, Finland
Curated by Oksasenkatu 11 curatorial working group
Art Center Haihatus’s ”Beyond Everything” brought over 40 artists to Joutsa, Finland. The fine arts group exhibition was held between 17.6-27.8.2024. The 24th multidisciplinary Fine Arts Summer Exhibition Beyond Everything focused on powers that influence the world behind our sensory perceptions. Different kinds of energies, the bending dimension of time and the ever-changing borders of reality come together as one!
The annual summer exhibition presented fine arts from Finnish spatial arts pioneer Marja Kanervo, video arts from Mika Taanila and Anssi 8000, sculptures from Laura Könönen and Steve Vanoni, paintings and mural works from Siiri Haarla, installations from Academy Awards Oscar Nominee 2023 for Best Music, Cleaning Women, and Shubhangi Singh, sound arts from Antti Tolvi and J. Koho and much more!
The full list of artists: Erik Alalooga, Artemisia Vulgaris, Anders Bergman, Lotta Blomberg, Baran Caginli, Cleaning Women, Michal Czinege & Maija Laurinen, Santiago Delgado, Jenni Eskola, Noora Federley, Siiri Haarla, Hannah Harkes, Aaron Heino, Elisa Hillgén, Juhana Hurula, Aino Johansson, Inka-Maaria Jurvanen, Lasse Juuti, Kallo Collective, Marja Kanervo, Anssi Kasitonni, Asko Keränen, J. Koho, Laura Könönen, Mikko Laaksonen, Johanna Latvala, Maria Mattila, Anna Miller, Panu Ollikainen, Ilmo Paukkunen, Essi Pitkänen, Risto Puurunen & Marita Isobel Solberg, Matti Salmela, Jenni Sormunen, Restlessminds, Shubhangi Singh, Mika Taanila, Antti Tolvi, Keijo Virtanen, Julius Valve, Steve Vanoni, Marko Vuokola and Tuomo Vuoteenoma.
Images from Hannah Harkes' installation "Elastic Potential Energy".
The Nostalgia issue of culture magazine Mustekala featured Athanasía Aarniosuo as guest editor.
The issue included texts by Anna Jensen, Ville Hänninen, Mia Keurulainen, Athanasía Aarniosuo, Hanna Råst, Eliisa Ruusu, and Tytti Rantanen. The issue also featured polaroid photograph illustrations by Yorgos Apostolopoulos.
The Oksasenkatu 11 Open Call for 2024 was juried by Athanasía Aarniosuo, Jenna Jauhiainen and Utu-Tuuli Jussila.
The theme for the Open Call was presence.
Club Decadence operated from 1978 to 2009 at a building dating back to 1934, on Strefi Hill in Athens, Greece. The club attracted for decades many important musicians and artists, as well as a dedicated following of patrons, and is thus a central element of the history and culture of the city.
Decadence 4ever is a publication curated by Athanasía Aarniosuo where several artists share their memories of the legendary Club Decadence. In the stories, feelings of recklessness, belonging, love, lust, music, and community are highlighted. Some of the stories are bittersweet, but most are joyful.
The contributing artists are Dioni Vougioukli, Roxani Giannou, Vasilis Kalantzis, Saima Androutsopoulou, Maria Papakonstantinou, Konstantinos Demis, Athanasía Aarniosuo, Dana Papachristou, Panagiotis Voulgaris, Evangelos Androutsopoulos, and Theodora Angelopoulou. The layout is by Mauri Aarniosuo and Athanasía Aarniosuo.
The printmaking (Taidegrafiikka-teemanumero) issue of culture magazine Mustekala featured Athanasía Aarniosuo as guest editor. The issue included texts by Emma Peura, Kari Yli-Annala, Mauri Aarniosuo and Ronya Hirsma, and an editorial by Aarniosuo. The issue also debuted a short story from Aarniosuo’s graphic novel The Nostalgia EP.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR ENGLISH!)
Αγαπημένοι!
Στα πλαίσια της μεταπτυχιακής μου εργασίας σχετικά με την νοσταλγία και την ταυτότητα σκοπεύω να αυτοεκδόσω μία συλλογή μέσω της εταιρίας μου, Bucolic Press.
Θα ήθελα να σας προσκαλέσω λοιπόν, να μοιραστείτε τις δικές σας αναμνήσεις με φόντο το Club Decadence, τις προσωπικές σας ιστορίες, τις σκέψεις που συνειρμικά σας έρχονται όταν αναπολείτε το νεοκλασσικό κτήριο στην γωνία Βουλγαροκτόνου & Πουλχερίας. Ένα κτήριο αποκτά παλμό, πνοή και κοινωνική ταυτότητα μέσα από τους ανθρώπους που το έχουν ζήσει και τις στιγμές που μοιράστηκαν.
Περιμένω τις συμμετοχές σας σε μορφή .pdf μέχρι τις 14 Φεβρουαρίου 2021 στο e-mail: decadenceforever@gmail.com
• Θέμα: Οι αναμνήσεις από το Club Decadence
• Γλώσσα: Ελληνικά ή Αγγλικά
• 1-4 κάθετες σελίδες σε Α4
• Παρακαλώ να συμπεριλάβετε το όνομα σας καθώς και το όνομα του έργου στο .pdf
• Η μορφή μπορεί να είναι οτιδήποτε μπορεί να εκφράσει και να αναπαραστήσει τις αναμνήσεις σας: κείμενο λογοτεχνικό ή μη, φωτογραφίες, κολάζ, ζωγραφιές, κόμικ κ.ο.κ.
• Δίνεται συμβολική αμοιβή στους επιλαχόντες, καθώς και ένα αντίγραφο της έκδοσης.
Hello beloved!
Inspired by my master's thesis on nostalgia and identity, I aim to self-publish a collection of works through my company Bucolic Press.
I would like to invite you all to share your very own memories of Club Decadence, your personal stories, all the thoughts that subconsciously pop into your head when you recollect your experiences from the neoclassical building in the corner of Voulgaroktonou & Poulcherias. A building gets a pulse, breath and a social identity through the people and the moments they have shared within.
Please send your participations in .pdf format until the 14th February 2021: decadenceforever@gmail.com
• Theme: Your memories from Decadence Club.
• Language: Greek or English
• 1-4 pages A4 sized (vertical)
• Please include your name, as well as the name of your submission in the .pdf
• Your participation can be anything that can express and represent your memories: fiction, non-fiction, photographs, collage, drawings, comics etc.
• A symbolic reward will be given to the selected artists, as well as a copy of the publication.
