The revenge of the white hare – Finnish contemporary art in the Ludwig Museum
MúzeumCafé 10.
The exhibition, running in Budapest until 12 April, was first shown in New York in 2008. It focuses on the traditions and customs related to cultural identity, its slogans and commonplaces, doing so with the help of various media – painting (Tea Mäkipää), a location-specific installation (Pekka Jylhä), monumental, detailed naturalist drawing in pencil stuck on aluminium (Stiina Saaristo), documentary, photo series consisting of several pictures depending on the given museum space, and video (Salla Tykkä), C-print (Ilkka Halso), lingonberry and reed (Anna Rapijona), as well as music. All the works reflect ironically on the phenomenon of “Arctic Hysteria”, diagnosed by Marko Tapio at the end of the 1950s. That is the concept of curators Marketta Seppälä (Helsinki, FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange) and Alanna Heiss (New York, P.S.I. Contemporary Art Center). According to Tapio the stereotypical Finn is tall, silent, reserved, persevering, devoted to nature, lacks sophistication and represents ‘Finnishness’, being an introvert, melancholic figure staunchly struggling with darkness, cold and severe conditions. Yet, from time to time this person who was calm, almost gruff, respecting law and God, happens to go wild, gets into an excited, irrational state of mind, a trance, becomes frantic, sobs, drinks for weeks, tells you a life story, does not find his or her place, wandering around until everything suddenly returns to normal. Hence the effective, ingenious title of this contemporary Finnish show. Hungary has not seen such a dynamic, trendy, fresh, provocative, varied, noisy and loud, as well as technically professional exhibition for a long time.