Exhibition: SYMBIOTIC PATHWAYS
The gallery is open daily from 10 to 20, free entrance.
Symbiotic
adjective
characterized by, living in, or being a close physical association (as in mutualism or commensalism) between two or more dissimilar organisms
It is evident that the complex interaction between art, science and technology has become a prominent theme that has been highlighted in various projects and exhibitions in recent years in Finland as well as abroad. Advances in biosciences, artificial intelligence and technology have created greater opportunities for artists to explore new methods, possibilities, and approaches to the major challenges we face today, and in the future. Boundaries are blurred and the question – what is art and what is science? has lost its significance. Instead, we ask ourselves how art can help us understand and even inspire science and the other way around.
The exhibition Symbiotic Pathways is thus Hanaholmen´s contribution to this current, and above all important, discussion and development. The exhibition presents works by Julia Lohmann, Teemu Lehmusruusu and Åsa Cederqvist. The artists have explored the multifaceted and complex interaction between nature, science and art in different ways and by using different techniques. The works in the exhibition draw our attention to how technology and research can help us broaden our understanding of our surroundings and what is happening around us. For example, by highlighting climate issues, the diversity of nature, alternative materials or the capacities and possibilities of artificial intelligence. Each work delves into a specific phenomenon and opens the door to the stories and questions that the artists encourage us to contemplate, explore and experience.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of seminars on these same themes, running throughout the exhibition period. The seminars will also highlight the importance of the interaction between art and science for informal learning, for activating our learning and how students, teachers or researchers can benefit from it.
Julia Lohmann. German-born designer and researcher Julia Lohmann investigates and critiques the ethical and material value systems underpinning our relationship with flora and fauna. She is currently Professor of Contemporary Design at Aalto University. Julia studied at the Royal College of Art, where she also has taught and completed a collaborative PhD scholarship between the RCA and the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 2013, she founded the Department of Seaweed, a transdisciplinary group of artists, designers, scientists, and sea-lovers, to collectively develop seaweed as a sustainable material for making, with a regenerative eco-systemic impact.
Teemu Lehmusruusu. Finnish artist Teemu Lehmusruusu is a media and installation artist whose work often combines elements of environmental and bio-art. He is interested in the invisible nature upon which the basis of our everyday perception of understandable reality is built. His artistic practice is research based and often include collaboration with biologists and soil and climate scientists as well as farmers and gardeners. Teemu is the Chairperson of the Board at the Bioart Society since 2020. He is also a doctoral candidate at the Aalto University.
Åsa Cederqvist. Swedish artist Åsa Cederqvist has a multidisciplinary approach. She works in close dialogue with living materials, new technology and archival material from a performative -within the material – state of mind. Her work often includes spatial installations and a kind of digital and material composting. She recurrently examines human instincts, behaviours and the societal infrastructures we are expected to live within. Åsa studied at Konstfack and The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm Between 2010-2020 she was a senior lecturer in Fine Art at the Textile program at Konstfack.
The exhibition is arranged with the support of The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Picture: Åsa Cederqvist, The Source (still).
