Graphic design: Andrés Marin Jarque That's the Baltic Sea. We are part of a kind of bigger system.
We've just got so used to the fact that our environmental matters are all nicely in order and experts are dealing with it all for us. People aren't accustomed to demad anyething from politicians …it's quite confusing actually.
Prof. Ilppo Vuorinen, Rescue Boat Baltic Herring, August 2010
The Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea project got started in 2009 as an open call, directed at artists living in Estonia and Finland. Works submitted by Antti Laitinen, Mia Mäkelä, Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski & Hanna Haaslahti, Teemu Takatalo & Tommi Taipale and Tomi Paasonen & Tiago da Cruz were chosen from 70 proposals.
In the Curated Expedition exhibition, opened in May as part of the Turku2011 European Capital of Culture programme, the Baltic Sea is portrayed as a part of nature's complicated system, which offers opportunities and causes problems that reflect in the lives of the millions of inhabitants who live in areas influenced by the sea. The Baltic is an idyllic natural paradise, a basin of brakish water fighting for its life, a fairway and source for a versatile livelyhood.
Those comissioned by the multi-disciplinary Curated Expeditions project worked on their own art productions in various zones of the sea, following their interests and the needs of their specific projects. The marine residences were organised jointly by Capsula production team and the artists themselves. The artists got to know their own Baltic Sea by exploring the archipelago, spending periods of time in university marine reasearch centres or on outer islets in the Gulf of Bothnia, or sailing in the Gulf of Finland and the Archipelago Sea. The Curated Expedition highlights the importance of subjective observation and fascination with nature and natural phenomena, as well as the interaction between artists, researchers and other experts.
We live in a society which provides an abundance of knowledge, but a great number of people have lost direct contact with nature. How can you protect something you don´t experience other than through documentaries on television?
Despite all the problems of the Baltic Sea, the Expedition artworks avoid an apocalytic tone and present a challenge concerning the future of the Baltic Sea to the consumers and users of nature - to the inhabitants of the Baltic Sea and the Earth. We hope this exhibition will encourage people to venture into interdisciplinary expeditions of their own, and thus understand their own role in this bigger system, which we are all a part of.
The Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea exhibition in Turku, Finland, consists of five new artworks which form a trail flagged with seagull-signs starting from Aurajoki, going through Koroinen, the centre of Turku, and ending on Ruissalo Island. The exhibition is free of charge and open until the 31st of August, 2011. The audience is encouraged to use bicycles, canoe and other "slow" methods of transport to experience the exhibition. The project culminates in October, into a dance piece Vol.at.ilit.y, by Tomi Paasonen and Tiago da Cruz. There will be six performances held in the Barker theatre in Turku, from October 13th until October 30th.
Please download a brochure and map for the exhibition here >>
Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea is part of Turku2011 European Capital of Culture -programme.
Click here to check out our other sponsors and supporters >>
Concept
Ulla Taipale
Jury for Open Call for projects 2010
Ilppo Vuorinen
Terike Haapoja
Juha Huuskonen
Ulla Taipale
Curating, production and coordination
Ulla Taipale and Merja Markkula
Production assistant
Minna Nyqvist
Photographer
Thomas Söderstróm, Ulla Taipale
Illustrations and Graphic design of the brochure
Andrés Marín Jarque
Turku2011 project coordinators
Rita Paqvalen, Klara Paul
Web design
Kettukallio.fi
English translations
Jonathan Hutchings, Sami Rouhento, Richard Thompson Coon
Swedish translations
Eva Orava, Thomas Söderström, Klara Paul
Web editor
Ulla Taipale
