Boundary Crossings: Temporal Dialogues in Finnish Landscape Photography
Boundary Crossings: Temporal Dialogues in Finnish Landscape Photography approaches photography as a medium which transgresses academic, artistic, and national boundaries. The exhibition explores the relationship between art and science and highlights the role of Finland as a cultural mediator between East and West. The Finns have historically been pioneers in combining artistic and scientific approaches to visual representation and in exploring northern cultures and Russian Siberia.
Boundary Crossings' approach draws from the recent, increasingly international debates about the subjectivity of academic research, the role of science in art, and in the education of artists. One important emphasis in these debates has been the role of photography in colonial endeavors, nation-building, cultural identity politics and the power of representation. These debates question the objectivity of the lens in the general context of postmodernism and post-colonialism. It is now recognized that even documentary photographs contain strongly subjective elements and those who have the power to represent hold considerable power over our perceptions and worldviews. Boundary Crossings provides this discourse with historical and contemporary fuel.
The union of contemporary art and past explorations is constructed through the work of four Finnish photographic artists. Johannes Gabriel (J.G.) Granö's photographs from early twentieth-century Russian Siberia (from the collection of the Finnish Literature Society) represent internationally acknowledged pioneering work in the merging of art and science. Granö's influential academic work on landscape research placed a strong emphasis on visual elements in the understanding of how we perceive, and connect to, landscapes. In Boundary Crossings, the work of three contemporary photographers - Jorma Puranen, Pentti Sammallahti, and Taneli Eskola - expands upon Granö's classical work by revisiting the North and the East in Russia and Finland. Some of this contemporary work is previously unpublished. Sammallahti and Puranen are among Finland's leading art photographers, whose work has attracted considerable international attention. Eskola, Finland's first Doctor of Art from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (1996), is a photographic artist and academic researcher of the exhibition's central theme. Taneli Eskola is the curator of this exhibition.
Boundary Crossings: Temporal Dialogues in Finnish Landscape Photography is the largest-to-date exhibition to explore this theme through Finnish photographic art. The exhibition sheds light on the history of Finnish photographic art. This historical work is less known in North America than contemporary work by Finnish photographers, which has been well received by North American audiences. The combination is particularly attractive because of its emphasis on continuity and its multi-layered, thought-provoking message. The exhibition adds broader dimensions to the image of Finland beyond that of an exporter of high-quality design, cellular phones, and talented conductors. The exhibition answers to those who appreciate these exports but wish to explore Finnish culture, contemporary art and its evolution from a fresh perspective.
A similarly titled book about the images and themes of Boundary Crossings will be available for purchase at the exhibition. The English- and Finnish-language book is edited by the exhibition's curator, Dr. Taneli Eskola, and published by Musta Taide Publishing Company (Helsinki, 2005).
Boundary Crossings will be first exhibited in the United States at the Nash Gallery. It will then be available for other locations. The exhibition is organized by Dr. Pauliina Raento, Government of Finland/David and Nancy Speer Visiting Professor in Finnish Studies at the University of Minnesota (2003-2005).
In conjunction with the exhibition, an academic symposium titled Picture, Place, and Power will explore the themes of Boundary Crossings in an interdisciplinary, international, and intellectually thought-provoking manner. The symposium takes place at the In/Flux Space adjacent to the Nash Gallery on September 23-24. The symposium's program will be available at www.esc.umn.edu/FinnishStudies.html. The curator of Boundary Crossings, Dr. Taneli Eskola, and the organizer, Dr. Pauliina Raento, will be present at the symposium and are available for interviews.
Boundary Crossings: Temporal Dialogues in Finnish Landscape Photography and Picture, Place, and Power have received generous support from the Government of Finland/David and Nancy Speer Visiting Professorship in Finnish Studies, the Department of Art, the Regis Center for Art, and the European Studies Consortium at the University of Minnesota; Finland's Ministry of Education; the Consulate General of Finland in New York; the Alfred Kordelin Foundation; Finnish Fund for Art Exchange FRAME; the Arts Council of Finland; the South Carelia Polytechnic/Degree Program in Visual Arts; Musta Taide Publishing Company; the Finlandia Foundation; the Finnish Literature Society; the Geographical Society of Finland; the Academy of Finland; and the University of Helsinki Geography Department.
