TRIBUTE: ARS22-Living Encounters

From its inauguration in 1961, the ARS exhibition series has showcased spearheading international contemporary art for local, regional and global audiences every four to five years. The upcoming instalment in Kiasma in 2022 is the tenth in the series, featuring a broad range of works by artists representing different approaches, generations and mediums. ARS22 also includes landmark works from different decades that provide a historical backdrop for the topical and urgent issues featured in the show. Some of these iconic pieces are from Kiasma’s own collection, and others are loaned specifically for the exhibition.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kiasma Archive

“ARS22 – Living Encounters” explores the big questions and stories of our time. The exhibition brings together international contemporary art and the public in a space dedicated to shared experiences and community. ARS22 features works by 55 artists or groups from 26 different countries. The ehibition deals with the multiple processes of social fragmentation that are endangering life on the planet today. The exhibition includes two defining gestures: an emphasis on live practices and the inclusion of historical. By emphasizing the here and now, participatory and performative proposals underline the museum as a physical space for gathering. The historical works provide a dialogic context for current investigations and positions, highlighting how art has permanently been an arena in which to engage crucial questions of the moment, then and now. ARS22 designs a choreography of gestures and positions that in their specificity and as a whole offer alternative paths to present-day detachment, disenchantment, isolation, and hopelessness, making visible the mutually dependent dynamics between individual and collective imaginaries both in their continuities and in their ruptures. ARS22 – Living Encounters is a gathering that celebrates the intimate, multiple, shared, and dynamic constitution of life on the planet. The majority of the artists have familiarized themselves with the facilities virtually, with some exceptions. One of those who actually visited the museum was Samson Kambalu, who spent a week in Helsinki in August shooting material for his upcoming work. Another artist was Laure Prouvost, who visited Helsinki in December 2020 to lay the groundwork for her piece and in October 2021 to shoot the new video on location. Berlin based, USA born artist Donna Huanca’s works are reminiscent of the human body, its movements and touch. The paintings and sculptures are based on body details, and the materials in the works include clothing and hair accessories. Huanca’s  practice has a special relation with performance, in which partly nude, painted and latex-covered models move in the environment formed by the works. At Kiasma, such a performance will be held during the opening week of the exhibition. ARS22 offers a comprehensive collection of topical works that have appeared in international arenas of contemporary art, as well as 15 new commissions produced specifically for this show. ARS22 also extendz the museum’s regular live art program beyond Kiasma Theatre into the galleries, presenting an intense collection of fifteen performances. In addition to live art and participatory art, the exhibition features a comprehensive range of other mediums – painting, photography, sculpture, installation, moving image – amounting to a broad survey of contemporary art. For the first time, the exhibition includes works also from previous ARS exhibitions. ARS22 culminates in August 2022 with the Lithuanian opera performance “Sun & Sea”. Commenting on the current climate crisis, the immersive work won the Golden Lion for the best national pavilion at the Venice Biennale in summer 2019.

Participating Artists: Marina Abramovic & Ulay, Farah Al Qasimi, Evgeny Antufiev, Francis Bacon, Lewis Baltz, Sol Calero, Pia Camil, Jimmie Durham, Annika Eriksson, Anna Estarriola, Cyprien Gaillard, Sheela Gowda, D Harding, Kholod Hawash, Tehching Hsieh, Donna Huanca, Arthur Jafa, Kimmo Kaivanto, Samson Kambalu, Alex Katz, Grada Kilomba, Eva Kot’átková, Vojtěch Kovařík, Essi Kuokkanen, Danutė Kvietkevičiūtė, Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl, Juha Pekka, Matias Laakkonen, Luis Lázaro Matos, Joar Nango, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Frida Orupabo, Howardena Pindell, Laure Prouvost, Anni Puolakka, Michael Rakowitz, Slavs and Tatars, Joel Slotte, Jenna Sutela, Andra Ursuţa, David Wojnarowicz, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Live, Performances and events: Marja Ahti, Jenni Kalliokuju & Essi Kausalainen, Alexandra Bachzetsis. Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė & Lina Lapelytė, Anna Maria Häkkinen, Erno Aaltonen & Saara Töyrylä, Ima Iduozee, Mira Kautto, Roy Boswell & Ella Skoikka, Dafna Maimon, Mikko Niemistö, Amanda Piña, Alexandra Pirici, Michele Rizzo, Pia Maria Roll, Hanan Benammar & Sara Baban, SERAFINE1369

Photo: Eva Koťátková , What Does A Turtle Feel Through the Carapace: Interspecies Traveling Classroom, 2022, Co-commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma / The Finnish National Gallery and Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Info: Curators: Leevi Haapala, João Laia, Saara Hacklin, Kati Kivinen, Patrik Nyberg, Piia Oksanen, Satu Oksanen, Jonna Strandberg and Jari-Pekka Vanhala, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki, Finland, Duration: 8/4-16/10/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-20:30, \Sat 10:00-18:00, sun 10:00-17:00, https://kiasma.fi