ARCOmadrid puts a premium on international connections, and this year that means a spotlight on Finnish art with the #FocusFinland section, curated by Leevi Haapala of Helsinki’s Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. A total of 13 Finnish galleries are featured in the fair — from Make Your Mark and SIC, in the fair’s #Openings section for emerging galleries, to Galerie Anhava and Galerie Forsblom, both returning ARCO participants who also each have a second booth dedicated to artists outside their #FocusFinland selection.
At Galerie Anhava, that selected artist is Antti Laitinen, whose work, “Forest Square,” 2012-13, was created for the 2013 Venice Biennale. An artist who “often makes projects that are physically very demanding,” according to gallery director Ilona Anhava, Laitinen cut down a 10-by-10 meter square of forest, separated the materials therein over a period of five months, then reorganized them by type and texture into a Mondrian-like grid, also in a 10-by-10 meter square. A portion of that installation is on view at Anhava’s booth for €40,000 ($54,800), as well as a video of the separating process for €4,000 ($5,500), and a large-format photograph of the whole final product for €10,000 ($13,700). Two photographs of the original forest area, “Forest Square I” and “Forest Square II,” 2013, sold almost immediately for €5,000 ($6,800) each.
Wood shavings are also prominent at Forum Box’s booth, which showcases the sculptures of Mia Hamari. Hewn from unvarnished wood and adorned with animal parts (hares’ feet, horse tails), the work has a raw, natural feel. “I live in the countryside, by the river — I work outside,” said Hamari, who stood in the booth whittling small interlocking pieces for an upcoming sculpture. “That’s important to me, to use material from nature.” She also notes that the animals she incorporates all died naturally or in accidents. For example, a deer that was hit by a car eventually became part of the sculpture “Son of Deer,” 2009, which was reserved by a collector early on.
In contrast to Hamari’s countryside feel, Jiri Geller’s work at Showroom Helsinki is delightfully manufactured pop art, including “We Come At Night (Glossy),” 2014, a pedestal with a skull hidden inside, which rises up through thick black paraffin oil based on viewers’ proximity as determined by a motion sensor. Priced at €105,000 ($144,000), this new work already sold prior to the fair. “We’re doing our own generation’s thing, but it’s nice to see that the old collectors like it, too,” said gallery director Tuomas Zetterberg.
Korjaamo Galleria is hard to miss with its giant red aluminum lightbox bearing the message “Escribid a Papá Noel y Pedid Trabajo” (“Write to Santa Claus and Ask for Work”), 2013 — a surprisingly Spanish turn for the Finland-focused section. “It’s kind of an absurd situation that I’m presented here as a Finnish artist, but I’ve lived in Spain for 10 years,” explained artist Riiko Sakkinen. “So I thought, ‘I won’t do anything to do with Finland, I want to do something as local as possible.’” Sakkinen presents a series of ceramic plates bearing satirical takes on food advertising — such as an instant noodle mascot surrounded by the phrase “Curry Flavored Chemical Weapon,” priced at €5,300 ($7,300) — as part of an overall capitalist critique. “Food has been a focal thing in my art, because I’ve heard that the biggest businesses in the world are weapons, prostitution, and drugs. But, I mean, I know people who don’t have a gun, people who don’t sleep with prostitutes, and people who don’t use drugs — but I don’t know anybody who doesn’t buy food," he said. “You are what you eat, right?”
Each gallery brings something new to the table, from the intricate black and white ink drawings of Ville Andersson at Helsinki Contemporary, to Leena Nio’s massive, richly textured paintings at Galerie Forsblom, to Anna Rokka’s full-booth installation, “Mad Horizon,” at Sinne, which includes a dwelling-like structure made of burnt plastic and a floor littered with oyster shells, at once sci-fi-reminiscent and post-apocalyptic. If #FocusFinland shows us anything, it’s that Finnish art comes in all varieties — and that each of those varieties is well worth exploring.
