MEETING POINT, A SELECTION FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF PORI ART MUSEUM 1981-1994

PRESS RELEASE (in Finnish)

The Pori Art Museum’s curatorial focus lies primarily on contemporary Finnish art. However, through exhibitions and publications, the museum actively seeks and fosters international connections. The museum’s founding principles are rooted in the multifaceted work of Maire Gullichsen, a pivotal figure in Finnish art as an advocate for international networks and a proactive researcher of the art world. Gullichsen’s collection has grown gradually since the 1930s, extending to her death in 1990. It was shaped through her work with institutions such as Artek, Galerie Artek, the Free Art School, and the Contemporary Art Society. She often remarked that she did not “collect art deliberately; the works simply accumulated over time.” The defining criteria for her acquisitions were a constructivist sense of form, a pure color palette, and, most importantly, openness to international influences.

The Collection of Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation housed at the Pori Art Museum consists of over 500 works, emphasizing Finnish post-war art. It is closely connected to her extensive international art collection, displayed at Villa Mairea in Noormarkku, designed by Alvar Aalto. Together, these collections illustrate Maire Gullichsen’s significance in the vast network of interactions that brought modernism to Finland. This significance is explored in the Meeting Point exhibition through Marita Liulia’s multimedia work MAIRE, which deconstructs and reflects on past decades from a 1990s perspective, using Gullichsen’s life’s work as its starting point.

The museum has not aimed to create a conventional public collection but instead has focused on documenting various forms of contemporary art and mapping evolving ideas and phenomena within the art field. As a result, the collection’s development has been a gradual process, a crucial facet of the museum’s mission that illustrates its operating philosophy through careful selection. Operating within the contemporary art domain, the museum does not merely record and archive what has already occurred but actively contributes to shaping the conditions for future art. Art is no longer confined by geographical boundaries: as demonstrated in Meeting Point, interactions can simultaneously include Daniel Buren from Paris, Marta Maria Pérez from Havana, Yoko Ono from New York, and Kaisu Koivisto from Pori.

A significant portion of the Pori Art Museum’s exhibitions consists of site-specific installations, highlighting how art is not always tangible or permanently preservable. Richard Long’s clay circles and Yoko Ono’s shadows have been washed away to make room for new exhibitions. Gordon Matta-Clark’s Open House, Daniel Buren’s Patio, and Jüri Okas’s hay bales have been dismantled, while memories are all that remain of Siim-Tanel Annus’s fire event and the celebratory dance by the NYTE artist collective. However, many artists have also created works specifically for the museum’s collection: French artist Georges Rousse produced his installation-photographs in the empty halls of a decommissioned cotton factory, and Norwegian-Italian artist Per Barclay constructed his Oil Room in a guest room of the former Hotel Otava. Among outdoor works, American artist Richard Nonas’s Cut Cord follows its annual cycle on Kirjurinluoto, while the most recent addition, Danish artist Per Kirkeby’s brick sculpture, was completed in November 1993 as a permanent landmark in Pori’s Eteläpuisto.

The Meeting Point exhibition will be documented in a publication that also examines the broader role and potential of the museum as a facilitator of interaction. The publication will include an essay, Own Shoes, by writer Juha Seppälä.

The museum itself serves as the Meeting Point. Works are displayed not only in the exhibition spaces but also in offices, the reference library, and the archives, where public guided tours are conducted every Wednesday at 6 PM during the exhibition and as group tours during the museum’s regular opening hours.

Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-41-3 Kohtauspaikka
Pori Art Museum 13.5.-12.6.1994
Editing: Marketta Seppälä
Photographs: Erkki Valli-Jaakola
Painohäme Oy, Ylöjärvi 1994
Pori Art Museum Publications 24
Pages: 32