I will work in Seinäjoki at the Taidehalli for the months of July and August 2020. During this time, I will work on a project called Serendipity – Onnekas sattuma. It is an art project where the impulse to create a piece of art comes from the outside. The idea is that anyone can give me an idea, a story, a memory, some material – really anything* – and then I mold it into art.
People can come see the process as they wish, and bring me their ideas and materials to use. The audience can stick around and watch the process, and there will be space for conversation, too. You can also participate through this website if you can’t be there in person. I will choose which ideas to use, that I get through the website, with a raffle if there are too many to use all of them. You can also read about my thoughts on the project in the blog on this page.
Come and stop by if you happen to be in Seinäjoki this summer! :^)
Summer Artist on Facebook and Instagram
More about the work:
The core of the project is in coincidence and accidence. I think those are among the most interesting things in art; the random occurrences when people meet, the notions, the coincidences, differences and similarities are intriguing. It is important to me, that people can also participate remotely.
Another thing I want to explore in this piece is how I think being an artist is just like any other job in the world. This vocation requires resilience to the unknown, and readiness to be open to new ideas and thoughts. Too often, I think, an artist wraps up in their own world and their head, becoming insensitive or sightless when it comes to their own work. In this project I turn the idea of the creator inside out, when the creator – the catcher of an idea – is no longer the artist alone, but the member of audience who gives the impulse. This can also help in dismantling the myth of the supernatural hero-artist. You know, the artist is really a Gyro Gearloose kind of character, an inventor, who now has to take the idea for an artwork from the audience.
As opposed to showing things that are unrelated to the physical area and people, in Serendipity – Onnekas sattuma the (local) audience gives to the artist and the artist gives back. I do hope that the people in Seinäjoki take this project as their own – also meny others than the regular art audience.
Schedule:
I will be present at the Itikka studio:
July:
6.7.–29.7. Mon–Fri 12–18
August:
Performance and exhibition of the work on 26th August.
(Seinäjoen Taidehalli is open from Mon–Fri 11–19, and on Sat 11–15.)
If there are any changes to the schedule, I will inform about them here on this page, and in the Kesäkuvataiteilija’s Facebook Page and Instagram.
- I reserve the right to not use things that clearly have no other purpose than to insult or discriminate against any of our country’s lovely, beautiful and important minorities.
Sofi Häkkinen 