Showcasing the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, Navigating North investigates links between the north and south. The themes of the exhibition – landscape, northern nature, and geographical and cultural crossroads – point towards how we are constantly navigating change.
“Although acquisitions to the Wihuri Foundation Collection have not focused on northern art specifically, we were intrigued by the collection’s northern home in Rovaniemi. What new ideas might the Wihuri Foundation Collection offer Kiasma’s audiences? With the kind assistance of staff at the Rovaniemi Art Museum, we learned about the work of the northern artists and artists of northern origin working in the south. We did not limit our attention to the north alone, however, but selected works by artists all over Finland,” explain exhibition curators.
One of the recurring themes in the exhibition is the experience of belonging to a place or community and how that affects one’s identity. The featured artworks examine our relationship with the natural world and how we so often seek to shape the environment but also how we ourselves are defined by places. The Arctic north is a special region that today attracts interest globally for various political, economic, cultural and ecological reasons.
The exhibition is curated by Saara Hacklin, Kati Kivinen and Satu Oksanen from Kiasma
