THE SWASTIKA IS HERE TODAY – OSSI SOMMA

PRESS RELEASE

On Saturday, January 17, the Pori Art Museum will open an exhibition by sculptor Ossi Somma, focusing on the artist’s works from the 1970s and 1980s. Somma is a profoundly socially engaged artist. In a world dominated by production and consumption, he feels a duty as an artist to expose societal injustices. His aim is to prompt viewers to think critically and take responsibility. For Somma, the consumer, endlessly accumulating possessions and gradually becoming object-like themselves, is culpable in their indifference.

Somma has stated: “I know I create images in a world of endless production and consumption – of weapons, corpses, and the unemployed. In this world, the rich grow richer and the poor poorer, and nature is increasingly degraded. Here, knowledge is power, and power grows – as does illiteracy. In this world, people eat more and better than ever before – yet others die of hunger. It’s strange how a bomb can be delivered quickly to its target, but getting food to the same place seems impossible.”

The exhibition’s theme is epitomized by the symbolic work Viimeinen kuntourheilija (The Last Fitness Enthusiast) (1985). A charred cabin serves as the world, encapsulating its paradoxes. An energetic cyclist, focused on maintaining their fitness, pedals a stationary bike with its front wheel replaced by a rear wheel. The harder they pedal, the sweatier they become – but they make no progress.

Ossi Somma, who resides in Nokia, has served as a sculpture instructor and director at the Kankaanpää Art School. In addition to his solo work, he has created public sculptures collaboratively with sculptors Pertti Mäkinen and Reijo Paavilainen.

A selection of Somma’s works is also featured at the Jyväskylä Winter exhibition in the Alvar Aalto Museum, running from January 31 to February 23, 1986. In this parallel exhibition, the artist focuses on societal power structures through his chair theme.

Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-13-8 Ossi Somma: Hakaristi on täällä tänään
Pori Art Museum 18.1.-2.3.1986
Catalog Editing: Pori Art Museum
Translations: Satu Virtanen
Photographs: Esko Nummelin
Lay-out: Hilkka Kuusijärvi
11 color and 2 black-and-white photographs
Satakunnan Kirjateollisuus Oy, Pori 1986
Pori Art Museum Publications 8

Translated with ChatGPT