Natures 4: Zone group exhibition was on display in Tampere at Art Centre Mältinranta 2 – 19 September 2023. The exhibition group included the artists Inka-Maaria Jurvanen, Antti Keitilä, Hannele Kumpulainen, Iisa Maaranen, Pia Männikkö, Miika Nyyssönen, Sara Orava and Julia Strand. The exhibition consisted of paintings, sculptures and installations.
What is Zone – exhibition ?
A zone is a limited area or sector that is uniform in its characteristics, purpose of use or management. Natures 4: The Zone exhibition reflects on how and why we make and set these borders.
What do these definitions really mean: time zone, climatic zone, buffer zone, border zone, frontal zone, steppe zone, coniferous forest zone, disease zone, fishing zone, hunting zone, vegetation zone, tree zone, earthquake zone, mineral zone, temperate zone, park zone, garden zone, coastal zone, shelter forest zone, fell zone, wind zone, green zone, cultivation zone, felling zone, zoning, night zone, day zone, shadow zone, electric light zone, matter zone, spirit zone, unzone, animal zone, human zone, bible zone, star zone, sound zone, zone dimension, zone fog, zone madness?
The goal of our group is a long-time cooperation. Our exhibitions are a continuum with an interesting time perspective both through the artistic work by the group members and also through the changes in the world and environment. For example, the importance and meaning of a border zone has been significantly charged as a result of world’s political shifts since we started planning our latest exhibition. The change in climate and vegetation zones is also visibly rapid. On a small scale, the artist sees this on their commute or in their garden.
The universe can be thought of as nature’s disintegration, unfolding and assembling of matter into new formations. In this case, the individual body of work by an artist becomes a map of the current order of the matter – a picture of nature. Everyone has their own personal zone, which is formed in relation to being in a physical place and interacting with others.
The first Luontoja exhibition was on display at Poriginal Gallery, Pori in 2020 and the second at Merikeskus Vellamo, Kotka 2021-2022.
All our exhibitions are also independent entities that take into account the special characteristics of each exhibition space.
Pia Männikkö tells about her exhibition works:
I have crocheted places that are hostile to humans: a volcanic eruption and acid lakes which are located at the meeting point of the continental plates in the desert which is said to be the hottest place in the world. In the crocheted landscapes the enormous forces of nature are contrasted with handiwork, soft materials and a small scale.
In the works made by masking tape an everyday material bends into abstract organic shapes, the like of which could be found, for example, on the dark bottom of the deep sea or under the lens of a biologist´s microscope.
Inka-Maaria Jurvanen’s thoughts on the theme “Zone”:
A zone is a safe word; it means certainty, even if it’s boring.
Within a zone there are similarities, connections – identifications have been made.
Zones of knowledge leak and flood.
The definitions of a lost zone have turned back into unknown particles and energy.
The world moves from zone to zone.
About Julia Strand art:
Julia Strand (b.1986) is a visual artist and sculptor from Helsinki. Strand uses ceramics as the main material of her sculptures, which she often combines with varying materials, creating interesting and even surprising combinations. The works often borrows elements from nature and vegetation, and Strand plays with scale, textures and dialogues between materials. In her works, Strand strives for small gestures, communication created by shape, surface and color through the means of abstract sculpture.
Antti Keitlä’s Soot Drawings:
Hannele Kumpulainen on zones
“In my paintings, I move in a zone that exists, exists not, and exists to some extent. It is a zone that actually should not be, because of its’ decorativeness and sonorous sounds. Sometimes uncle dances
trepak, and everyone understands humor. There you can get in touch with the afterlife, for example, by patting moss tussocks. The zone is a place of gentle madness.”
The zone in question is alive for Kumpulainen through oral inheritance. The artist’s refugee mother belonged to a Karelian minority which came under the pressure of a unified culture to shrink oneself. The school’s Finnish history teaching, influenced by the Soviet Union, created black holes, so only as an adult after familiarizing herself with the new history research, Kumpulainen has begun to dare to admit that she stands on her own zone.
Sara Orava’s website
Miika Nyyssönen: Pulses in Blue
“A zone borders another zone. There are material and immaterial zones. Sometimes immaterial zones jump into parts of the situation called reality. There is movement and impulses between and within the zones.”
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