HARD EDGE, TACTILE EYE. Posing New Questions to the Collection of the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation

Press Conference for Media: Thursday, September 26, 2013, at 11:00 AM
Artist and Curator Talk: Friday, September 27, 2013, at 12:00 PM
Exhibition Opening: Friday, September 27, 2013, at 6:00 PM

HARD EDGE AND TACTILE SURFACE – New Questions for the MG Collection

September 27, 2013 – January 19, 2014 / Project Room
In collaboration with: The Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation

The New Questions for the MG Collection exhibition series continues the Maire Gullichsen and Modernism series, which highlights works from the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation collection. The series explores various ways of perceiving art and engages with diverse audiences. Artists influenced by the traditions of modernism are presented alongside contemporary creators.

Artists: Alvar Aalto, John R. Fisher, Hubert Kiecol, Axel Knipschild, Ahti Lavonen, Lars-Gunnar Nordström, Elena Näsänen, and Samu Raatikainen

“All the senses, including vision, are extensions of the tactile sense; the senses are specializations of the skin’s tissue. Thus, all sensory experiences are fundamentally forms of touching.”
– Juhani Pallasmaa

The Hard Edge and Tactile Surface exhibition examines the relationship between modernist art, time, experience, and corporeality. According to the principles of concrete art (known as “hard-edge” art), art must originate from an intellectual foundation, such as mathematics and science. This movement emphasized logic, planning, and control, aiming to eliminate randomness from artworks. The principles of concretism dictated that images should be constructed entirely from pure, plastic elements—planes and colors. Visual elements were to have no meaning beyond themselves. The composition of an image, as well as its elements, had to be simple and visually manageable, and the technique used should be mechanical, meaning precise. One of Finland’s most renowned hard-edge concretists is Lars-Gunnar Nordström.

The Hard Edge and Tactile Surface exhibition complements the rationality of these works with sensuousness and the haptic nature of viewing. In Elena Näsänen’s video work Ohikulkija (The Passerby), we see a woman wandering contemplatively and observantly through environments shaped by Alvar Aalto’s architecture. According to architect Juhani Pallasmaa, visual images are always accompanied by other sensory experiences: tactile, auditory, olfactory, and even gustatory sensations. Similarly, every architectural environment has unique auditory, haptic, and olfactory characteristics. Vision is attuned to perceiving the textures of surfaces and their materiality. We “touch” with our gaze, both subconsciously and consciously. The roughness, hardness, smoothness, and feel of materials are conveyed to us. Stone speaks of its distant geological origins and durability, wood evokes warmth, cement suggests coldness, and metal conveys cool hardness. On the pages of books or on computer screens, the materiality of works disappears. The “forbidden” sensuousness of a concrete artwork emerges when encountered in a physical space.

The exhibition’s works are selected from the collections of the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation and the Pori Art Museum.