Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale’s Art Curator is Jenni Nurmenniemi
Arranged in the culturally and historically valuable industrial milieu of Fiskars Village, the Art & Design Biennale will combine three exhibitions into one comprehensive experience.
The biennale, which will combine contemporary art and design, will engage artists, designers, local communities and various audiences. In addition to the three main exhibitions located in the village, smaller satellite events will be held throughout the Raasepori region. Weekly introduces the makers of the Biennale.
The art curator of the Biennale, Jenni Nurmenniemi, is a Helsinki-based curator and social scientist. During the last years, she has been working with HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, specializing in the interfaces between art and ecological thinking. During the years 2013–2018 she curated the multidisciplinary and international Frontiers in Retreat project, and at the moment she is involved in developing post-fossil art practices in a joint venture of the Mustarinda collective and HIAP (2018–2020). Nurmenniemi has curated exhibitions and performative events in Finland and abroad, most recently the group exhibition Fictional Frictions as a part of the Gwangju Biennale 2018 in South Korea.
Nurmenniemi’s Art Exhibition will highlight interspecies coexistence and the functioning of diverse materials* instead of the human-centred perspective. Keywords include immersiveness, porosity, breathability and transparency. The temporal layers of the environment, the continuums between the spaces inhabited** by the Biennale and extended connections to the village architecture and social structure will be emphasized by means of contemporary art.
What is the most interesting thing about the Fiskars Village Biennale?
This biennale is particularly interesting not only for its great venues and the community with which the exhibitions are linked, but also for the desire to try new methods and to do things differently.
The Fiskars Village Biennale, which combines art and design, brings a fresh viewpoint to the biennale concept. Instead of quantity, it focuses on quality and aims to do things in a socially and ecologically sustainable way.
And what do you look forward to, especially?
The working title for my exhibtion is being(s) with, and the rallying point is meeting the differences and the beauty as well as the difficulty in togetherness. One can expect lots of shared activities and collisions of different ideas.
Are there any exhibitions or biennales that you have experienced lately and would like to highlight?
For me, the most interesting exhibitions at the moment are process-like events that have multiple layers. These events create participatory happenings where bare elements become interesting content. The most important insights and novel expressions do not often develop in the massive mega biennales but, rather, on the sideways and in slopes in relation to the mainstream. I’m also interested in exhibitions and doers that seamlessly combine different art forms.
You can find the introduction of the Biennale’s Design Curator, Jasper Morrison, here. The first Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale will be produced in collaboration with Onoma on 19 May–15 September 2019. More details can be found here.