Lukas Malte Hoffmann & Susan Kooi,
Malibu, Susan Ploetz, Man Yau, Feminist Culture House
16.1.–14.2.2021
The exhibition is to be seen through the window during June daylight hours.
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Näyttely on nähtävillä ikkunan läpi kesäkuista päivänvaloa vastaavina aikoina.
EN
Midsummer Rose is an exhibition put together by artist duo Lukas Malte Hoffmann and Susan Kooi. The exhibition is centered around a juhannusruusu rosebush (Rosa pimpinellifolia) whose cream-white flowers appear commonly around midsummer in Finland. Greenhouse lights installed in the gallery recreate the day-night rhythm of the midsummer period and shine light through the window onto the winter street. This setting allows us to travel back to the summer of 2020 on a small and safe scale, protected like a rose inside a dome. At the end of the exhibition, when the last petal falls, the spell will be broken. Midsummer Rose is exercise, meditation, protest, and exodus.
For this occasion, Lukas and Susan have invited a group of artists and arts workers to present their work. Man Yau will show a new ceramic work Fairfarren that will, as if by magic, let the rosebush thrive and prosper. Composer Malibu has put together an exclusive ambience mix for the exhibition. The booklet accompanying the exhibition features Feminist Culture House’s contribution, a cocktail recipe that was conceptualised for those foraging and making infusions during midsummer 2020. Susan Ploetz’s work Skinship: Touching Intelligence is a LARP in which participants play alien, sensing creatures exploring their surroundings, objects and beings in a strange new land. The LARP will take place online on Sunday the 14th of February and it’s open for participation; please scroll down for more information and instructions for signing up.
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Malibu is a French electronic composer whose work sails between ambient and ethereal music. Forever inspired by soft reverbed vocals and melodious chord progressions, Malibu’s music is a sea of synthetic strings, cello and choirs.
Susan Ploetz (US/DE) is an artist-researcher working with somatics, theory, writing, performance, simulation, and live action role plays (larping) in different configurations. Her work deals with the overlapping spaces of soma and technos; she uses imagination, magical materiality, and protocol to induce emancipatory emotive dissonances, incommensurability, and perceptual expansion.
Man Yau is an artist living and working in Helsinki. She graduated with a Master’s degree from Aalto University of Art and Design specialising in ceramics and glass art. Currently she is working on her second Master’s in sculpture at the The Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts in Helsinki. Yau’s works thread a balance between traditional methods and craftsmanship and industrial, detailed form and quality. Yau’s work is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
Feminist Culture House (FCH) is an intersectional feminist organisation based in Helsinki, Finland, working with and for underrepresented artists and arts workers. Its co-founders are Katie Lenanton, Neicia Marsh, Orlan Ohtonen, and Selina Väliheikki. FCH is funded by Kone Foundation.
Lukas Malte Hoffmann (DE/FI) and Susan Kooi (NL) have previously worked together both as an artist duo and as part of a four-piece art collective Samet Yilmaz (formerly k.i.beyoncé), formed in Amsterdam from the working group running the art space kunstenaarsinitiatief beyoncé between 2013–2014. Lukas’ work is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland and Pro Artibus Foundation. Susan’s work is supported by the Mondriaan Fund and travel and accommodation by Pro Artibus Foundation and Finnish Cultural Foundation.
The exhibition is produced with the generous support of VALOYA Oy and assistance by Reetta Koskinen. Also thanks to Sara Milazzo, Katie Lenanton, and Mika Palonen.
AQNB: Magical storytelling & mementos for a lost season in the Midsummer Rose group exhibition
FI
Midsummer Rose on taiteilijaduo Lukas Malte Hoffmannin ja Susan Kooin koolle kutsuma näyttely, jonka keskiössä on kukkiva juhannusruusupensas. Galleriaan asennetut kasvihuonevalaisimet toisintavat keskikesän päivärytmiä ja valaisevat talvista katua. Näissä puitteissa voimme matkustaa takaisin kesään 2020, pienessä mittakaavassa, turvattuna kuin ruusu lasikuvun sisällä. Loitsu purkautuu näyttelyn loppuessa, kun viimeinen terälehti putoaa. Midsummer Rose on harjoitus, meditaatio, protesti ja lähtö jälleen eteenpäin.
Tätä tilaisuutta varten Lukas ja Susan ovat kutsuneet ryhmän taiteilijoita ja taidetyöläisiä esittämään töitään. Ruusupensaan kukoistuksen mahdollistaa taianomaisesti Man Yaun uusi keramiikkateos Fairfarren. Säveltäjä Malibu kokoaa näyttelyä varten ainutkertaisen ambient-teoksen. Näyttelykirjaseen sisältyy Feminist Culture Housen drinkkiresepti niille, jotka keräävät ja uuttavat villikasveja juhannuksen 2020 aikaan. Susan Ploetzin teos Skinship: Touching Intelligence on live-roolipeli, jossa osallistujat esittävät vieraita, aistivia olentoja, jotka tutkivat ympäristöään ja sen objekteja ja olentoja oudolla uudella maaperällä. Larppi pelataan sunnuntaina 14. helmikuuta ja se on avoin osallistumiselle; lisätietoa ja ilmoittautumisohjeet alemapana (englanniksi).
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Malibu on ranskalainen elektronisen musiikin tekijä, jonka tuotanto leijailee ambientin ja eteerisen musiikin välillä. Pehmeä kaiutettu laulu ja melodiset sointukulut inspiroivat loputtomasti hänen musiikkiaan, joka on synteettisten jousien, sellon ja kuoron merta.
Susan Ploetz (US/DE) on taiteilija-tutkija, joka työskentelee erilaisissa kokoonpanoissa kehollisuuden, teorian, kirjoittamisen, performanssin, simulaation ja live-roolipelien (larp) parissa. Hänen työnsä käsittelee kehon ja teknologian päällekkäisiä tiloja, ja hän käyttää mielikuvitusta, maagista materiaalisuutta ja protokollaa synnyttääkseen vapauttavia tunteellisia epäsointuja, vertailukelvottomuutta ja aistien laajentumista.
Man Yau on Helsingissä työskentelevä kuvataiteilija. Hän on valmistunut taiteen maisteriksi Aalto-yliopistosta keskittyen keramiikka- ja lasitaiteeseen. Tällä hetkellä Yau viimeistelee kuvanveiston opintoja Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemiassa. Hänen työskentelyssään perinteiseksi mielletyt materiaalit ja tekniikat yhdistyvät teollisen laadun ja muotokielen tavoittelemiseen. Yaun työskentelyä tukee Taike.
Feminist Culture House (FCH) on helsinkiläinen intersektionaalisen feminismin organisaatio, joka toimii aliedustettujen taiteilijoiden kanssa sekä heitä varten. Sen perustajajäsenet ovat Katie Lenanton, Neicia Marsh, Orlan Ohtonen ja Selina Väliheikki. FCH:n toimintaa rahoittaa Koneen Säätiö.
Lukas Malte Hoffmann (DE/FI) ja Susan Kooi (NL) ovat aiemmin työskennelleet yhdessä paitsi duona myös osana nelihenkistä Samet Yilmaz -kollektiivia (aiemmin nimellä k.i.beyoncé), joka muodostui Amsterdamissa 2013–2014 toimineen taidetila k.i.beyoncén työryhmästä. Lukasin työskentelyä tukee Taike ja Pro Artibus -säätiö. Susanin työskentelyä tukee Mondriaan Fund ja matkustusta ja majoitusta Pro Artibus -säätiö sekä Suomen Kulttuurirahasto.
Kiitämme VALOYA Oy:tä tuesta, Reetta Koskista tuotantoavusta. Kiitos myös Sara Milazzolle, Katie Lenantonille ja Mika Paloselle.
AQNB: Magical storytelling & mementos for a lost season in the Midsummer Rose group exhibition
A Midsummer Encounter, No Niin -verkkojulkaisu, Tuomo Tuovinen
Sunday 14 February, 2021, 14–16:30 EET (13-15:30 CET), online
To RSVP (and for questions/info) please send an email to vaasankatu15 (at) gmail.com. Once you have reserved your spot, you will be sent more information on what to expect and how to prepare ahead of the online-larp. The latest date for signing up is 12.2. Participants who sign up before 31.1 will receive a handmade strawberry for the LARP by mail.
“This world is alien to you, this world in this room. You may have been to earth before, so you might have other experiences on this planet, but the objects in this room are completely new. You have been sent here from another place to investigate. The main way you investigate is through your senses, the most powerful being touch. Your mission is to explore the objects here with your collective swarm intelligence and gather information about them, and sense into if these things are intelligent, and/or hold any special powers. You also take note of relations: how you relate to this place and these objects, and how they relate to you. You exchange information with the members of your group through words, which become poem-like matrices that store the knowledge you gather as you make sense of this new world.”
Participants in the online larp Skinship: Touching Intelligence will play alien, sensing creatures that detect intelligence through touch and other senses. Participants will be led through warm ups and somatic exercises that ground them in their senses and open up their fields of perception. Through simple fictional characters and framing, we will explore our familiar world in an unfamiliar way and create an ethereal new role together. Participants will have time at the end to share experiences and discuss themes of human/non-human interactions, the interplay of language with sensing, and exploring how we define (and could re-define) intelligence.
No experience in larping or sensory awareness techniques required. The experience will be facilitated in English, but play is open to being multilingual. Play will be audio focused, so may not be suitable for those that have hearing impairments. Please contact in advance if you have any special requirements, questions or concerns.
Installation view
Installation view
Text written on window, rubber latex, acrylic paint
Greenhouse lights from VALOYA Oy, chains, timer
Greenhouse lights from VALOYA Oy, chains, timer
Juhannusruusu, rose bushes in soil
Fairfarren by Man Yau: Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, 39 cm x 47 x 47 cm, 2021
Fairfarren by Man Yau: Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, 39 cm x 47 x 47 cm, 2021
Fairfarren by Man Yau: Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, 39 cm x 47 x 47 cm, 2021
Fairfarren by Man Yau: Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, 39 cm x 47 x 47 cm, 2021
Strawberries: playdough, cotton, rubber latex, acrylic paint, 2021
Strawberries: playdough, cotton, rubber latex, acrylic paint, 2021
Rosa pimpinellifolia
Midsummer Rose: publication, 12 pages, A5 size, with contributions by Lukas Malte Hoffmann & Susan Kooi, Malibu, Susan Ploetz, Man Yau, and Feminist Culture House
NOTE: The text by Feminist Culture House can also be read in plain text below the pictures.
NOTE: The text by Feminist Culture House can also be read in plain text below the pictures.
YEARNING FOR BLOSSOMS AND BLOOMS
Feminist Culture House, December 2020
This was originally titled Cocktail for Moments When Celebrating Feels Good, and was written just before midsummer 2020. It has been edited slightly following an invitation from Susan and Lukas to contribute to their exhibition in Outo Olo. For anyone reading this in the deep and distant future, that means it was written in the throes of the pandemic, and a few weeks into the global Black Lives Matter protests. Many things blossomed in those moments; now the beginnings of new blooms are forming again.
When the dandelion buds are starting to form, find a way into a forest that feels comfortable. Pluck a bud from a rowan tree, nibble its end, feel the amaretto taste roll through your mouth. Gather the buds that you need, only a few from each tree, say thank you to the tree for this gift.
Next to a damp area, seek out meadowsweet. A stem in your water can aid your mind in the manner of aspirin, a stem in your wine or beer will prod its flavours to bloom in your mouth. Take a sprig for your cocktail too, gratefully acknowledge the bush.
Stroke the fluffy spruce tails, waggling bright green in the breeze. Pluck a few, but do not strip the branches. Gently stroke your cheek with a friendly branch, tell the tree you appreciate its growth.
Approach the rigid budding tips of the fir tree, a wonderful smattering of middle fingers on display. Think of everyone and anything enabling systems and institutions that oppress and hurt. Turn in solidarity with the tree, and say FUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOUUUUUU at whatever timbre and intensity feels good. Take a moment to breathe, and let that leave your body. Turn again to face the tree, pluck a few fir tips but leave the middle finger intact. Say thank you, and we stand with you, to the tree, and all the others you stand with.
Listen for the buzz of bees, and pluck a blossom from the maple tree. It might not taste like much, but it will comprise a celebratory bouquet to honour the other buds that give some of their potency to your drink.
In a vessel that can be covered, place what you have gathered, and cover it with kossu (vodka, or whatever clear neutral-ish spirit you have), or a half-half mixture of vinegar and water (this is called a shrub—a sour cordial that can be mixed with sparkling water or other bubbly delights you fancy). Let it steep at room temperature for five days, then move it to a cold or refrigerated place. It will intensify over the weeks, so strain and serve when you need its strength. You could add ice and vermouth to make something martini-esque, and to also temper the astringency of the conifers (spruce and fir).
It’s a few weeks later and now it’s likely you can approach a midsummer rose in bloom. Pluck some petals, pull at undergarments, and drop the petals so they rest comfortably against your skin.
Sip a cocktail, forget the petals.
When you next choose to undress, there will be surprise, residue, lingering fragrance, transformative decay. There will be change.
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FCH wishes to acknowledge and thank Ki Nurmenniemi and Ceci Moss. An earlier version of this text was shared with them as part of our commissioned contribution to their project Care Practices.