SAMAA MAATA – SAMMA LAND – SIDE BY SIDE

MEDIA RELEASE

SAME LAND – SAMMA LAND – SIDE BY SIDE
Exhibition at the Pori Art Museum, 15th June – 24th August 1997

Aziz Selim, Niran Baibulat, Manuel Castellanos, Soledad Chuaqui, Raoul Grünstein, Marja Helander, Tizzi Ibrahim, Carl-Gustaf Lilius, Kiba Lumberg, Melek Mazici, Merja Aletta Ranttila, Sanna Sarva, Dwi Setiano, Andrij Stasevskij, and Sándor Vály

Same Land – Samma Land – Side by Side brings together artists from different cultures and cultural backgrounds living in Finland. Some of the artists belong to the so-called old minorities, while others are immigrants and refugees. The exhibition will continue in the fall of 1997, when six artists are invited to the Satakunta Museum to create their own room interiors.

The exhibition originates from a mapping project of Finnish ethnic minority visual artists initiated by the Pori and Turku Art Museums in 1995, with the support of the Ministry of Education. Since then, the Pori Art Museum has continued the project in 1996-97. Currently, the works of over sixty artists from various parts of Finland have been documented. The Finnish and English-language publication is also in two parts. The first part provides a general societal, social, and cultural framework for the exhibitions and introduces the artists of the Pori Art Museum’s exhibition section. The second part documents the Satakunta Museum exhibition in the fall of 1997.

The collection of articles and artist statements addresses ethnic identity and minority issues, multiculturalism, and foreigner attitudes in Finnish society, which is still quite closed. Like the exhibition, the Same Land publication revolves around the concept of ethnicity, a concept whose complexity and problematic nature are discussed by cultural anthropology docent Dr. Anna Maria Viljanen in her article. Similarly, researcher Rolf Büchi’s analysis of societal views on multiculturalism reveals many hidden racist meanings and implications within the concept. Social psychology professor Karmela Liedkind discusses the conditions and opportunities of minorities in present-day Finland, while folkloristics professor Leea Virtanen analyzes the stereotypes and clichés defining ethnicity in modern tradition, which stubbornly—and surprisingly similarly across different countries—create and maintain images of “the foreigner.”

Majority populations, such as the Finnish people, do not perceive themselves as an ethnic group, even though they are exactly the same in the sense as any other group. The artists’ biographical statements emphasize that there is not one minority identity but many multi-layered identities, both generally and within each minority group. These statements convey different values and power positions, opening important perspectives on the sociocultural nature of Western art institutions.

Although the artists appear in the exhibition as individuals, as artists, not as representatives of their ethnic groups, their diverse cultural backgrounds are undoubtedly the foundation of their works, creating an exceptionally rich and diverse exhibition.

The “old” minorities in Finland include Marja Helander and Merja Aletta Ranttila of Sámi descent, Niran Baibulat, a Tatar, Raoul Grünstein, a Jew, Kiba Lumberg, a Romani, and Carl-Gustaf Lilius, who belongs to the Finnish-speaking Swedish minority. Immigrants to Finland include Manuel Castellanos from Cuba, Dwi Setianto from Indonesia, Andrij Stasevskij from Ukraine, Melek Mazici from Turkey, and Sándor Vály from Hungary. Soledad Chuaqui is among the Chileans who were the first refugee group to arrive in Finland in 1973. Romanian Tizzi Ibrahim and Kurdish artist Aziz Selim came to Finland after recent upheavals in their home countries.

The exhibition includes both established older artists and younger, more recently arrived artists in Finland who are still unknown here. For example, as counterpoints, one can place the work of Carl-Gustaf Lilius, a strong presence in Finnish art and cultural circles as a writer, visual artist, philosopher, and social critic, alongside that of Aziz Selim Ahmed, the former Foreign and Culture Minister of Kurdistan, who arrived in Finland in 1995. Both artists have extensively participated in social activities and have had long and varied artistic careers.

The conditions for creating art are completely different for Raoul Grünstein, who was born in Finland, and Dwi Setianto, who moved to Finland only ten months ago. Kiba Lumberg left her Romani home at the age of 13. Merja Aletta Ranttila continues to live and work in Finland’s northernmost municipality, Inari. Finnish ethnic group member Sanna Sarva presents a series of works exploring the definition of ethnic identity through the values and attitudes of foreigners living in Finland.

The exhibition has no single theme or unifying element other than difference. It is not intended to cover as many minorities as possible but to present the complexity of minority issues through the lens of ethnicity.

The Ministry of Education has provided significant support for the realization of the Same Land – Samma Land – Side by Side exhibitions and publications, enabling the Pori Museums, in cooperation with the artists invited to the exhibitions, to create an important cultural-political statement in the 80th anniversary year of Finland’s independence.

Translated with ChatGPT

Publications:

ISBN 951-9355-58-8
Samaa maata 1
Pori Art Museum 17.6.-24.8.1997
Edited by Pia Hovi and Marketta Seppälä
Translations by Arja Alaraudanjoki, Rolf Büchi, Philip Landon, Christer Lindgren, Kai Palm, Seppo Siuru, Kaisa Sivenius, Ûlku Ûlker, Matti Velhonoja, Hassan Zaki
Lay-out: Esko Nummelin
Photos by Erkki Valli-Jaakola
© Pori Art Museum, authors and photographers
Oy West Point, Rauma
Pori Art Museum Publications 40 / Pori Art Museum Publications 40
Length: 192 p

ISBN 951-9355-59-6
Samaa maata 2
Pori Art Museum 6.9.-2.11.1997
Edited by Pia Hovi
Translations by Seppo Siuro, Pia Hovi, Rešad Hasanović, Kamal Salaheddine,Ûlku Ûlker
Lay-out: Esko Nummelin
Photos by Pentti Pere, Erkki Valli-Jaakola, Vesa Kinnunen
Drawings by Mikko Nurminen
© Pori Art Museum, authors and photographers
Oy West Point, Rauma
Pori Art Museum Publications 41 / Pori Art Museum Publications 41
Length: 58 p