EVERY MOMENT, EVERY PLECE

Every Moment, Every Place
Biefer & Zgraggen. Lea & Pekka Kantonen. Timo Vartiainen. Stephen Willats. Erwin Wurm.
Exhibition at the Pori Art Museum, April 30 – June 8, 1997.

The group exhibition Every Moment, Every Place, organized by the Pori Art Museum, presents five artists or artist pairs who explore the nature of time, place, and the changes inherent in them in their works. The exhibited works are based on, among other things, the documentation of everyday situations, the analysis of social behavior, the reconstruction of travel experiences, and the creation of real or fictional history.

Biefer & Zgraggen (Switzerland) appear in the Saaliinkantaja series of photographs as either white people or indigenous individuals, “Alpine aborigines.” They pose in snow, mud, or desert sand, using canned goods as shields and ski poles as weapons. The artist duo’s return to nature and primitivism serves as a critical commentary on the ideals of continuous growth and development.

Lea & Pekka Kantonen, in their long-term project Every Moment, have documented their everyday life and the motives behind their behavior using video and text. A key element of the video installation is a scene from the family’s life, which takes place in real-time during the exhibition opening.

Timo Vartiainen’s site-specific work On the Way Home is based on the artist’s long walking and hitchhiking journey through the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The work consists of hundreds of photographs and other travel documents. The people and animals encountered on the journey, the natural phenomena experienced, and the distinct qualities of the places are the main elements of Vartiainen’s travel narrative.

Stephen Willats (England) analyzes, in a sociologist’s manner, our behavior in various social situations. The photographs and their associated charts and texts illustrate the laws of chance in life and the dynamics of group behavior.

Erwin Wurm (Austria) uses the basic features of sculpture as the starting point for his works. In all of his “sculptures”—photographs, videos, and sweaters—the central theme is the human relationship with space, changes in scale, and the possibility of everyday materials and situations to function as sculptures.

The exhibition has been supported by the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.