Alma Heikkilä presents a newly produced body of work at Grazer Kunstverein
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Monday, November 4, 2024


Alma Heikkilä presents a newly produced body of work at Grazer Kunstverein
View of Alma Heikkilä, found living in total darkness, 2020 at Grazer Kunstverein. Photo: Christine Winkler.



GRAZ.- Describe the feeling: Energy (food / organic matter) going through my body, my colon. Soil (food / organic matter) going through the worm’s body. A neat pile of poop after us. Soft and flexible tunnels that are our bodies. Slowly, twisting around each other, humidity, and us reaching towards the rhizomes or them reaching to us.

Alma Heikkilä is fascinated by the collective activities of soil creatures; from nematodes to fungi, spores to mycelium. Heikkilä’s artistic work evokes a deep sensorial knowledge of ecosystems and the interdependencies of myriad organisms in mutual co-existence. Finding form in sculpture and large-scale painting, she strives to create a space for humans to imagine an up-close encounter or experience with the invisible processes that occur in the soil, often at a microscopic level.

For her solo exhibition at Grazer Kunstverein Heikkilä presents a newly produced body of work, radiating around a macroscale double-sided painting, titled found living in total darkness. This painting is a luminous meditation on the processes that take place in slow continuum within soil organisms nestled under the surface of the earth. In paint and plaster Heikkilä portrays webs and filaments, microbes and insect life, depicting rhizomatic structures of interdependency and symbiosis. She is interested in non-human agencies of change, for example the role of soil in the climate crisis. Through her painting and sculptural work she illuminates these largely imperceptible biotic communities in order to focus our attention towards their dark and complex ecologies, not only beneath the forest floor, but also inside our bodies.




According to Heikkilä the basis of life is constantly created and remade by microbes. Given that only 1 percent of soil dwelling species have been identified to date, this field offers fertile ground for the imagination. Heikkilä is a founding member of Mustarinda, a group of artists and scientists in Finland who promote and strive towards an ecological transition of society. The space she inhabits through her artistic practice is both embodied and performative. In 2018 Heikkilä received the Kiasma Commission by Kordelin, the support of which enabled her to invest in the purchase of an 11-hectare old-growth forest close to Koli National Park in Finland. She acquired this land with a view to doing nothing with it, and in doing so, to protect it.

Heikkilä’s exhibition in Graz is a focal point for further discussion around our institution’s process of reflection, awareness, and consciousness in terms of energy production and consumption. As a mid-size contemporary art institution we try to understand our role in the world, our physical impact, and our carbon footprint. Currently we are conducting an energy audit for the last four years to begin to comprehend the scale of our consumption. We want to understand how to enact meaningful change from within, in ways that are sustainable, generous and imaginative, and that enable us to maintain our international agenda working with artists from all over the world in a context that remains geographically local to Graz. In this way we hope to engage with the slower, less visible processes that underpin our outward facing activities as a production agent for contemporary art.

Alongside Heikkilä’s exhibition our public program and speculative feasibility study—Grazer Kunstverein is moving!—continues with events (both digital and physical) throughout the city in the frame of Graz Kulturjahr 2020. As part of this the findings of our energy audit will be analysed and made public by way of a conversation with artist Markus Jeschaunig in the frame of Breathe Earth Collective’s Klima-Kultur-Pavilion in Graz, Summer 2021.

Grazer Kunstverein is structurally supported by the city of Graz, the province of Styria, the federal Ministry of art, culture, public Service and Sport, legero united - the shoemakers | con-tempus.eu, and its members. Grazer Kunstverein is moving! is supported by Graz Kulturjahr 2020 with additional support from the Mondriaan Fund. Alma Heikkilä’s solo exhibition not visible or recognizable in any form is kindly supported by Frame Contemporary Art Finland.










Today's News

December 22, 2020

What will become of a tycoon's art gems?

Sotheby's to offer personal art collection of celebrated artist duo Christo & Jeanne-Claude

A record number of National Treasures accepted for the public this Christmas

Sir Winston Churchill's 'Scene at Marrakech' to be offered in Christie's Modern British Art Evening Sale

Hauser & Wirth announce Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Tarmak22 Gstaad and online

David Lee Roth Van Halen tour jacket & more head to Julien's Auctions

Collectors going bananas for Del Monte-stickered $20 bill

Mark Minkman appointed interim Managing Director of Van Gogh Museum

'Just Breathtaking': Highest-graded copy of 1940's 'Batman' No. 1 heads to auction in January

Edith Devaney appointed Managing Director and Curator for David Hockney

Atheists to save historic wooden German church plank by plank

Dolls house dinner service commissioned by the Queen's grandmother heads to auction

Laurence King Publishing publishes a fascinating new biography of Keith Haring

The New Press publishes 'Two Women in Their Time: The Belarus Free Theatre and the Art of Resistance'

Items signed by Sir Isaac Netwon and Albert Einstein included in University Archives auction

55 Walker announces an exhibition of works by Carla Accardi and Elisa Sighicelli

Graffiti explodes across pandemic-era New York

Christmas without music? Churches are finding a way

Jan Mot opens a group exhibition entitled A buoy if not a beacon

Thierry Goldberg opens an exhibition of works by Nick Farhi, Exene Karros, Spencer Lai, and Anjuli Rathod

Alma Heikkilä presents a newly produced body of work at Grazer Kunstverein

Prints by Cézanne, Munch, Nevelson, Cassatt, Rauschenberg, and more on view for the first time in Arizona

Christie's announces Karl Lagerfeld Chanel Jewels │ Online auction in January 2021

Medals of one of the finest Mosquito and Photo Reconnaissance Unit pilots to be offered at auction

Roulette Game in Art




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful