Art by Marianne Monto

Originally published 18th of July 2023

I have been quiet here, but outside this blog so much has happened!

I joined Kantolan Kulttuuritoimijat ry, maybe better known as SoHo Hampton and got pretty much immediately immersed in organizing things. One of those is now coming to fruitation: Exhibition in Ukraine, Kyiv. That has been one hell of a project, with so many constant changes and several ups and downs. Maybe this is too early to tell, but now it looks like most issues have been tackled. Happily I have had an amazing person to work with, who has made pretty much all main components of this project to come to reality. Shoutout to Päivi Lartama! (https://www.studiolartama.fi/)

I have known in basic level what is needed to ramp up a group exhibition, but this have given me way better insight. One thing, that we all have learned in school: group work is not always a cup of tea. More like bucket of sewage. Figuring out schedule, budget, participants, permissions, financing, media coverage etc. is a lot of work. And ignoring any part of those can be catastrophic. Well, not like earthquake catastrophe, more like utter failure. 

If there is no artists, there is no exhibition. Or then it is really “experimental” and “stretching the norm of what is exhibition” and other artistic bullshit. 

If there is no budget set or financing, there is a good possibility that in the end you have piles of bills and no money to pay those. The struggling artist might be a popular tropée, but I don’t think any artist aims at poverty and financial troubles.  

Without permits authorities can shut down everything at any given time. Or customs clearance doesn’t go through. Even if you believe that no party is good unless the police come to shut it down, it probably doesn’t apply to exhibitions. Memorable tho, I’ll give you that. But even if you have a uniform fetish, there are so many easier ways to meet guardians of law.

The missing schedule may manifest as a need to build a time machine, because something should have been done already last Thursday. And without schedule it is sometimes hard to realize that you cannot do everything all at once. Or that even small things take a surprising amount of time.

No media coverage may end you in position that no one knows about the exhibition. It’s good to note that media is also social media. Of course you can try to play it off as “exclusive”, when in reality it is more of “hermit like”.

Anyhow, now the main part of it is done. And at same time I have been trying to finish my pieces for my own show. And other stuff.