Temporary Exhibition: Untamed Art Location: Suomen Kansallismuseo Date: 05.05.2023 — 24.09.2023
Curators: Tuula Karjalainen and Liisa Heikkilä-Palo
I was excited to see the Untamed Art Exhibition since it showcases artists who are known for thinking outside the box. As curators put it, "They are not readily accepted by the traditional art world at large.". I had an impression that their work is not about creating something popular or within the constraints of market demand - their work is about expressing mundane life, work, their relationship with animals, politics, the beauty of crafting, love, grief, telling surreal stories, their dreams and nightmares, their vision on the afterlife and so on. These topics are my absolute favourites!
The exhibition starts with a beautiful and intriguing sculpturesque installation that catches your eyes from the lobby and pulls you closer to see. The gorgeous colours and intricate details can be viewed from every direction thanks to the rotating platform, and according to my observations, visitors spent many minutes absorbing what they were looking at. Afterward, this very encouraging statement from the curators catches your eye:
"Let's encourage creativity! Everyone is allowed to create and should go wild with it!" Tuula Karjalainen and Liisa Heikkilä-Palo
Being creative and freely expressing yourself is one of the causes that I am passionate about. It's nice to see that I am not the only one knowing its importance.
During my visit, I took a fond of many artists but here are my top 5 favourites:
Artist #1 - Ivan Rabuzin
Ivan Rabuzin imagines a world in pastel colours. With squishy and cute clouds. Perfectly shaped and nonstop blooming nature. He was a Croatian naïve artist and the best in his genre. I am honoured to see his work in person.
Artist #2 - Franjo Klopotan
Franjo Klopotan takes you to his fantasy world. You can sense the strong religious theme in his surrealistic imagery and also a slight humour. I loved all of the artwork, but my favourite piece was "Sudden Farewell" because of its dream-like mysterious environment with that green sky. That shade of green reminds me of danger, toxicity, and a post-apocalyptic world.
Artist #3 - Jean Faucq
Artist #4 - Henry Dieckmann
Artist #5 - Franz Klekawka
Pop-Up and Permanent Exhibitions
From the ground floor of the museum, visitors can either see the Otherland permanent exhibition; go to the museum shop; visit the temporary exhibition areas which are located opposite each other; or go down the stairs to the Prehistory permanent exhibition, restaurant and auditorium. Other than the Untamed Art exhibition, there is a pop-up exhibition called Vyshyvanka and the Power of Ukrainian Craftsmanship (free entry) showcasing textile pieces with sophisticated craftsmanship celebrating Ukrainian cultural heritage. The back of the museum shop has another pop-up area with the Future’s National Museum of Finland exhibition (free entry) where the visitors find out the future expansion plans for the museum. It is lovely that they made it possible for anyone to share their opinions on plans and gets to collaborate with the help of AI (Artificial Intelligence). After all, museums exist for people so it is good to provide them a platform to voice their opinions.
The Untamed Art temporary exhibition is vast and it will take some time to go through it. In the end, the wooden staircase takes visitors to the Story of Finland permanent exhibition. The majority of the exhibition was designed very well. The designers and curators used various display techniques to keep visitors entertained and engaged. I recommend everyone to see it at least once. However, the way they exhibited the sauna culture fell flat. On the other hand, the photo booth with the question "Are you the next Finnish president?" was a fun idea, but it turned out to be more shocking than anything else. Because, frankly, I didn't know that my photo was going to be on the show for everyone to see - I thought I was going to get a printed film with a Finnish flag behind me or something. My bad.
The Otherland permanent exhibition is there to teach visitors the history before Finland gained its' independence. This section is text heavy, hence requires visitors to pay attention, read, and observe. My favourite part of the exhibition was the medieval sculptures of saints.
And finally, the Prehistory permanent exhibition showcases as the name suggests: Finland's prehistory. This section is very visual and provides a multi-sensorial experience to visitors, even though some of the buttons did not make the noise that it's supposed to.
In a nutshell:
I highly recommend seeing the Untamed Art Exhibition if you are interested in naïve art or curious about it. The exhibition is ongoing until the 24th of September.
I highly recommend seeing the Story of Finland permanent exhibition at least once. You will get to see how Finnish people used to live, how the houses looked, and so on. The exhibition is curated and designed very well.
Have you been to any gallery or museum lately? Don't hesitate to share your experience at the comment section below!
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