Art Ii Biennial 2008

The theme for the first Art Ii Biennial, held in Ii in 2008, was Northern environmental art – structures and impact. The artists represented very different forms of northern environmental art, and during the ten-day workshop, they and their assistants produced pieces that were eventually placed in famous cultural heritage sites in the town of Ii: the old harbor and trading place Wanha Hamina and the KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre. The participation of Sir Alfio Bonanno, a legendary figure in land art and nature installations, made this Art Ii Biennal an exhibition with international significance.

Curators

Curatorial team

The Nordic artists of the biennial were chosen in cooperation with the respective national artists’ associations. The final decision was vested on a jury that consisted of Timo Jokela, an environmental artist and professor at the University of Lapland;

Jyrki Poussu, an environmental artist and the chairman of the Union of Finnish Art Associations; Janne Kauppinen, a researcher at the Oulu Museum of Art; and Helena Kaikkonen, an artist and the chairperson of the KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre.

Artists

Alfio Bonanno

The first impulse to this work of art was given by a photograph where a tar-burning pit is being built, taken by Valto Pernu who had collected his fortune as a photographer working at the market place. The work combines thus the tradition of tar-burning pits of the area and a model of 19th century ‘Jähti’ ships of Ii. Combining these forms, the artist has created a communal place for people to sit in Hamina, whose history can be traced back as far as to the 14th century.

Eyglò Harðardòttir

The Village welcomes guests arriving at the Art Centre. The artist wishes the work to live through leafs and water that its collects and lets flow slowly through itself. The sidewalls of the village parts have been painted with gentle residual colours that the artist has collected from the immediate surroundings of the work, with its meadow buttercups, birch leaves and the red walls of the old school building.

Jenni Tieaho

Jenni Tieaho, a visual artist from Siuntio, bent a horse out of willow, and the neighbouring boys called it ’Flame’. The very first Finnish horse of the country was also entered into a studbook in Ii. According to the artist, the willow growing in the river bed has been twined into the horse like the stories of its makers. ’Flame’ also reminds us of the fire of the old school of Kauppila from the ashes of which the Art Centre came into being in the hands of local artists.

Vladimir Zorin

Vladimir Zorin, an active spokesman for the art field of Karelia, built in Ii a home where the wind is allowed to travel freely, without any restrictions. When an onlooker asked the artist why there wasn’t any entrance into the middle of the work, Zorin replied: – It is home of the wind, not that of man. The work whose plastic parts of different colours have been brought along by the artist from Petrozavodsk, makes a strong reference to the freedom of speech in Russia.

Art Ii Biennial 2024

Concept - Fire Unbound

Art Ii Biennial 2022

The theme of the 2022 Art Ii Biennial was “In the Air”. The biennial presented a compilation of 14 artworks, which addressed issues related to air as well as introduced new insights and methods to dealing with the element that surrounds us.

Art Ii Biennial 2020

The Finnish word maa means earth, but also country, dirt, ground, land soil, and terrain. The word also refers to the world. The concept of the Art Ii Biennial 2020 encompasses all these aspects of the earth and specifically the knowledge they possess.

Art Ii Biennial 2018

The concept of the Art Ii Biennial 2018 was built around the concept of water: water as the fundamental element in all forms of life, a cultural interface, a transformable material, a natural storage medium. The projects of the artists presented by the Art Ii Biennial 2018 demonstrated the large creative potential of water as a theme and as a medium.

Art Ii Biennial 2016

The Art Ii Biennial 2016 studied interlinkages between environmental art and the use of natural materials in the Sámi crafts tradition; the theme was “The Poetics of Material”. The event aimed to create new suggestions for how traditional Sámi livelihoods and Sámi identities could be conceived in our modern global economy and politics. Artists were chosen for this biennial on the basis of how connectedness to nature was manifest in their work.

Art Ii Biennial 2014

The theme of the Art Ii Biennial 2014, “Landscapes of Mind and Language”, explored the interaction among language, mind, culture and environment. This biennial challenged the artists, urging them to research into their language and mind with the means of environmental art.

Art Ii Biennial 2012

Along with Art Ii Biennial 2012, Ii Municipality obtained a unique Environmental Art Park which binds together the environmental art in Wanha Hamina and at KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre. The art of that biennial was prepared for the Environmental Art Park, which is located along nelostie, the national road No. 4, on the banks of the picturesque River Ii at the cape Koskiniemi. The Environmental Art Park forms a recreational area for residents and travelers alike. The partners made a preliminarily selection of artists working in their regions, and the main curator of the Art Ii Biennale, Timo Jokela, made the final choice of the artists who were to be invited to the exhibition.

Art Ii Biennial 2010

The theme for the second Art Ii Bienniale, held in 2010, was Periphery. That theme aroused a lively debate which was further inspired by the conference lecture by the critic Otso Kantokorpi. The participation of the sensational conceptual artist Lars Vilks kindled a great amount of media buzz, particularly because he made his appearance with the Finnish Security Police; another instigator of media buzz was the attempted burning of Vilks’ piece, called Asema (Ii Tower), during the Midsummer festivities.