Break 3: Opening at MUU Gallery on Friday 14th January

Feeling the heat (or listening to it?)

THU - FRI 13.-14.1.05
Installation of the exhibition. Difficulties in getting everyone together in the gallery – Minna was working part of the time and Simo encountering problems elsewhere with finishing his work. First a table from HIAP to MUU with two taxis, like night and day: the first one straightforwardly unhelpful while the second just wonderful. Chris and Abigail laboured away in the gallery, with occasional help in sawing etc from Taru. Meanwhile Inka, gallery assistant, did an amazing job with getting our poster finished and printed on time for the opening. Thursday evening over pints of beer, after a round 12 hours in the gallery, finally Taru, Abigail and Simo shared a sense of relief and satisfaction. This was slightly too early, as was proven on Friday. Luckily Richard arrived in the afternoon and gave a hand with shopping, painting etc. The work was up and the gallery hoovered about a minute before the opening.
Minna was grateful for Abigail’s encouragement and opinions that helped her in the installation and the reshaping of the title of the work.

FRI 14.1.05
Opening at MUU. Great, with lots of people, nearly too many for the small gallery. Continued the party at the nearby bar of a museum, Taidehalli, where a considerable portion of Helsinki art world was celebrating another exhibition opening.

SAT 15.1.05
Dinner at Sikala – again. A pattern of certain key locations is emerging here, no doubt. Everyone seemed very happy with the opening and the exhibition as a whole. It was time now to start reflecting on what we had actually done, or where doing. Part of the table had an indepth debate about whether the approaches by artists from Helsinki and London could be distinguished in terms of emotional or personal against detached engagement. No solutions, but a lot of food for the discussion at brunch the next day. Also some concerns were raised about the group dynamics, as now some people had been working much closer together and had considerably more time to exchange ideas etc than some others. Particularly Anu, but also to some extent Isaac and Irit, had not been able to take part in all the stages of the project so far. How this complexity of different kinds of exchanges, or impossibility of them, could be reflected on and turned into an integral aspect and a positive challenge in the project? After all of this the curator was boring, old and tired, and retired to bed, but the artists continued to dance till morning.
(image from Sikala?)

SUN 16.1.05
Brunch

After the brunch discussion Simo and Richard talked about the next step for the "Stencil Writings" piece for the show in London. Richard suggested that the writings should actually be sprayed on walls in the city as how the original proposal is. He even made half a promise to be the look-out.