COLLABORATION
A2 Galleria, Helsinki 5.-23.3.2025
The exhibition grew out of a collaboration with a fellow artist from the Academy of Fine Arts. Our practices differ markedly in their approaches, visual languages, and use of materials and colour. Rather than smoothing out these differences, we made them the starting point of the exhibition. The works were placed in dialogue with one another, allowing unexpected connections, tensions, and new meanings to emerge between them.
.Mia Seppälä & Anniina Vainionpää: Poistamisen ja muistamisen jäljet
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New Decorations of Honour (2023–2024)
The artistic component of the Stories of Finland: Historical Culture, Art and Changing Citizenship research project explored changing ideas of Finnishness and new perspectives on a diverse society.
My collaborative artwork examined contemporary ideas of recognition, merit, and honour in Finland. The work took the form of a new series of medals of honour, developed with students from Puistopolku Lower Secondary School in East Helsinki and Kilonpuisto Lower Secondary School in Espoo. The students considered which achievements and contributions they would recognise as worthy of honour in Finland today and in the future.
The medals were designed by the students and presented as an alternative model of recognition. Instead of being awarded to individuals, they became part of the museum collection and a public exploration of how recognition is shaped and who gets to define what is worthy of honour.
The work was presented at the Mannerheim Museum in 17.4. – 31.7.2023 and The Gallen-Kallela Museum 14.5. – 11.8.2024.
The project is discussed and illustrated in the chapter “Taiteilijoiden muuttuvat tarinat suomalaisuudesta” in Kertomuksia kansakunnasta. Suomi ja suomalaisuus muuttuvassa historiakulttuurissa [Narratives of a Nation. Finland and Finnishness in Changing Historical Culture], edited by Jukka Kortti, Mari Viita-aho, Rami Mähkä and Aleksi Marti (Gaudeamus, 2024).
The medals designed by the students were donated to the museum in spring 2024, becoming part of the Gallen-Kallela Museum’s online collection.
Link to the online collection: https://gallen-kallela.fi/aineistot-verkossa/
More exhibitions and project:
Gallen-Kallela Museum 14.5. – 11.8.2024 > https://gallen-kallela.fi/en/narratives-of-finland/
Installation view, Mannerheim-museum, 2023, Helsinki, Finland:
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INTERIM-exhibition 16.-22.12.,11-19 / Mia Seppälä, Salla Myllylä and Nanni Vapaavuori & Midsummer Night goes Sörnäinen at Winter Solstice, Wednesday 21 December 2022
INTERIM was a brief exhibition by three doctoral researchers in the darkest time of the year, between university terms, in White Studio, the hybrid space in the main building of the Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition was open for one week 16.-22.12.2022, 11-19. Read more about the exhibition here.
INTERIM oli yhteisnäyttelymme Valkoisessa studiossa, hybriditilassa Kuvataideakatemian päärakennuksessa. Näyttely oli auki viikon ajan vuoden pimeimpään aikaan, kahden lukukauden välissä 16.-22.12. klo 11-19.
Esitimme väliaikaisia kokeellisia järjestelyjä käyttäen liikkuvaa kuvaa, puutavaraa, Molton-verhoja, huonekaluja ja valoa. Tarkastelimme hybridiyden materiaalista ilmentymistä tilassa, joka on suunniteltu palvelemaan sekä näyttely- että esitystoimintaa. Siirsimme muissa paikoissa – parantolassa ja uimarannalla – toteutettuja tekoja kadun toisella puolella olevalle urbaanille ranta-alueelle.
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GIFT CEREMONIES (2021-2022)
The Gift Committee: Ingvil Fossheim, Liv Kristin Holmberg, Mia Seppälä, Charlotte Østergaard
We organized the first GIFT ritual at the SAAR summer school event in Hanasaari 2021. During the ritual, the participants wrote a letter to themselves in the future. We sealed the letters tightly in an envelope and mailed each one to their home address.
As you can see on the photo the carefully raped GIFTS arrived safely to Copenhagen where they were stored for the next year. In the beginning of August 2022 everyone received a gift at home address.
Monday (August 1st) the gift letters was posted from Copehangen. Participants received the letter they wrote to themselves. We kindly asked participants NOT to open the letter upon arrival.
We invited participants to join the GIFT ritual on 31 August 2022 and hosted an online GIFT ritual via Zoom, where we collectively opened our letters.
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KATKOVIIVA RANNASSA – MEASURING THE SHORELINE (2022)
Salla Myllylä and Mia Seppälä
Site-specific performance at Hietaniemi Beach, Helsinki, August 2022
Duration: 4 hours
Presented as part of Hietsusta Avaruuteen – From Hietaranta to Space, organised in connection with the memorial seminar for legal philosopher Ari Hirvonen.
Hietsusta avaruuteen / Hietsun paviljonki, Helsinki 25.8.2022 http://www.sofy.fi/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/08/Ari_Seminaari-ohjelma_suomeksi.pdf
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ART BY METER (2019)
Art by Meter is an art installation and a social sculpture by Artist Collective Kunst in Art Fair Suomi Festival for Contemporary Art in Cable Factory in May 2019. Art by Meter is a collective installation and a social sculpture where art is sold by meter. Carnivalistic work comments on value of art and artists´ work as well as art being subject of trading and investments.
See more: http://artbymeter.com/ and http://artfairsuomi.fi
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IMPACT 10 – ENCUENTRO Santander (2018) Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions after John Donne
This collaborative work has several outcomes and publication modes. It is coordinated by Printmaking department (Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki) Professor Annu Vertanen. The work was originally produced in 2018 for an exhibition in Santander, Spain. After that it was invited to a joint exhibition in the USA in the fall of 2019: Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, USA.
See more: IMPACT 10. Encuentro. Santander, ES. International Printmaking Conference 1 – 9.09. 2018., collective installation and art book: Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions – John Donne. Biblioteca Central de Cantabria. https://www.impact10.es/exhibitions/
Printed Matters – merkitysten kerroksia (in Finnish) / Ruth Pelzer-Montada: Tulevaisuuden takaaminen tai Taide suojana elämän hyökkäyksiltä?
Kuvataideakatemian taidegraafikoiden John Donne-projekti (2018) s. 79 – 95
MIA SEPPÄLÄ 