Abstract
The anniversary exhibition and publication The Truth about Finland initiated by Porin kulttuurisäätö focus on the question how Finland is seen 2017 and how the image and identity have been built through history. Is now a 100-year-old Finland this Adorno’s emancipated society, open to differences and different ways of being? Name of the event, the Truth About Finland, is a paradox. No singular truth exists, but rather subjective experiences we call the truth. To make as many of these concepts visible, Porin kulttuurisäätö has invited over a hundred artists and researchers to share their thoughts. The outcome is a kaleidoscope, one possible vision of our time.
Even if the idea of an anniversary exhibition wasn’t originally ours, it soon started to appeal till we could no longer leave it. The jubilee started to feel like an ideal platform for a grand scale international project. It provided an opportunity to reflect the so-called “public truth” envisioned by the official Finland 100 programme and more reason to build the project from this controversial position. It seems like everybody has an opinion about Finland and how it should be treated as a topic and a concept. Our own thoughts have clashed both with the established ones as well as within the group we worked with. We have been forced to think our perspectives over and over, again and again, and to contemplate our ideas maybe even harder and deeper than we are actually able to.
Finland celebrating it’s hundredth birthday is in transition. One hundred years of independence next to Russia is quite an achievement, such is one hundred years of equality and economical and social prosperity too, at least of some kind and some level. However, it seems that in recent years some line has been crossed and this is not the country where we grew up. Openness has turned into new conservatism. Depression is fixed with cuts from education, culture and equality; affluent society and living urban culture are sacrificed. So how to celebrate something that seems to be destroying everything worth celebrating?
Even if the idea of an anniversary exhibition wasn’t originally ours, it soon started to appeal till we could no longer leave it. The jubilee started to feel like an ideal platform for a grand scale international project. It provided an opportunity to reflect the so-called “public truth” envisioned by the official Finland 100 programme and more reason to build the project from this controversial position. It seems like everybody has an opinion about Finland and how it should be treated as a topic and a concept. Our own thoughts have clashed both with the established ones as well as within the group we worked with. We have been forced to think our perspectives over and over, again and again, and to contemplate our ideas maybe even harder and deeper than we are actually able to.
Finland celebrating it’s hundredth birthday is in transition. One hundred years of independence next to Russia is quite an achievement, such is one hundred years of equality and economical and social prosperity too, at least of some kind and some level. However, it seems that in recent years some line has been crossed and this is not the country where we grew up. Openness has turned into new conservatism. Depression is fixed with cuts from education, culture and equality; affluent society and living urban culture are sacrificed. So how to celebrate something that seems to be destroying everything worth celebrating?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Type | The Truth About Finland catalogue |
| Media of output | Book |
| Publisher | Porin Kulttuurisäätö |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-952-93-8382-5 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-952-93-8383-2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- suomi 100
- nationalism
- art