Solo exhibition ‘Butterfly Logic’ on view at the gallery space Espai 13 in Fundació Joan Miró Museum in 2024. Photo: Inari Sandell
In 2024, Frame’s grants enabled 147 international projects of Finnish contemporary art around the world. For our Annual Report, we asked grantees Pekka and Teija Isorättyä, Inari Sandell, and Toni R. Toivonen to share experiences on their international presentations. Inari Sandell presented a solo exhibition at the Joan Miró Fundació Museum in Barcelona, Spain.
Inari Sandell: Curator Irina Mutt invited me to present a solo exhibition, Butterfly Logic, in Joan Miró Fundació Museum’s gallery space Espai 13, in Barcelona. The exhibition was on display from 26 April to 7 July 2024.
Irina had seen my exhibition in 2021 at the Titanik Gallery in Turku and contacted me now, years later. It was fantastic to do a solo exhibition in a museum space. The museum’s large production team was involved in the planning and production of the exhibition. Frame supported the exhibition with a project grant.
I produced my first longer video work, On Butterfly Logic (2024), for the exhibition. For the first time, I was able to hire a crew for the video production. Jussi Hertz did the sound work for the video and the soundscape for the whole exhibition. The team also included a voice actor and a graphic designer. I did a lot of the work myself, but I was able to hire an assistant for a few days to work on the sculptures. The museum also supported the production of the exhibition, but the grant from Frame enabled the team to be paid and the work to be of high quality.
Cutting the grant funding is a very short-sighted action. Any small-scale production would suffer even more if projects were not funded by grants. For a previous project, the cost of transporting artworks led me to create smaller works to reduce the costs. I have made photography prints with the idea that they would fit in my hand luggage if I fly with them. Circumstances and financial support have a quick and literal effect on what can be done, including material choices. I’ve felt lucky about how fair this exhibition project has been for me. The grant has allowed me to concentrate on my artistic work.
The exhibition spaces are important to me. I decided to go visit the museum space before the exhibition at my own cost. After that, my installation plan changed completely. I had built a scale model of the space, but the feeling in the space was very different. It was important to see it, because artistic work is created with all the senses. The conditions are also affected by things such as humming noises or temperature, or the ceiling of the space, for which documentation is less often available. Installation is also an important part of my work, especially as I make installations and ensembles. The work doesn’t stop when I finish the pieces at the studio. It was important to be on site and get in touch with people. You never know who you are going to meet.
My experience in Barcelona was very pleasant. My work and I were well received by people. I was positively surprised by the feedback. I received an incredible number of messages from people who had visited the exhibition, both on social media and via the museum. I felt like this is the reason artists work – to be in dialogue with people who are touched by their work, or find it thought-provoking.
I don’t see it necessary to travel to every exhibition location myself, as global travel should be moderated. A sensible balance could be found.
“It’s really delicate and random what happens as a result of everything.
That’s also the nature of art.”
Photo: Inari Sandell
I have also ended up participating in exhibitions through curatorial meetings organised by Frame. Icelandic curator Daría Sól Andrews contacted me after a meeting, and my work was shown in a group exhibition at the Hafnarborg Art Centre in Iceland. I ended up applying for a residency in Iceland, and this year I am going there again.
In Barcelona, a curator of a local film festival invited me to a meeting. I cannot yet know the possible impact of it. The invitation to collaborate may come a few years after someone has seen a work or an exhibition. The effects of new contacts are not so quickly or tangibly measurable, but they can be more abstract. It’s really delicate and random what happens as a result of everything. That’s also the nature of art.
The film On Butterfly Logic has toured elsewhere since the Barcelona exhibition. It was most recently screened at the pIAR artist residency in Ghana and Mad House in Helsinki. New screenings will be on view in Helsinki and Amsterdam this summer, as well as in Tallinn in the autumn. I am very pleased with these opportunities to show my work internationally.
– Inari Sandell, Visual artist
On Butterfly Logic (screening) will be on view
1.–10.8.2025, GASP! exhibition space
On weekdays by appointment and 12–18 during weekend
Tefelenstraat 55, 1107SJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
8.6.2025, 10:30-12:30, Cinema Orion
In collaboration with AV-arkki for the Helsinki Biennial Preview Week
Eerikinkatu 15, Helsinki, Finland
13.9.-23.11.2025, Tallinn Art Hall
Part of the group show Under Pressure
Vabaduse väljak 6, Tallinn, Estonia
You can read more about Frame’s programme, as well as a complete list of the Frame-supported projects, from our Annual Report 2024.