TENNIS MATCH / TENNISOTTELU – Ilya Kabakov, Pavel Pepperstein

Strangers in the Arctic – Ultima Thule and the Modern Age
ILYIA KABAKOV & PAVEL PEPPERSTEIN: TENNIS MATCH
Installation at the Pori Art Museum, June 15 – September 1, 1996

The installation Tennis Match by Russian artist Ilya Kabakov (b. 1933), who has lived in New York for many years, and Moscow-based artist Pavel Pepperstein (b. 1966) is designed for the Pori Art Museum’s large space, which resembles a sports hall. The field is surrounded by sixteen wooden benches and sixteen blackboards, each displaying information about the game between two competitors. On top of each blackboard, there are light panels and televisions showing different scenes from a tennis game filmed in Pori between the artists. There is no action happening on the actual “tennis court,” as the real match is held in the form of questions and answers on the blackboards. The artists take turns asking and answering, switching between the roles of “server” and “receiver.” The game ends after 80 questions and 80 answers— the outcome of the match is left for the viewer to decide.

The basic idea of the work relates to medieval debate tournaments, which were primarily intellectual contests. In these debates, a starting topic was given, and the two competitors would then discuss it. The assumption was that each debater belonged to a different “camp” and represented different traditions, with sharp attacks, blows, and their counterattacks bringing tension to the encounter. The Tennis Match tournament also has a starting theme: “strangers in the Arctic” or “outsiders in foreign lands.” Just like in classical tournaments, the two “contestants” debate the subject from different positions. Kabakov and Pepperstein originally had a correspondence on the subject via letters and faxes between Moscow and New York. Copies of the original Russian debate can be seen in the museum café. The discussion on the blackboards is in English, with Finnish translations available in the museum lobby.

Kabakov and Pepperstein’s work is part of the extensive exhibition Strangers in the Arctic – Ultima Thule and the Modern Age, which was first shown in Copenhagen in early 1996. The exhibition, organized by the Pori Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Exhibition Exchange Centre FRAME, and the Copenhagen 96 Capital of Culture Foundation, is simultaneously displayed in two different parts of Finland: at the Pori Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. At the Museum of Contemporary Art, works by the following artists are featured: Sergei ‘Afrika’ Bugaev, A.K. Dolven, Jimmie Durham, Per Kirkeby, Jussi Kivi, Ian McKeever, Esko Männikkö & Pekka Turunen, Richard E. Prince, Ulf Rollof, Maura Sheehan, and George Steinmann. Several of the exhibition’s artists visited Arctic regions around the world as a basis for their projects, while others—like Kabakov and Pepperstein—created conceptual works specifically for the exhibition.

An English-language publication (230 mk) and a Finnish translation of the texts (100 mk) are available, with a combined price of 280 mk. Additionally, Kabakov and Pepperstein have designed a Tennis Match T-shirt, available in a limited edition (price 90 mk).