ARS 11
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
15 April -27 November 2011

PRESS RELEASE 14 January 2011

Sneak Preview of Kiasma’s ARS 11 in Turku

In January, audiences of the Capital of Culture Year 2011 in Turku will
be treated to a sneak preview of the ARS 11 exhibition, to open in
Kiasma in April. Kiasma will produce a two-part exhibition in the Logomo
venue in Turku, with both works connecting thematically to the ARS11
exhibition. The artists in the ARS 11 exhibition are united by their
relationship to Africa, and the works presented in the show will
challenge our notions of both Africa and contemporary art.

ARS 11 will examine Africa and African identities through contemporary
art. Challenging the narrow idea of contemporary African reality as
nothing but a continuum of ancient traditions or their modern
repetition, it will open up and question the myths and ideas associated
with African identity and African contemporary art. ARS 11 will approach
Africa as a cultural concept and a source of influences.

“ARS11 will be wide-ranging, open and diverse in terms of both
content and structure. Instead of aiming to present a review of African
contemporary art, it will focus on selected perspectives that have
emerged during a two-year research process into hundreds of artists’
statements and works,” says Pirkko Siitari, Director of Kiasma.

The works in ARS11 will present individual, personal views of social
events and processes. This is also the common feature of the works to be
featured in Turku, both of which address the history of European
colonialism. The first one to be presented in Logomo is WHERE IS WHERE?,
a piece from 2008 by the internationally acclaimed Finnish video artist
Eija-Liisa Ahtila. It was the first work to be donated to the museum by
the Kiasma Foundation in 2009, and the exhibition in Logomo will be the
work’s premiere in Finland.

A Transnational Tragedy

Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s work concerns the clash between two cultures in
Algeria in the late 1950s, when the country was seeking independence.
Algeria was at the time ruled by France, and there were constant
confrontations between the resistance movement and French government
troops. The
violent history is told on the micro-level from the perspective of
three friends. Two Algerian boys, Adel and Ismael, kill their French
friend. The story is linked to contemporary Finland, where a Poet
(played by Kati Outinen) and Death (Tommi Korpela) discuss the tragic
story that transcends cultural boundaries. About an hour in duration,
the story is projected onto six screens.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila (b. 1959, Hämeenlinna) is a Helsinki-based video
artist and Professor of Time and Space Based Art at the Finnish Academy
of Fine Arts. She also holds the title of Academician of Art. In
addition to Kiasma, Ahtila’s solo exhibitions have been presented also
in the Tate Modern in London and at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, amongst
other venues.

Ahtila’s work will be followed in June by WESTERN UNION: Small Boats
(2007) by the world-renowned British video artist and film director
Isaac Julien. The video installation is a visual and poetic
examination of illegal migration in the Mediterranean area. It was
purchased for the Kiasma collection in early 2010. This work too will
now be seen for the first time in Finland.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila WHERE IS WHERE?, 2008, 16 January - 29 May.
Isaac Julien WESTERN UNION: Small Boats, 2007, 17 June - 18 December.

The exhibition in Logomo is produced in cooperation with the Kiasma
Foundation.

Media images: www.kiasma.fi/press 
More information: Leevi Haapala, Chief Curator, tel. +358 (0)9 1733
6538 or +358 (0)40 356 7434, leevi.haapala@kiasma.fi 
Kiasma communications, 
Piia Laita, Communications Manager, tel. +358 (0)9 1733 6507 or +358
(0)40 590 8805, piia.laita@kiasma.fi or KiaViesti@kiasma.fi