The Helsinki School - The Nature of Being

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The Helsinki School – The Nature of Being
with Elina Brotherus, Ulla Jokisalo, Sanna Kannisto, Sandra Kantanen, Eeva Karhu, Janne Lehtinen, Ville Lenkkeri, Anni Leppälä, Riitta Päiväläinen, Jyrki Parantainen, Jorma Puranen, Jari Silomäki, Santeri Tuori
 

Persons Projects | Helsinki School is proud to present our group exhibition The Helsinki School – The Nature of Being. This show will take place in both of our spaces Lindenstr. 34 and 35, and will be accompanied with our latest publication from the Helsinki School series volume 6 by Hatje Cantz.
This exhibition focuses on how these selected artists from the Helsinki School use their internal compass to intrinsically measure and guide their perspective in interpreting the landscape they live in. Historically, Nordic culture abides by the power generated by the changing of the four seasons. Each of these natural time periods either by its wrath or grace, notches its mark upon its passing, leaving a reminder in its wake of how fragile our human presence is within it.

The exhibition explores the nature of a landscape by conceptualizing it from an internal perspective based upon our sensibilities. In other words, how to visualize and define nature beyond the physical world of animals, plants and sunsets by using those essential qualities that characterize who we are. This is most evident in the works of Elina Brotherus, Ulla Jokisalo, Janne Lehtinen, Ville Lenkkeri, Anni Leppälä and Jari Silomäki, who create situations where the images reflect a specific attitude or emotional condition that’s somehow universal for all of us. On the other hand, Sanna Kannisto, Sandra Kantanen, Riitta Päiväläinen and Jorma Puranen focus their themes on a more poetic interpretation, by using the natural elements to compose moments for self-reflection on where the human condition is within it. Yet all share a common thread with Eeva Karhu, Jyrki Parantainen and Santeri Tuori, whose works measure time passage by how we collect, layer or move through it. Joined together all of these selected artists share a notional approach in how to photographically capture those complex emotional attributes that determine what our personal natures look like. 

The accompanying exhibition A Fresh Breeze from the North! Images of Nature in the Helsinki School at Kunsthalle St. Annen in Lübeck features some of these artists as well and takes place until July 26 2020.

Our latest publication The Helsinki School. The Nature of Being, Vol. 6 presents twenty-five different approaches in how to measure and define our memories with a view, following the question of what’s the nature of a landscape from the inside looking out. 

Concomitantly to the exhibition the latest monographs by Sanna Kannisto: Observing Eye 2020, Sandra Kantanen: More Landscapes 2019, Eeva Karhu: Polku / Path 2020, Anni Leppälä: Hyle / Curtain / Backdrop 2019 and Santeri Tuori: Time Is No Longer Round 2020, will be presented.