Galleria Huuto

Mirja Kurri, Jaakko Vastapuu & Leena Vastapuu
Metallinaisia [Metal Women]
10.5.–28.5.2017


Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
All Galleria Huuto’s exhibitions are open also on Ascension Day Thursday 25th May 2017, welcome!

Metallinaisia [Metal Women] – Narratives on girl soldiering

Metal Women brings together science and art in the form of an art exhibition that sketches out the everyday lives of girl soldiers who took part in the Liberian civil wars. The exhibition includes a series of two-dimensional welded artwork and a multichannel sound composition.

Tens of thousands of child soldiers participated in the two civil wars of Liberia in 1989–1997 and 2000–2003. Of these children, some 35 to 45 % were girls. Girl soldiers undertook combat service support tasks and served as frontline fighters and even commanders. Metal Women draws from a research project that Leena Vastapuu carried out among former girl soldiers in Liberia.

Mirja Kurri’s art captures the everyday struggles of these veterans today, over ten years after the latest civil war. She works by using a technique of welding and torching to create two-dimensional paintings on sheet iron.

In addition to Kurri’s metal work, the gallery is flooded with sound from a 16-channel sound composition Metal Jungle by Jaakko Vastapuu. The composition is built upon the narratives of three veterans on their lives within the war, in its aftermath, and on their aspirations and dreams for tomorrow.

Metal Women exhibition is an organic collage inspired by more than 130 interviews with female veterans and thousands of photographs of their current lives. Dozens of destinies are entwined to tell one story. Since being a former girl soldier is highly stigmatised in the country, the identities of the veterans are hidden.

Although the project draws from the battlefields, the main theme of the exhibition is hope.



Exhibition is supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

On Wednesday, May 17th Politiikasta online magazine organizes an Art on Politics event Metallinaisia: Sodan kokemuksen tarkastelua tieteen ja taiteen keinoin. (Metal Women: The experience of war through science and art) The event is held in Finnish at Galleria Huuto from 5 p.m. onwards, and it is open for public.

More info: facebook.com/metallinaisia
Contact: mirja.kurri(a)gmail.com