07 Feb 2013

Home for Eyes and Ears – Media Art from Finland in Stockholm until 2 March

Home for Eyes and Ears will transform the gallery of the Finnish Institute into a space in which new media art meets top-class design. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to enjoy art in a venue furnished with contemporary Finnish design, a setting that might be their home. The innovative exhibition is a collaborative effort between two major players in the cultural field, Artists’ Association MUU and the Finnish Institute in Stockholm, with three famous Finnish design firms, Artek, Genelec and Marimekko.

Heidi Kilpeläinen, aka HK119, lives and works in London. A do-it-yourself pop artist who combines music, performance and video in her work, HK119 will release her third album, Imaginature, in March 2013. The exhibition features a number of performative music videos from the coming album. In 2005, Björk named HK119 as her favourite artist.

The piece by sculptor Timo Kokko is a series of miniature sculptures based on old Russian busts which have been pimped up by the artist. Timo Kokko views his works as toys and his art as an imaginative play of materials, forms and structures in which different solutions and combinations produce ideas for new works.

Petri Kuljuntausta is a sonic artist, composer, musician and researcher. He received the Finnish State Prize for Art in 2005. Co-created with artist Klaus Nyqvist, his video and sound installation is a visual variation on the soundtrack of a vinyl record, inspired by the striped Marimekko pattern.

Pekka Sassi works with experimental sound and video art. His piece, Lonely House on a Hill – Garage Opera, tells the story of a lonely man who has shut himself up in his house to carry out a secret mission. The work began as an audio play which developed into a musical piece along with the introduction of songs and instruments. Subsequently, the numbers became a pop album which has been released on a CD.

Juha Valkeapää is a sound and performance artist who has won acclaim for his sonic portraits. The piece included in the exhibition is called The Year. Co-created with architect Kari Sivonen, the installation consists of soundscapes for every month of the year. Artists’ Association MUU will participate in the Supermarket fair in Stockholm in February, and Valkeapää will perform there on 14 and 15 February.

In addition to participating in the exhibition in the Finnish Institute and the Supermarket fair, MUU will also organise a seminar at Wip:konsthall in Stockholm on 28 February. The topic of the seminar is the distribution of sound and performance art, and the art databases produced by MUU.

In addition to the artworks, the exhibition in the Finnish Institute also features publications: MUU FOR EARS is a series of CD compilations launched in 2009. MUU celebrates the exhibition by releasing the ten first CDs in a box. The MUU FOR EARS series already features sound art and new music by 82 artists from 14 countries.

In collaboration with: Artek, Genelec, Marimekko, Trio-Offset

Artists’ Association MUU has been supported by FRAME Visual Art Finland.