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. 

Concept

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.

The sustainability of the earth is afflicted by the actions of humans. The so-called Anthropocene – the geologic time we are living – is the period during which human activity has had a dominant influence on climate and the environment.

With the theme and title The Knowledge of the Earth we want to focus on the tacit knowledge and hidden know-how which can be discovered when humans turn their attention towards the land and the earth.

We invite to discover growth, decay, stones, clay, matter, and the circular processes in nature. What can we learn from the earth? How can we establish a new relationship between nature and people, one that is not based on exploitation but rather on communication and dialogue?

 

The Knowledge of the Earth catalog

 

Curators

Ekaterina Sharova

Ekaterina Sharova is an art historian and a curator of the Arctic Art Forum (Arkhangelsk, Russia), a leading meeting place for contemporary art and interdisciplinary experiments in Euro-Arctic Russia. She graduated from an experimental Faculty of Humanities at the Pomor State University in Arkhangelsk in 2004 and received a Master’s Degree in Art History from the University of Oslo in 2012.

Sharova has been curating and co-curating projects for Kunsthall Stavanger, Kunstnernes Hus, Arctic Arts Festival, Barents Spektakel, and Arctic Arts Summit.  She has written essays and given talks on Northern Russian art for Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art (2017) and NEMOSKVA (2018). She has taught at Northern (Arctic) Federal University and was a guest lecturer at the University of Lapland and Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Sharova has been an advisor for Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada and served as an expert for several national art competitions in Russia. Her curatorial projects focus on embodied knowledge, decentralization of the cultural capital, and redesigning the invisible.

Maria Huhmarniemi

Dr. Maria Huhmarniemi is an artist and a teacher in the University of Lapland, Faculty of Art and Design. In her work as a visual artist, she engages with questions concerning the North and environmental issues such as the relationship between people and nature and environmental responsibility. In her artistic practice she is focused on socially and environmentally engaged art.

As a researcher, she is interested in political contemporary art and education for sustainability through art. In her Doctoral theses (2016) she developed transdisciplinary collaboration of artists and researchers. The motive was to find out how contemporary artists can participate in local discussions on environmental politics through art. Huhmarniemi has also curated international exhibitions and published multiple research articles.

Artists

Alan Bulfin (IRL) & Pii Anttila (FIN)

Fidelity of Home is a utility cupboard installation by Alan Bulfin and Pii Anttila made completely by using natural recipes that you can harvest or grow and do at home.

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Marja Haapakangas & Maria Laitila (FIN)

At the Biennial the dance video Seusuo by Marja Haapakangas and Maria Laitila is set as an installation, that creates a quiet conversation between the video and some industrial produced peat on the floor.

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Pia Hentunen (FIN)

 Pia Hentunen's Invisible insects is a series of sculptures of insects native to the Northern area that indicate the health of the biodiversity in Northern Ostrobothnia

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Miia Kettunen (FIN)

Landshapes by artist Miia Kettunen emphasizes the fact that the local piece of land represents one part of the pristine ecosystem that spreads around the globe.

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Karoliina Niemelä & Pirjo Lempeä (FIN)

Karoliina Niemelä’s and Pirjo Lempeä’s The Beginning got its inspiration from the birth of the world and from the question of how did it all begin.

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Johanna Ruotsalainen & Simi Susanna Ruotsalainen (FIN)

Video installation I Am a Living Being by Johanna Ruotsalainen and Simi Susanna Ruotsalainen demonstrate that the earth has similar rights to exist and not to be exploited as humans and animals

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Paula Suominen (FIN)

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Tiina Vehkaperä (FIN)

Tiina Vehkaperä’s art strives towards the understanding of being, dynamics of communication and exploration of humanity.

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Anne Yoncha & workgroup (USA/FIN)

Re:Peat III is a series of works by Anne Yoncha resulting from art-science collaboration with researchers of the Natural Resources Institute Finland

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See also

Art Ii Biennial 2024

Concept - Fire Unbound

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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