The year 2022 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Kirpilä Art Collection. To celebrate its triennial jubilee, the Kirpilä Art Collection will host a contemporary art exhibition titled Years that repeat their days (In Finnish: Vuodet, jotka toistavat päivänsä). The exhibition opened to the public on Friday 3 June 2022, and will receive visitors until Sunday 2 October 2022.
The anniversary exhibition is curated by Mariliis Rebane, and includes newly commissioned works from artists Freja Bäckman, Shia Conlon, August Joensalo, Minjee Hwang Kim, Iona Roisin, Emmi Venna, and Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska.
Comprising site-specific works of various mediums—some of which are disguised as everyday objects—the exhibition becomes inseparable from the domesticity of the museum space. The homelike environment of the Kirpilä Art Collection thus forms a foundation for questioning time as a linear entity. The exhibition aims to challenge strict delineations between past, present, and future. The linear development of a life path, from dependent childhood into independent reproductive adulthood, is also being questioned.
By taking the idea of queer time as its starting point, the exhibition seeks to centre pleasure while suggesting a pace of existence that is measured by pulsation rather than the ticking of a clock.
“Juhani Kirpilä acquired the kind of artworks he wanted to live amongst. The collection contains various portraits and depictions of people that represent a wide spectrum of humanity. At the Kirpilä Art Collection, the dialogue between past and present is deeply tangible, and the anniversary exhibition further emphasises this,” says acting museum director Olli Vallinheimo.
In addition to the artworks exhibited at Kirpilä Art Collection for the duration of the exhibition, a video made for the anniversary exhibition by August Joensalo will be later published online. The exhibition also includes vinyl listening sessions by Freja Bäckman, and works choreographed by Emmi Venna.
The Kirpilä Art Collection is open to the public on Wednesdays from 2 pm to 6 pm and on Sundays from noon to 4 pm, and for group visits by special request.
Photo of the artists and the curator by Riitta Supperi