The Pavilion of Finland in the Venice Biennale is not the only place in the city to spot Finnish or Finland-based artists this year. Let’s take a tour of some current exhibitions around Venice.
The Estonian Pavilion:
Orchidelirium:
An Appetite for Abundance
Venue: Rietveld Pavilion, Giardini
When: 23 April to 27 November 2022
Participating artist: Bita Razavi
Orchidelirium: An Appetite for Abundance is a project by artists Bita Razavi and Kristina Norman and curated by Corina L. Apostol. In the exhibition, the artists combine historic and new artworks to propose a multifaceted view of colonial history and its problematics. Taking place in the Holland’s Rietveld Pavilion in Giardini, the exhibition takes the form of an immersive environment, featuring a film trilogy by Norman and a performative spatial intervention by Razavi.
Bita Razavi is a visual artist based in Helsinki and in the Estonian countryside. Their work looks at everyday situations which become the basis for making broader conclusions about the surrounding culture and society.
Syrian Arab Republic Pavilion:
The Syrians People:
a Common Destiny
Venue: Syrian Arab Republic Pavilion, Isola di San Servolo
When: 23 April to 27 November 2022
Participating artist: Hannu Palosuo
The Syrian Arab Republic Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2022 reflects on art as representative of shaping the society, encouraging love and hope and providing opportunities for rebirth. One of the 8 artists exhibiting at the Syrian Arab Republic Pavilion is Finnish Hannu Palosuo. He returns to the Syria Pavilion for the second time, after his 2009 participation. Through his work, the artist reflects on the relationships between the viewer and the image, and the world art mirrors.
Exhibitors: Saousan Alzubi, Ismaiel Nasra, Adnan Hamideh, Omran Younis, Aksam Tallaa, Giuseppe Amadio, Marcello Lo Giudice, Lorenzo Puglisi, Hannu Palosuo.
Swiss Pavilion:
The Concert
Venue: Swiss Pavilion, Giardini
When: 23 April to 27 November 2022
Participating artist: Anne Weckström
The Concert, an exhibition conceived by artist Latifa Echakhch together with composer Alexandre Babel and curator Francesco Stocchi plays with harmonies and dissonances, with the mixed feelings of expectation, fulfilment and disappearance. Part of an orchestrated and enveloping experience are large sculptures, a rhythmic and spatial proposal that allows viewers to experience a fuller perception of time and of their own body. Light design of the exhibition is created by Finnish light designer Anne Weckström.
The Sámi Pavilion
Venue: The Sámi Pavilion (Nordic Pavilion), Giardini
When: 23 April to 27 November 2022
Participating artist: Pauliina Feodoroff
This year Indigenous Sámi artists transform the Nordic Pavilion into The Sámi Pavilion for the first time. Sámi artists Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara and Anders Sunna represent Sápmi, their Sámi homeland. This transformation, commissioned by Office for Contemporary Art Norway with co-commissioners Kiasma museum and Moderna Museet, celebrates and honours the art and sovereignty of the Indigenous Sámi people, whose nation extends across the Nordic countries and into the Kola Peninsula in Russia. This is an act to acknowledge the indigenous sovereignty that highlights the relationship of the artists to their homeland Sápmi and presents a pavilion that encompasses all of the lands and people of what was originally a borderless region.
Pauliina Feodoroff is a Skolt Sámi theatre director, artist and land guardian from Keväjäu’rr in the Finnish part of Sápmi and Suõ’nnjel, in the Russian part. Her work Matriarchy at The Sámi Pavilion consists of performances and digital screen installation. She connects various fields of knowledge – Sámi, artistic, scientific – and also in political activism and ecological restoration projects.
The Community and
Tom of Finland
Foundation: AllTogether
Venue: Studio Canneragio, Cannaregio
When: 23 April to 26 June 2022
Participating: Tom of Finland, The Community curator Sini Rinne-Kanto
In the Curatorial Team: Sini Rinne-Kanto, Tuukka Laurila and Benjamin Pöntinen.
The Community (Paris) and Tom of Finland Foundation (Los Angeles) have curated the group exhibition AllTogether, presenting Tom of Finland Foundation’s permanent erotic art collection to the public for the first time outside of Los Angeles. AllTogether comprise more than two hundred works from the 1940s to the present day from over eighty artists in the collection, including Bruce Rapp, Annie Sprinkle, Benoit Prevot, Bastille, George Quaintance, Don Bachardy, Rick Castro, Goh Mishima, Gio Black Peter, Seth Bogart, Jim French, Michael Kirwan, Marcello Lupetti, Silvia Prada, Stanley Stellar, Suzanne Shifflett, TANK, Tom of Finland, Viktoria Raykova, and many more.
European Cultural Centre in Venice: Personal Structures
Venues: Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora, Marinaressa Gardens, Palazzo Michiel
When: 23 April to 27 November 2022
Participating artists: Katja Tukiainen, Maria Wolfram
The 6th edition of the contemporary art exhibition Personal Structures features nearly 200 internationally renowned and emerging artists, photographers, and sculptors as well as worldwide academic institutions spreading to four different venues. Spot Pulse, a collaborative artwork by Katja Tukiainen and Maria Wolfram in Palazzo Bembo!
Pulse is an adventure taken up by two very different painters, who are united through their subject matters and process-driven way of working. Mirroring and reflecting the flood of images of our time, each part of the work is telling its own story. Together they form a mosaic of multi-layered narratives.
Orchidelirium. An Appetite for Abundance, the Estonian Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2022. Photo by Luke Walker. Courtesy CCA Estonia.