Upcoming exhibitions at Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art

marita liulia choosing my religion &

marita liulia tarot

January 24 2010 - March 14 2010

Marita Liulia's multimedia work Choosing My Religion compares the world's major religions. Liulia views religions as an artist, as a researcher, and as a woman. The exhibition presents photographic works, paintings and religious objects.

Choosing My Religion is divided into an artistic and a factual section. The artistic part focuses on the intense experiences offered by religions, while the factual section highlights the role of religions as our mental tools.

The exhibition started from Marita Liulia's interest in different cultures. When staying in Japan, Liulia realised that she could not understand what it is to be Japanese without getting to know the local religions. Religions are closely intertwined with culture; the languages we speak and the way we think and perceive the world. They have also had a strong impact on arts: the visuals arts in the Western countries, for example, would be difficult for someone not familiar with Christianity to understand. A need to know more about each other's cultures – and religions – has increased with globalisation and mobility.

In her powerfully visual exhibition, Marita Liulia has made use of various techniques. In addition to large paintings, photographs and mediainstallations, the exhibition contains documentaries on the artistic processes of the exhibition, as well as computers through which the visitors can get acquainted with the factual online work at the exhibition's website.

Liulia's approach to religions never overlooks the perspective of a woman. The artist, who is also the model in her photos, has placed herself in roles that normally are reserved for men. The tasks of interpreting holy scriptures or leading rituals are ways of taking part in the communal practice of a religion from which women normally are excluded.

Marita Liulia Tarot is a combination of art & culture, entertainment and technology. Tarot is a popular fortune telling cards game which originated in Northern Italy around 600 years ago. The visually layered cards represent archetypal human figures, and the main events of human life, from birth to death. When played, the cards are organized into tables, each dealing with a specific issue. The aim of the game is to better understand one self, others, and changing life situations. In principle, Tarot functions in a similar way than art does, and it has always fascinated artists and researchers.

Further information:
www.maritaliulia.com/cmr
www.maritaliuliatarot.com
Brochure, PDF (in Finnish, in Swedish)

ars fennica 2009 award winner: jussi kivi

March 27 2010 - May 23 2010

The winner of the Ars Fennica 2009 award is visual artist Jussi Kivi. His solo show will be on view from 27 March to 23 May 2010 in the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art in Vaasa. The winner of the Ars Fennica 2009 award was chosen by Vicente Todolí, Director of the Tate Modern. The joint exhibition of the five Ars Fennica 2009 candidates is on view in Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art from 9 October 2009 to 10 January 2010.

The Ars Fennica art award is made annually to one artist in recognition of distinctive artistic output of high merit. The award includes a monetary prize of 34,000 euros, a catalogue of works by the winner and an exhibition tour of three Finnish art museums. The Ars Fennica is an internationally respected award and the biggest Finnish prize for visual art. The Henna and Pertti Niemistö Ars Fennica Art Foundation was set up in 1990 to promote the visual arts, to open up new international contacts for the Finnish art world, and to encourage artists in their creative work.

nuevas historias

June 2 - August 15 2010

The exhibition “Nuevas Historias. A New View of Spanish Photography and Video Art” includes works by more than 25 Spanish artists with the aim to put the spotlight on an area of contemporary photography that is still largely unknown to many people but deserves all attention. The exhibition is the most extensive presentation of contemporary Spanish photography outside Spain.

Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art

The Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art was opened to the public in February 2007. The new museum is situated in a former customs warehouse in the Inner Harbour of Vaasa. The building has 2,000 m² of space, which has been planned exclusively for museum activities.

Thanks to the new museum, both national and international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art are now a permanent feature of Vaasa’s artistic life.

The Kuntsi Foundation, founded by Consul Simo Kuntsi (1913-1984), has had the clear intention from beginning to provide the public with different aspects of contemporary art as well as to collect and present art phenomena from the art world’s recent history. This mission is now continued by the new museum.

In 1971 Consul Simo Kuntsi brought his growing art collection to his former hometown with the ambition of expanding the already fine supply of art in Vaasa. He also made an agreement with the City of Vaasa, whereby the city promised to keep the collection in Vaasa as well as to organize space in the form of a museum for it. The premises of the Vaasa Commercial School provided a suitable solution for presenting the collection in the 1970s and 1980s. However, in the 1990s, the space available at the school was no longer enough to satisfy the demands of the modern art museum, and the search for new appropriate space for the art collection began. In 2000 the Vaasa City Council eventually made a decision to build a new museum for modern art based around Kuntsi Art Collection. Vaasa City planned and renovated the former customs warehouse to make it a suitable location for an art museum.

The base collection in the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art is the Kuntsi Foundation’s art collection – one of the most important classic collections of contemporary art in Finland covering pop art, kinetic art as well as committed art, informalism, surrealism, new expressionism, postmodernism… The more than 900 works forming the collection are a cross section of modern art history, from international modernists to the Finnish artists of today. But most of all, it is the classic collection of Finnish contemporary art created in the 1950s and onward.

The Kuntsi Collection is constantly growing and other nationally remarkable private collections are both deposited and donated in connection with it. Donations and depositions continue the work started by Consul Simo Kuntsi, and increase the importance of Vaasa in the modern and contemporary art world. Regular cooperation with other museums, artists and collectors in Finland and abroad further expands the new museum’s operation as well as the exhibition offerings of the most topical art.

Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art is also a forum for inter-artistic collaboration: music, literature, dance and theatre form a self-evident part in the museum’s operation. The new museum functions also as a teacher in art education. Different advised activities, guided tours, art clubs, workshops and lectures are organized in the museum. And an atelier called Studio has been especially designed for younger visitors. The Simo Museum Café, a museum shop and an art library are also available for visitors’ use in the museum.