Statuomania

Statuomania as a name refers to the compulsive need to install public monuments, statues and sculptures. The name is primarily associated with nationalist projects and the development of nation-states and nation-feelings through various monuments, depictions of great men and other emblems.

In the Statuomania exhibition curated by Porin kulttuurisäätö, the nature of memorials and the processes involved are being reflected: Who can claim the right to celebrated and immortalized memories and visibility? Whose memories are entitled to be heard and taken into account? Who is in charge of urban space and under what conditions can these regulations be breached? Public art reflects society’s values, but also shows the limits of its imagination.

The exhibition constructs its own imaginary public space, in which everyone’s representation and participation is constantly and equally negotiable, and where this representation and participation is not divided according to the division of power that has been carried out in the past. The exhibition emphasizes the aesthetical and experiential: it explores forms and ideas that can in turn shape what our future looks and feels like.

The works in the exhibition declare themselves as monuments and fulfill their function by creating places of encounter and community. In doing so, they naturalize, justify and normalize the narratives, events and histories they tell, which are not represented by existing monuments. They do not even pretend to be truths set in stone, but by suggesting, questioning, implying, guiding and seeking ways of expressing what has not yet been articulated the works give shape for transformations and changes. The works scent, vaporize, melt, disappear, build and mold. They are soft, solid or fragile, large and small, and can be cocooned in. They are public and exposed stills of private lives, longings, encounters, passages.

The works in the exhibition can challenge, nurture and act as an empathic lens, and watching through it we may see the wounds of the past healing and the future appearing more hopeful. The artworks embody resistance and compassion, potential, hiding places, clumsy humanity, corporeal presence and stories told up close/intimately in a quiet voice – stories that, as you listen, the airflow of breath brushing against earlobe can be felt and the scent and warmth of a skin carry the story as much as the words do.

ARTISTS

The artists in the exhibition are Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman (CA), Henri Airo (FIN), Benjamin Orlow (FIN/GB), Oskari Ruuska (FIN), Enni Vekkeli (FIN), and Valreza Collective (Tekla Vály and Tereza Holubová, FIN).

CURATORS

Porin kulttuurisäätö (Anna Jensen, Eliisa Suvanto, and Sanna Ritvanen) is driven by research, site-specificity and activism. Previous exhibitions have taken place, for example, in Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, Yyteri dunes, and various urban spaces. In response to the traditional and one-sided portrayal of Finland during the centennial celebration of Finland’s independence, Porin kulttuurisäätö initiated a large-scale project called The Truth about Finland (2017), involving over a hundred contributors, two exhibitions, and a publication.

Photo: Kolya Kotov. Oskari Ruuska, Cruising.