InCollection is a series of commissions and exhibitions co-produced by EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art and the Saastamoinen Foundation, one of Finland’s leading collections of Finnish and international art. Each year a visionary contemporary artist is commissioned to create a new artwork which forms the centrepiece of a major solo exhibition at EMMA. The next artists in this series are Pilvi Takala and Pierre Huyghe, who will both exhibit at EMMA in 2023.
Through this annual series of commissions, Saastamoinen Foundation expands its permanent collection by commissioning an artwork from a visionary international artist who reflects our contemporary experience. In doing so, InCollection forms a body of timely works which each offer alternate perspectives on the current sociopolitical climate and our collective future. At the same time, the project gives artists the opportunity to create an exhibition curated exclusively for EMMA’s space: a former printing house and a classic example of 1960s concrete brutalism designed by esteemed Finnish architect Aarno Ruusuvuori. Through multiple site visits, artists become acquainted with the museum’s architecture and its forest surroundings. Launched in 2018, InCollection gives EMMA and the Foundation the opportunity to directly engage in a deeper exchange of ideas with artists, enabling their work to materialize in the best possible way.
The next exhibition in the InCollection series will be Pilvi Takala’s Close Watch, which will open at EMMA early in 2023. The work is commissioned by Frame Contemporary Art Finland and co-produced by Frame and the Saastamoinen Foundation for the Pavilion of Finland at the 59th Venice Biennale, which premieres in April 2022. Takala is an award-winning Finnish artist who examines various communities and the unwritten rules they obey. At EMMA, the multi-channel video installation Close Watch will be displayed in a new and expanded spatial display connected to EMMA’s architecture. The exhibition will offer audiences an experiential and surprising opportunity to explore the themes of power and safety in our everyday environments. The exhibition is curated by Christina Li.
The sixth artist joining the InCollection series is French artist Pierre Huyghe. The exhibition will revolve around Abyssal Plain, an aquarium to be accessioned to the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. For Huyghe, the exhibition ritual is not an asymmetrical experience but an encounter with a sentient milieu. He will conceive a wide exhibition at EMMA that will spread outside the walls of the museum, interacting with the surrounding forest grounds. The exhibition will be curated by EMMA’s Chief Curator Arja Miller and Director of Creator Projects, Simon Friese.
Earlier commissions in this series have been Alicja Kwade’s Trans-For Men (Fibonacci) (2018), Tatsuo?Miyajima’s?Sky of Time (2019), Eeva-Leena Eklund’s Dance with Me and Lilac Eyes (2020) and Chiharu?Shiota’s Tracing Boundaries (2021). Linked together as a series, each artist adds their distinct voice to a gradually unfolding conversation. The InCollection continuum forms its own special microcosm within the Saastamoinen Foundation’s Art Collection and EMMA’s exhibition programme. All artists featured to date have created a captivating audience experience that interacts compellingly with EMMA’s unique architecture and environment.
Coming up:
Pilvi Takala: Close Watch 1.2.–7.5.2023
Pierre Huyghe: Abyssal Plain 7.6.2023– early 2024
On view:
Chiharu Shiota: Tracing Boundaries 27.10.2021–27.11.2022
More info and interview requests:
Iris Suomi, Marketing and Communications Designer
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
iris.suomi@emmamuseum.fi
Media bank: www.emmamuseum.fi/en/for-the-media/
Read more about InCollection: www.incollection.fi
Saastamoinen Foundation supports and enables a variety of initiatives related to art and artists, society, and scientific research, both independently and in collaboration with its Finnish partner universities, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art and other organisations. The foundation also promotes international networking, scholarships and education, as well as social projects targeted primarily at young beneficiaries. The Foundation is internationally known for its collection of approximately 2,700 artworks, which ranks among the most prestigious private collections in Finland. The collection consists primarily of contemporary art, a selection of which is on permanent display at the EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art.
www.saastamoinenfoundation.fi
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art presents a cross-section of Finnish and international modernist art, contemporary art, and design. The museum is a landmark of industrial architecture designed by Professor Aarno Ruusuvuori, forming part of the WeeGee Exhibition Centre in the Espoo district of Tapiola. The minimalist modern architecture provides an inspirational backdrop for presenting temporary exhibitions and works from the EMMA collection and those of its partners Saastamoinen Foundation, Collection Kakkonen and the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation Collection. EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art is a museum for powerful art and transformative experiences.
www.emmamuseum.fi
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