Photo reportage from the exhibition 'Unfolding and Refolding' at Kogo gallery

October 12, 2022
Author Echo Gone Wrong

Published in Photo / Video from Estonia

Kogo Gallery based in Tartu, Estonia, currently hosts an exhibition Unfolding and Refolding that looks into how the past settles in the present and how it shapes the way the current is being experienced. The exhibition curated by Mirjami Schuppert features new commissions by two Finnish artists, sound artist Jaakko Autio and visual artist Riikka Keränen. Unfolding and Refolding is part of this year’s exhibition exchange between Kogo Gallery and Titanik Gallery, based in Turku, Finland.

The exhibition Unfolding and Refolding features new commissions by two Finnish artists, Jaakko Autio and Riikka Keränen. It examines how the past lingers on in the present and how the presence we experience is impacted by our past experiences. We, or rather, our bodies, carry both sensuous and non-sensuous traces of the past, these are present not only as a form of remembrance, but as embodied memories. Our lived experiences are ingrained in ourselves, making us carry the past in our bodies. Through the embodied memory, there is a presence of different temporalities in one place and space simultaneously and cannot be separated; this day and time is part of a continuum that forms history.
The exhibition found its inspiration from Kogo’s theme for 2022 Past is the Present.

This exhibition is part of this year’s exhibition exchange between Kogo Gallery and Titanik Gallery which is based in Turku, Finland. Unfolding and Refolding is curated by Mirjami Schuppert who is the director of Titanik Gallery; in June there was a group exhibition My Bitter Sweet Frankenstein Body that involved artworks of ten Baltic artists, the show was curated by Šelda Puķīte, programme manager and curator at Kogo Gallery.

During his residency in Narva, Estonia, Jaakko Autio recorded local choirs and one Finnish choir singing the Estonian national anthem Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm (also the national anthem of Finland, where it is titled Maamme laulu). In Autio’s work, the singers’ voices, recorded individually, come together in a multichannel installation. Through the playing of the recordings, where each singer’s voice mixes and mingles, the lyrics and melody become indecipherable in the space. The work creates a space in which the multiplicity of perception is foregrounded, and different temporalities are present all at once. Our experience of the present becomes manifold and resists definition.

Riikka Keränen’s mischievous-looking objects are shaped by the artist’s immediate relationship to various natural materials, such as sand and clay. The works find their form in the artist’s hands – they are moulded by her physical presence in relation to the material, listening to their needs and inspired by the way living organisms grow. The shapes stretch and sprawl on surfaces, lingering on and not hurrying toward a form. Their raw material presence resists defined objecthood and becoming finite. Keränen’s works negotiate a space for themselves in relation to both Autio’s installation as well as the white cube of the gallery, building up in the crevices like fungi. Through Keränen’s work the nooks and crannies become visible, they create a presence for those elements of the interior that are always there, but never noticed.

The exhibition is open for visits until 5 November on Wed–Fri at 13.00–19.00 and on Sat at 13.00–18.00. The gallery is located in Tartu, Estonia in Aparaaditehas on Kastani 42.

The exhibition is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, Tartu – City of Good Thoughts, Finnish Institute, Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

Kogo Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Tartu, founded in 2018, focusing primarily on introducing younger generation artists in Estonia and internationally. The artists of the gallery include Alexei Gordin, Eike Eplik, Mari-Leen Kiipli, Kristi Kongi, Eva Mustonen, Laura Põld, Līga Spunde and Elīna Vītola. Kogo Gallery was named Cultural Organisation of the Year of 2021 in Tartu.

Titanik Gallery was founded in 1988 by Artist’s Association Arte, being a well-known platform for upcoming artists and unconventional art. Besides exhibitions, they run an international artist residency programme and host concerts and performances.

BIOS OF THE ARTISTS AND CURATOR

Jaakko Autio is a sound artist based in Helsinki. Autio was born in Finland but moved to Senegal as a child (4–11). After spending his childhood in Senegal, the return to Finland was marked by being an outsider. These events gave rise to the core of Autio’s works today – How do we connect to the world and others in a meaningful way?
Autio’s works are multi-channel and immersive sound installations where the visitor can rest and sink into an aesthetic experience. Safety and rest serve as a starting point from where one can reflect on his/her personal belonging to the world.
www.jaakkoautio.com

Riikka Keränen is a visual artist and mixed worker from Ristijärvi in the Kainuu region of Finland. She graduated with a degree in sculpture from the Kankaanpää School of Fine Art in 2010. Keränen’s work involves playing and thinking in dialogue with the entire spectrum of the world’s materials. Through her work, the artist reflects upon the entangled nature of human and other-than-human worlds.
www.riikkakeranen.com, www.instagram.com/r_i_i_k_k_a_k

Mirjami Schuppert (Finland/Germany) is a teacher, curator and director of Titanik Gallery and Arte Artists’ Association in Turku, Finland. She has completed a BA and MA in Cultural History, followed by a practice-based PhD in curating at Ulster University. Since 2010, she has been working as an independent curator delivering numerous exhibitions in Finland, Germany, and Northern Ireland, at both galleries and museums. The focus of Schuppert’s curatorial practice is commissioning new context- and site-specific works.

‘Unfolding and Refolding’
Jaakko Autio
Riikka Keränen
9.9.2022 – 5.11.2022
Kogo gallery
Curated by Mirjami Schuppert
In collaboration with Titanik Gallery