Heidi Nikolaisen, Hilde Jørgensen, Kristin Tårnesvik, Maya Økland
BLACKOUT – Helsinki
8.1. – 23.1.2011
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
The title of the exhibition refers to the ambiguous notion of control, or the lack of it. Nordic societies are known for trying to organize freedom and life within very strict forensic structures, but the hard consequences of this idyll are problems such as suicide, alcoholism and violence. Blackout explores the intersections of the functional and the dysfunctional, the sane and the insane, the rigid and the promiscuous.
In December 2009, Hilde Jørgensen and Maya Økland initiated an art exhibition exchange with Galeria Huuto in order to promote Finnish artists in Norway, and Norwegian artists in Finland. The collaboration is based upon a direct switch where Flaggfabrikken Presenterer curates a show with selected Huuto members and vice versa. The exchange will result in three exhibitions; Blackout Helsinki at gallery KNIPSU, Bergen, Blackout Bergen at Gallery Huuto, Helsinki, and Blackout Oslo with both Finnish and Norwegian artists at Finsk-norsk Kulturinstitutt, Oslo.
The exhibitions are supported by the Norwegian Arts Council, the City of Bergen, Nordic Culture Point, Norsk-finsk Kulturfond and Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Arts Council of Finland, The Finnish-Norwegian Foundation
