Exhibitions, Italy, Roma, 18 February 2011
Curated by Claudia Löffelholz
Exhibition at Z2O Gallery l Sara Zanin
Rome l 18 February – 30 March 2011
Opening: Friday 18 February, 6.30 pm
The Z2O Gallery Sara Zanin is glad to present, for the first time in Italy, Finnish artist Tea Mäkipää, with a solo exhibition in the gallery space in Rome and with the presentation of her works at Bologna Art First 2011 (27 January- 27 February 2011) which is a collaboration of the City of Bologna and Arte Fiera, the most important Italian fair for contemporary Art. This public art project, curated by Julia Draganovic, is an exclusive itinerary in town featuring site-specific installations by 23 artists in 15 locations.
Tea Mäkipää is worldwide renowned for her huge installations and important public art projects. Her work is characterized by an incisive criticism of the way of life in western civilization. Her first solo show in Italy at Z2O Gallery proposes two large panoramic photographs on wallpaper, combined in a suggestive site-specific installation at the gallery space, and the video Link.
The beautiful large-scale folding screen World of Plenty (2005) is an utopian vision of harmony, a garden of Eden where human beings live and coexist peacefully, an ideal world full of respect for each other as well as respect for nature, animals and environment. This paradise is surrounded by beautiful intact landscapes and characterized by the absolute absence of any technology, industry and urbanism. World of Plenty is adapted to the space in Rome from the epic and original thirty metre long photographic installation shown in 2005 EXPO Aichi, Nagoya, Japan. Created with the help of computer graphics technology as a brilliant collage of different photographs it raises the question of how far away humans are from this paradise. Especially regarding the fact, that we all doubtlessly love sceneries like this, and that we are permanently looking for such places in our holidays. What is our model of life and what is each of us – beyond complaining – doing to benefit environment and society?
This utopia forms a contrast to the work with identical dimensions presented vis-à-vis: Years after Zero (2008) which displays the opposite model of life. This recent work realized just as a photo collage reveals the modern life in western society. In a cruel, chaotic and despaired reality human beings are lost and far away from the bucolic scenery in World of Plenty. The dystopia of Years after Zero is the condensation of the abysses of real life in an urban nightmare full of social and moral decline.
These two antithetic works of Tea Mäkipää are two extreme sides of human life, light and shadow of the human existence. It is up to us to decide in which direction the world and society shall develop.
The solo show includes also the video and a series of photographs of Link (2009), a story of a half-human, half-ape character living with his mother on a small island in a remote part of Finland, far away from the civilization. This paradise with unspoiled nature and the simply life are put to the test by the arrival of a young journalist with whom Link falls in love.
Tea Mäkipää was born in Lahti, Finland (1973), and lives and works in Weimar, Germany. She holds her BA of Arts in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, and her MA of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art, London. She exhibited in several Finnish and international museums, institutions, galleries and public sites. Among her main solo exhibitions: 2009 Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki (Finland); 2008 Irish Museum for Modern Art, Dublin (Ireland); 2006 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (Germany); 2004 Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany); 2003 Jerwood, London (UK); 2001 Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen (Denmark); 2000 Galerie Anhava, Helsinki and Kiasma, Helsinki (Finland). Selcted group exhibitions: 2010 Halle 14, Leipzig (Germany), The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, (USA), Villa du Parc centre d'art contemporain, Annemasse (France), Tensta Konsthallen, Stockholm (Sweden), Konsthalle Nikolaj, Copenhagen (Denmark); 2009 Athens Biennial 2009, Athens (Greece), Wanas, Knislinge (Sweden), Linz (Austria); 2008 Ars Fennica 2008, KUMU, Tallinn (Estonia), SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch (New Zealand), PS1, New York City (USA), Ludwig Museum, Budapest (Hungary), Ludwig Museum, Aachen (Germany); 2007 Sharjah Biennial 8, Sharjah and Dubai (United Arab Emirates); 2006 Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami (USA), Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany); 2005 Expo 2005 World Exhibition, Nagoya (Japan), Halle 14, Leipzig (Germany), ACC Galerie Weimar (Germany); 2004 MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Austria).
Her works are in the collections of Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki (Finland); the Collection Pentti Kouri, Helsinki (Finland), State of Finland Central Archive of Art, Kiasma (Finland); Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (Finland); Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany); Sammlung Federkiel, Leipzig (Germany).
With the support of the Finnish Embassy in Italy
Z2O Galleria | Sara Zanin
Via dei Querceti 6, 00184 Rome
www.z2ogalleria.it
Exhibition at Z2O Gallery l Sara Zanin
Rome l 18 February – 30 March 2011
Opening: Friday 18 February, 6.30 pm
The Z2O Gallery Sara Zanin is glad to present, for the first time in Italy, Finnish artist Tea Mäkipää, with a solo exhibition in the gallery space in Rome and with the presentation of her works at Bologna Art First 2011 (27 January- 27 February 2011) which is a collaboration of the City of Bologna and Arte Fiera, the most important Italian fair for contemporary Art. This public art project, curated by Julia Draganovic, is an exclusive itinerary in town featuring site-specific installations by 23 artists in 15 locations.
Tea Mäkipää is worldwide renowned for her huge installations and important public art projects. Her work is characterized by an incisive criticism of the way of life in western civilization. Her first solo show in Italy at Z2O Gallery proposes two large panoramic photographs on wallpaper, combined in a suggestive site-specific installation at the gallery space, and the video Link.
The beautiful large-scale folding screen World of Plenty (2005) is an utopian vision of harmony, a garden of Eden where human beings live and coexist peacefully, an ideal world full of respect for each other as well as respect for nature, animals and environment. This paradise is surrounded by beautiful intact landscapes and characterized by the absolute absence of any technology, industry and urbanism. World of Plenty is adapted to the space in Rome from the epic and original thirty metre long photographic installation shown in 2005 EXPO Aichi, Nagoya, Japan. Created with the help of computer graphics technology as a brilliant collage of different photographs it raises the question of how far away humans are from this paradise. Especially regarding the fact, that we all doubtlessly love sceneries like this, and that we are permanently looking for such places in our holidays. What is our model of life and what is each of us – beyond complaining – doing to benefit environment and society?
This utopia forms a contrast to the work with identical dimensions presented vis-à-vis: Years after Zero (2008) which displays the opposite model of life. This recent work realized just as a photo collage reveals the modern life in western society. In a cruel, chaotic and despaired reality human beings are lost and far away from the bucolic scenery in World of Plenty. The dystopia of Years after Zero is the condensation of the abysses of real life in an urban nightmare full of social and moral decline.
These two antithetic works of Tea Mäkipää are two extreme sides of human life, light and shadow of the human existence. It is up to us to decide in which direction the world and society shall develop.
The solo show includes also the video and a series of photographs of Link (2009), a story of a half-human, half-ape character living with his mother on a small island in a remote part of Finland, far away from the civilization. This paradise with unspoiled nature and the simply life are put to the test by the arrival of a young journalist with whom Link falls in love.
Tea Mäkipää was born in Lahti, Finland (1973), and lives and works in Weimar, Germany. She holds her BA of Arts in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, and her MA of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art, London. She exhibited in several Finnish and international museums, institutions, galleries and public sites. Among her main solo exhibitions: 2009 Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki (Finland); 2008 Irish Museum for Modern Art, Dublin (Ireland); 2006 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (Germany); 2004 Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany); 2003 Jerwood, London (UK); 2001 Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen (Denmark); 2000 Galerie Anhava, Helsinki and Kiasma, Helsinki (Finland). Selcted group exhibitions: 2010 Halle 14, Leipzig (Germany), The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, (USA), Villa du Parc centre d'art contemporain, Annemasse (France), Tensta Konsthallen, Stockholm (Sweden), Konsthalle Nikolaj, Copenhagen (Denmark); 2009 Athens Biennial 2009, Athens (Greece), Wanas, Knislinge (Sweden), Linz (Austria); 2008 Ars Fennica 2008, KUMU, Tallinn (Estonia), SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch (New Zealand), PS1, New York City (USA), Ludwig Museum, Budapest (Hungary), Ludwig Museum, Aachen (Germany); 2007 Sharjah Biennial 8, Sharjah and Dubai (United Arab Emirates); 2006 Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami (USA), Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany); 2005 Expo 2005 World Exhibition, Nagoya (Japan), Halle 14, Leipzig (Germany), ACC Galerie Weimar (Germany); 2004 MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Austria).
Her works are in the collections of Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki (Finland); the Collection Pentti Kouri, Helsinki (Finland), State of Finland Central Archive of Art, Kiasma (Finland); Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (Finland); Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Germany); Sammlung Federkiel, Leipzig (Germany).
With the support of the Finnish Embassy in Italy
Z2O Galleria | Sara Zanin
Via dei Querceti 6, 00184 Rome
www.z2ogalleria.it
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