07.06.2023
The Finnish Exhibition of Countries and Regions at PQ2023 in Prague 8–18 June
The theme of PQ2023 is RARE and the Finnish national exhibition will be addressed under the sub-theme a future vision for post-pandemic theatre, performance and scenography. The Finnish exhibition project Bee Company – Mehiläisten seura at PQ2023 is a version of an existing and ongoing project asking an ecoscenographical question: what can a multidisciplinary artist collective learn from non-human ways of living, working and being creative? In addition to the honeybees, the working group comprises members with diverse artistic backgrounds and practices. This allows for exciting cross-pollinations and novel entrances into shared practices, processes and perspectives. Bee Company’s artists are Aino Aksenja, Ingvill Fossheim, Catharina Kajander and Ina Niemelä.
The Finnish exhibition is coordinated by the Finnish OISTAT Centre. The Finnish curatorial team, Janne Auvinen, Eeva Ijäs, Kimmo Karjunen, Raisa Kilpeläinen, Veera-Maija Murtola and Ulla-Maija Peltola, was formed as a cooperation between the Finnish OISTAT Centre's board activists. The artist group and their project was selected as the Finnish representative and exhibition designer through an open call, organised by the Finnish OISTAT Centre. At the suggestion of the Finnish curators, Finnish scenographer Kalle Nurminen’s collage sculptures Energy Towers will also be presented in PQ2023’s exhibition Fragments II – Magic of Scale in the National Gallery Prague. The international PQ programme also brings many individual independent artists from Finland and a Finnish student exhibition to Prague.
OISTAT and the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space have a long history together. The international OISTAT has been working closely with the PQ exhibition since the organisation was founded in 1968. The Finnish OISTAT Centre was established in 1974. Since 1983, it has been a partner organisation in coordinating, planning and producing the national exhibition to PQ as Finland. Last time in 2019 the Finnish Exhibition of Countries and Regions was designed and curated by Art Collective KOKIMO and it featured a broad spectrum of Finnish contemporary performance design.
Contacts and more information about the ECR Finland at PQ2023:
Raisa Kilpeläinen
raisa.kilpelainen@uniarts.fi
Photo: Aino Aksenja / Bee Company
Graphic design: Jani Pulkka