8.3. - 1.9.2002
The Sara Hildén Art Museum, in association with the Finnish Museum of Photography and the AV-Arkki Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art arranged Photography and Video, an exhibition of new Finnish photography and video art. This major showing occupied all the exhibition rooms of the museum. Opened to the public on the 8th of March, the exhibition was on show until the first of September 2002. The exhibition was staged in collaboration with Tampereen Särkänniemi Ltd.
The section for photography at the exhibition was entitled FANTASIES, with works mainly selected from the collections of the Finnish Museum of Photography. The main objective of the showing was to present for the first time in the form of a major group exhibition the Finnish photographers whose recent works have made Finland one of the world’s leading countries in photography.
FANTASIES featured works by the following photographers, among others:: Elina Brotherus, Veli Granö, Ilkka Halso, Jan Kaila, Sanna Kannisto, Pertti Kekarainen, Marjaana Kella, Ola Kolehmainen, Andrei Lajunen, Jouko Lehtola, Tuomo Manninen, Juha Metso, Juha Nenonen, Jorma Puranen, Heli Rekula, Jari Silomäki, Heidi Tikka, Santeri Tuori and Salla Tykkä.
FANTASIES led the viewer to consider the states of mind that arise when we look at images. Fantasies usually help us think of something unknown or desired. Photographs arouse feelings familiar to all of us: joy, love, yearning and the fear of loss. Contemporary photographs reveal an increasingly personal world. The images deal with minor everyday details. Apparently unimportant things become the main theme of the image. Large colour photographs now treat narratives of small scale.
During the summer of 2002 an extensive hardcover book on the exhibition was to be published.
The video-art section of the exhibition was entitled MAXIMS. The works were mostly selected from the collections of the AV-Arkki Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art. Like photography, contemporary Finnish video art believes in differentiated experience and the existence of many answers. MAXIMS dealed with questions of identity and the human experience. Although the forms of expression of the video pieces on show ranged from minimalism to performance, they all had in common the relationship of the individual with the community.
MAXIMS presented works by the following artists, among others: Elina Brotherus, Gun Holmström, Juha van Ingen, Tuomo Kangasmaa & Sami van Ingen, Heta Kuchka, Johanna Lecklin, Erkka Nissinen, Anneli Nygren, Kati Rapia, Heli Rekula, Iiris Saaren-Seppälä, Pekka Sassi, Salla Tykkä and Maria Ylikoski.
16 000 visitors attended the exhibition.