P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
presents Arctic Hysteria: New Art from Finland, an intergenerational
and interdisciplinary exhibition featuring 16 Finnish artists
who will introduce New York audiences to outlandish visions of
aliens, utopias, animals, and psychedelia. In conjunction, Warm
Up will present two major Finnish bands Jimi Tenor and Op:l Bastards
on August 23. On September 15, The Museum of Modern Art will present
a special screening of Electric Forest, a compilation
of historical and contemporary Finnish video works.
Built especially for the exhibition, the Futuro Lounge is conceived
as an homage to Matti Suuronen’s 1960s design of the legendary
Futuro House, and serves as a screening room for videos and documentaries.
In the Corner Gallery, the severe and breathtaking installation
by sculptor Markus Copper invokes the tragic sinking of the Russian
submarine Kursk in 2000. An ice breaker, blinding snowscape, and
a choir of twenty men together compose a documentary of the Screaming
Men’s world tour. In P.S.1’s mysterious Boiler
Room, Veli Granö’s films introduce eccentric individuals
who are obsessed with outer space and the paranormal. Tea Mäkipää’s
60-foot long photographic collage, World of Plenty, is
an ambitious depiction of a utopian landscape. A newly composed
sound piece by Sami Sänpäkkilä accompanies this
installation. In Mäkipää’s latest video,
the artist literally presents the world from a reindeer’s
perspective, by attaching a camera to its antlers. Nature also
plays a central role in Anni Rapinoja’s “couture pieces”
where shoes, coats, and hats are made from leaves and willows.
For their U.S. debut, the Pink Twins present a room of psychedelic video and sound pieces derived from various digital sources. Stiina Saaristo’s black-and-white drawings combine overtly masculine and feminine body parts to challenge the genre of self-portraiture. Mika Taanila’s film on Erkki Kurenniemi, a pioneer in electronic music, juxtaposes Kurenniemi’s musical instrument DIMI-S and his swearing robot Master Chaynjis. Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen present a compilation of Complaints Choir performances, and will develop a new piece during a workshop on June 8. Also on view is a tragicomic video diary of the dancer Reijo Kela, and two videos by the internationally renowned artist Salla Tykkä. Ilkka Halso’s giant fantasy photographs, which suggest the union of the natural landscape and built environment, are presented in the Café and Lobby. |
