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Back home,Visual
Artist Lea Turto Email: turto@pp.nic.fi
Pedvale 2002 "The
Stones like mushrooms" 2002
Photos: working time
Seat
for Romance, Mätäjoki 2000.
The
Emigration, 2000 Mätäjoki,
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Introduction:
Working with groups producing environmental art.
I have worked with environmental and performance art groups since 1995. That year, I got the idea of creating exhibitions outside museums and galleries. This was close to the idea of community art : to show art in the open air, in common spaces like parks, riversides, old empty factories…and to communicate directly with the public, so that they can meet the artist at work and become involved with making an art exhibition. We
needed a lot of help: financial resources, multiskilled people to
assist the artists, public relations officers, people in charge of
a large exhibition taking up a vast space (as on the streets). We
produced the exhibitions in co-operation with residents' associations
and people living nearby. Photo:
Lea Turto "Muistojenkirjasto",
Lea
Turto, "The Hidden Place", Jämsä 1998.
In 1999 I worked together with Harri and made an environmental art exhibition in the city of Vaasa. At about the same time, I moved house to live on the other side of Helsinki. There I met artists Nella Keskisarja and Sofia Wilkman. They planned to start a group and produce an Environmental Art Exhibition on the Mätäjoki riverside. I liked the idea and started a discussion about the natural qualities of the riverbank. More
information: the Mätäjoki Environmental Art Exhibition 2002,
In
2000 I moved to live in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. |
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Colour Wash 2000 - a performance After the Mätäjoki exhibition of summer 2000, I met Nella Keskisarja at an art gallery in the old Railway storehouse. It is situated in the heart of the city and the City Council had started a planning process for new, big buildings in that area. In protest, Helsinki people staged a demonstration to conserve this building. We got an idea to stage a performance Colour Wash 2000. This happened very spontaneously and we only had a couple of weeks to get the performance ready. We asked Riitta Schild-Oivo and Sami Sarasalo to help us. Jonna Pohjalainen had also expressed interest in taking part in our group exhibitions. Community art is also very close to her heart. She was very keen to participate. Likewise, hundeds of members of the public took part in the performance of cleaning the walls and the roof of the old storehouse. We dressed the participants with colourful robes: red, green, blue, yellow. |
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