Touch exhibition’s renewal examine the relationship between human and the built environment

Touch presents a curated pick of Finnish and international contemporary works from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. With the overarching theme of humanity at its core, the show delves into fundamental questions concerning the human condition and the nature of human existence. The works in the exhibition reflect on the meaning of individual experience, morality, identity and our relationship with others, the environment and time.

Media works by Elina Brotherus and Artor Jesus Inkerö examine the relationship the human body has with architecture and cultural environment. Known for his site-specific work, Hans Rosentröm’s new sound installation is experienced in a space build specially for the work. The sound recording is taped on the spot using binaural technique and a phantom head. Simulating the real listening situation, the sound installation creates a strong sense of another's presence.

The new entity includes also Alicja Kwade’s Trans-For-Men (2018) and Olafur Eliasson’s Pentagonal Mirror Tunnel (2017), both of which are commissioned by Saastamoinen Foundation and made specially with EMMA’s unique architecture and environment in mind.

Human, architecture and built environment includes works by the following artists: Elina Brotherus, Olafur Eliasson, Susanne Gottberg, Radoslaw Gryta, Tommi Grönlund & Petteri Nisunen, Heli Hiltunen, Nanna Hänninen, Artor Jesus Inkerö, Hannu Karjalainen, Pertti Kekarainen, Ola Kolehmainen, Vladimir Kopteff, Alicja Kwade, Tatsuo Miyajima, Pekka Nevalainen, Tiina Pyykkinen, Silja Rantanen and Hans Rosenström. 

The Chair of Saastamoinen Foundation Art Committee Päivi Karttunen is joyful over the renewal: ”Variations in the collection exhibition are important to EMMA’s audiences. It is also great from the Foundation’s point of view, that new works in the collection are presented in the exhibition.”

Simultaneously with the renewal, a video work by William Kentridge (b. 1955) is opened in the media space of Touch exhibition. Other Faces is on display from 8^th Oct 2019 to 26^th Jan 2020. The work begins in post-apartheid South Africa when the white real estate mogul Soho Eckstein is involved in a car accident with a black preacher on a busy road in Johannesburg. The animation is built up of charcoal drawings. Kentridge has filmed the process of erasing and drawing over the frames with a 35mm camera.

Touch exhibition is curated in collaboration with experts from EMMA and Saastamoinen Foundation. The newest section – Human architecture and the built environment – is curated by Laura Kokkonen, Ingrid Orman and Henna Paunu from EMMA.

The Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection was originally owned by a Kuopio-based family of industrial entrepreneurs and art patrons who began collecting back in the 1910s. The Foundation was established to support the expansion, preservation and display of the collection. The artworks in the collection are owned by Saastamoinen Foundation and the collection is preserved at EMMA. The collection holds almost 3000 works on this day.