29 April 2004 at 18.00 Photo-report from the video screening
VIEW04TOUR - Contemporary Finnish video art. From the collection of AV-Arkki, Distribution Center for Finnish Media Art. The works were presented on the festival VIEW04, organized by AV-Arkki in Helsinki, 2004.
Participants: Aurora Reinhard, Pirjetta Brander, Gun Holmstrom, Juha van Ingen, Markus Renvall, Aarno Salosmaa, Maria Duncker, Elina Brotherus, Pekka Sassi, Cecilia Stenbom, Marko Lampisuo, Borkur Jonsson, Anssi Kasitonni, Pink Twins, Elena Nasanen, Hanna Haaslahti.
AV-Arkki is the one and only Finnish media art distribution center and archive, that has in its collections hundreds of media art works. AV-Arkki is also responsible for the annual VIEW-festival in Helsinki. AV-Arkki's web-site www.av-arkki.fi
30 April 2004 at 18.00
TEEMU MAKI: "One Old and Five New Video Works"
In program:
THE GOOD FRIDAY
9'10 min, 1989
RAKKAUS LIITAA IHMISMIELEN TAVOITTAMATTOMISSA
part two of the series "Leningrad Essays And Poems", 6 min, 2003
ITAKESKUS DANCING TREE (a RUMARYHMA video by Teemu Maki)
in collaboration with Pia Karaspuro, Jouko Kyhala, Outi Pulkkinen and Paivi
Rissanen, 13'30 min, 2004
HISSITANSSI (elevator solo)
part three of the series "Leningrad Essays And Poems", 6'30 min, 2004
PEOPLE APPEAR FROM NOTHING
part two of the series "Leningrad Essays And Poems", 30 min, 2003
HISSITANSSI 2 (another elevator solo)
part four of the series "Leningrad Essays And Poems", 6'30 min, 2004
"Teemu Maki is perhaps the most controversial Finnish artist ever. Price-winning and internationally acclaimed, his works have aroused fierce debates, some of his works have even been censored or banned. Maki is known for his uncompromising artistic expression and for his relentless struggle against consumer capitalism, prettifying esthetism and moral hypocrisy."
(propaganda in the back sleeve of the monography "Teemu Maki", published by Like, January 2002)
Born 1967 in Lapua, Finland, studied in the Academy of the Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland. MA degree 1990, currently finishing Ph.D. in the same university.
Mini CV:
34 solo exhibitions in various museums and galleries in Finland and elsewhere.
112 group exhibitions in Europe and elsewhere. 29 video/film works. Numerous performances in art museums, theaters and elsewhere. Texts published in various magazines and books. Artworks in many museum and private collections.
Received 66 grants, scholarships and awards.
www.teemumaki.com
Says of himself:
"I am an artist. I am also a perspectival relativist, atheist, vitalist and a kind of communist. I make drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, photographs, videotapes, installations, performances, texts, music, theater, internet works etc. and various combinations of these. My artistic practice is for me the most flexible and complete method of practicing philosophy. My art is not about first and foremost aesthetic ideals, but about basic philosophical questions like: "How it is?", "Who am I?", "How do I actually feel, fear and desire?", "How should I live?" and "Why should I live?". In other words, all my work is about questioning and generating value systems. I don't believe in good or evil. As a relativist I see values as the product of biology, culture and personal calculation and feel. Because of this I can't take any moral system for granted, instead, my work is about evaluating and testing different ones, knowing that a permanent answer and universally useful cannot be found, but still understanding that some value systems are more fruitful - for some people, in some situations.
On a more concrete level, my main themes often are: different varieties of violence, the pleasurable and the destructive sides of those, and the impossibility of common good - and the need to strive after it anyhow, and the need a social structure, even socialism, to save us from the laws of the jungle and capitalism."
