CIRCLE

POINT

Pori Art Museum’s new exhibition programme opens with an exhibition by Circle, a group that stretches the boundaries between art forms. Circle is a phenomenon from Pori, working in the space between avant-garde sound art and various genres of rock music. The band is known for its repetitively monumental and sculptural music, as well as transcendental performative live shows.

Commissioned by the Pori Art Museum for its large exhibition hall, the new artwork presents Circle’s artistic ethos in a spatial exhibition environment. The soundscape composed for the piece, its sculptural elements, and audience engagement establish a space for essentialist interaction that dissolves the boundaries between art, life, authorship, and spectatorship. The main feature in the exhibition space is a large sculpture taking the geometric form of a pentakis dodecahedron.

Due to their materiality, the minimalist sculptures included in the exhibition also acquire features referencing popular culture. The dodecahedron, made of sheet metal and a frame, resemble the aesthetics of heavy metal music, a notion that is amplified by the seven box-like shapes arranged to ritualistically circle the center sculpture.

On Saturday, 16 November, Circle will give a concert in the empty exhibition hall of the Pori Art Museum, as the building is handed back to the museum after renovation. More information and ticket sales are available on the Pori Art Museum website.

Circle, founded in Pori in 1991, is a band whose collective and uncompromising attitude to art challenges the norms of commercial culture. Circle’s trajectory can be seen as a total work of art – a Gesamtkunstwerk – which encompasses more than 50 studio and live albums produced in various configurations and collaborations. The band’s transdisciplinary collaborations include a project with filmmaker Mika Taanila, or the archives of media artist Erkki Kurenniemi. Circle will create the exhibition at Pori Art Museum with an ensemble consisting of Julius Jääskeläinen, Pekka Jääskeläinen, Jussi Lehtisalo, Tomi Leppänen, Mika Rättö and Janne Westerlund. The production will also seek to engage a number of artistic and technical collaborators.