AFTER WORK

Artists: José Bedia, Unto Pusa, Juhani Tarna

The Pori Art Museum has brought a selection of works from its collection to the Terraced House designed by architect Alvar Aalto in the late 1930s. The works are on display in an apartment open to the public, decorated with vintage Artek furniture and lamps. The museum’s works are set in dialogue with both the architectural environment of the building and the historical context of the Kauttua industrial area of Eura. The exhibition opens up the collections of Pori Art Museum to a wider public in the Satakunta region. As a museum of regional responsibility in art in Satakunta, Pori Art Museum’s mission is to develop visual arts services and networks in cooperation with cultural operators in the region. The Terraced House exhibition collaboration is realized by invitation of the cultural department of the municipality of Eura.

The selection of works includes artworks by three different artists. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a textile work by Unto Pusa (1913-1973) entitled “Tools from a Workshop” (1961), which depicts the wheel equipment and tools of another ironworks in Satakunta, that of Makkarakoski in Noormarkku, in a setting that approaches abstraction. Maire Gullichsen donated the tapestry to the municipality of Noormarkku in 1961, and it was transferred to the collections of Pori Art Museum in connection with the merger of the municipalities in 2010. The exhibition also includes works by Juhani Tarna (1937), a pioneer of abstract art from Kankaanpää. Tarna’s early abstract compositions from 1957 are paralleled by Kontti from 1979, which depicts the work of the steel industry and takes the form of semi-representational painting in the direction of constructivist colour field painting, a 1970s style based on variations between strong colours and sharp forms. Tarna’s works reflect how industrial developement not only brought subjects to art-making but also shaped the aesthetics of art.

In the exhibition, three charcoal drawings by Cuban artist José Bedia (1959) from 1989, representing another totally different world in terms of subject matter and formal language, are shown alongside the landmark works of Finnish modernism. Bedia’s works contain references to psychoanalysis and can be seen as depicting the struggle of the individual in relation to the dominant societal system. Bedia’s works were originally exhibited at Pori Art Museum’s exhibition of young Cuban art No Man Is An Island in 1990. The exhibition highlighted the work of the then new generation of artists reacting to the social upheaval ofthe 1980s and 90s. Through work and labour, the individual is assimilated into the structures of the social system. This assimilation is not always painless, and rethinking and rebuilding the relationship between the individual and the community requires constant negotiation and repositioning of desires.

The works in the exhibition have been selected by Arttu Merimaa, chief curator of exhibitions in Pori Art Museum, in collaboration with the museum’s collections department.

Information:
Arttu Merimaa, +358 44 701 3965, arttu.merimaa@pori.fi
Alvar Aalto’s Terraced House
Alvar Aalto road 4 as 3, Eura (Kauttua)

There is an entrance fee. More information on prices and contact details on the website of the municipality of Eura.