Sorbus 2016

Photos from exhibitions and events at Sorbus during 2016
+ Photos of Sorbus collective's appearances elsewhere

Sorbus is an art space and artist collective located at Vaasankatu 15, Helsinki, Finland. www.sorbus.fi

Mikko Kuorinki reading aloud in Everybody reads...!, the event marking the opening of his Skitsystem exhibition. For the event, everyone was invited to bring "a poem, a list, a joke, a headline, a word, a story, a punchline — a text from any source you want to read aloud for others." In the background: Kuorinki's work Hit me in the nose so I can become someone else, rubber hoses filled with mayonnaise and sealed with glue. January

Mikko Kuorinki: Skitsystem, January

Mikko E and Vehmersuo's piece Let's go cheap was a mixture of storytelling, performance and concert, based on troublesome memories and childhood fantasies. February

Antti Tolvi assembling his self-made organ made of an electronic organ pump, flagpoles and drainpipes. In his Pipe Harmony exhibition Tolvi played two concerts with the organ. At other times, the organ was playing a constant harmonious drone by itself. February

Mika Helin's exhibition Under the North Star consisted of typical Finnish decor elements such as wood panel, wallpaper and chainsaw sculpted wood. February–March

Sanna-Mari Pirkola's live sand animation Hiekkalinnan lapset, accompanied by live score by Jonna Karanka from Sorbus working group. For some of the time the audience stayed still and watched the performance. March

The golden age of Finnish Forest Folk phenomenon was remembered in a screening of VHS concert recordings. In the picture an unknown member of the audience is experiencing the legendary Avarus concert at Kipsari in 2003. Sorbus Fist Bump festival, March

Radam & Rapala, with Silmälappu-Steve, once more at Hirmu and Skele's cassette release party. Sorbus Fist Bump festival, March

The ending of a three year tradition at Sorbus: the release party of H.I.T.S. 3, the last part of Hirmu and Skele's rap cassette trilogy, this time sampling 90s hit songs. In the concert Hirmu and Skele performed all thirty one minute songs on the release in thirty minutes. Sorbus Fist Bump festival, March

"Your flesh is all rotten, but your teeth, they have grown", Milena Solomun performing her minimal rock songs at Sorbus Fist Bump festival in March.

Cie Cadmium's butoh piece, a plant breaking through the concrete and spreading life on the dead walls. Cie Cadmium is a duo consisting of dancer Annika Dind (pictured) and musician Jamasp Jhabvala. Sorbus Fist Bump festival, March

Hamza Walker, longtime Director of Education and Associate Curator of the Renaissance Society museum in Chicago was invited to Helsinki by IHME festival. He gave a presentation about his work at Sorbus. March

Resident / Longshore Drift was an off-site exhibition curated by London art space Jupiter Woods, featuring artists that they have collaborated with, including Sanna Helena Berger, Rob Chavasse, Maria Gorodeckaya, Emily Jones, Josip Novosel, S E I D, Viktor Timofeev, The Mycological Twist, Matilda Tjäder and Holly White. The exhibition hosted a variety of art forms such as performance, video, reading, dinner and collective exercises. April—May

For the Jupiter Woods exhibition, The Mycological Twist (Anne de Boer and Eloïse Bonneviot) had composed a healing ceremony for plants and humans. At Sorbus the ceremony was executed by Hanna Laura Kaljo and Carolina Ongaro of Jupiter Woods. On the plinth: a photo of mycologist Paul Stamets and a jar of Stamets 7® mushroom supplement pills that were used in the ceremony. May

Henna Hyvärinen's exhibition Esprit was a video installation including a beach chair modified with sheep fur and denim, a feng shui amulet increasing the space's energy level, the Moomins and Apulanta, a double bed sawed in half, a plant covered with black latex along with Hyvärinen's new video essay Arno. May

A fragment from the script: [It is midday. TEMRA has one hand tied behind her back. And a towel in the other. DAVID enters the room with his hair wet and a bag of in-shell peanuts. All the spit they produce during the performance must be spit into the spittoon; no swallowing.] (Photo: Oa4s)

Temra and David in 4 parts, exhibition by Oa4s duo, took the form of an "installation play", in which the scripted play is performed without any audience present. The viewership takes place after the play has finished, giving visitors to the exhibition access to only the material remains of the performance and copies of the printed script, allowing them to retrace the sequence of events which semi-systematically generated the sculptural installation before them. The exhibition was organized by curator Attilia Fattori Franchini. May—June

A fragment from the script: "TEMRA: Take off your hat. [DAVID removes his hat and places it at TEMRA's feet. She takes handful after handful of soil from the bag and fills up his hat on the floor]" (Photo: Oa4s)

Group exhibition OZ, curated by Helsinki art space SIC, was a part of exhibition exchange between SIC and Sorbus. It featured works by Erik Aalto, Päivikki Alaräihä, Reija Meriläinen, Zach Nader, Scott Reeder and Maija Timonen. June (Photo: SIC)

Reija Meriläinen's work Froggit (2016), made of ballistic jelly and plastic, in OZ, group show curated by SIC. June (Photo: SIC)

LM Sallings installation MIKI: Scene 39 was to be viewed from the street. The exhibition was a another chapter in the story that started in the graduation show of the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki where the sculpture had its first appearance. July

Miki's body, cut in pieces and wrapped in plastic, is waiting for a cart ride back to Salling's studio a couple of kilometers away. July

One year after his debut concert at Sorbus, Elatu Nessa is back, doing soundcheck. August

Wood sculptures in Hermanni Saarinen's Paradiso exhibition. The exhibition was a thought experiment of Paradise as a pure innocent space, void of memory or tradition, that thereby allows for a creative mindset. August (photos: Hermanni Saarinen)

Art historian Riikka Stewen and postdoctoral researcher of art education Juuso Tervo were invited to discuss art and paradise in Hermanni Saarinen's Paradiso exhibition. August

PAINI (wrestling) was a two hour performance about wrestling, mixing the sacred nature of sports and performance. The performance was to be viewed from the street. PAINI working group includes Anna Maria Häkkinen, Tatu Nenonen, Kristian Palmu, Sofia Simola, Lotta Suomi and Sanna Uuttu. The performance at Sorbus preceded a larger scale piece coming up at Zodiak Center for New Dance in March 2017. September

Leslie Kulesh's textile work Anthropo-scenester (2016) and guests in the opening event of Sour Grapes, group exhibition curated by Sorbus. The exhibition featured textile works, painting, poetry and sculpture by Jan Anderzén, Zoe Barcza, Leslie Kulesh, Mikko Luostarinen, Hermanni Saarinen and Sini Silveri. September

Left to right: Jan Anderzén's textile work Import Blues (2015), Sini Silveri's poem, and Leslie Kulesh's textile work Anthropo-scenester (2016), along with a bubbling wine fermenter.

Hermanni Saarinen's sculpture from the Paradiso series (2016), fermenting rowanberry wine, and Fight Night Orlando (2015), painting by Zoe Barcza

Sanna Helena Berger's exhibition Agency (properties of pseudo-public spaces as a prelude) began on Metro newspaper's announcement page. October

Opening event of Sanna Helena Berger's exhibition: performer reading a section of Berger's six-part monologue, texts which as part of Agency narrated the exhibition as situation.

During Sanna Helena Berger's exhibition the view inside was blocked, and the front door locked, with a doorbell to which no-one responded.

In November, Sorbus turned into a treatment room, managed by dance- and performance artist Maija Mustonen, dance artist Aino Voutilainen and performance artist Aino Unkila. In Hoitoja (Treatments) exhibition the artists offered massages, body works and other treatments, free of charge. The exhibition was a continuation to their previous Hoitoja exhibition in 2015, also taking place at Sorbus.

The title of Jonna Karanka's exhibition 2D RYIJY + SMTH SMTH was inspired by a tweet by late Helsinki art space Such Gallery ironically instructing artists on how to apply for grants from certain Finnish institutions. "Ryijy" is a Finnish word for a traditional Scandinavian tapestry. November—December

Jonna Karanka's exhibition made use of materials like modeling clay, seitan, feathers, magic balloon, candies, streamer, and wrapping paper.

Jonna Karanka's tapestry work Kaikkien vuodenaikojen ry tai ru was sold to Tuomas Sopanen's extensive tapestry collection. In February 2017 it can be seen in an exhibition of modern tapestries in Juva library in Eastern Finland.

Jonna Karanka — Kukkia (Flowers), 2016, detergent bottles cast in plaster, dumpster dived decorative flowers, fake flowers, streamer and spraypaint

Window installation by Keijut (Fairies), a group formed by fairies Fountain, Time and Intelligence a.k.a. Roope Eronen, Tero Niskanen and Antti Tolvi. December – January

The other part of the exhibition exchange between SIC and Sorbus was Sorbus collective's exhibition at SIC. The show's title, Fucked Up in a Bad Way, was borrowed from the Finnish punk band The Heartburns' EP. In the picture Sakari Tervo, Henna Hyvärinen and Jonna Karanka are dressing a skydancer. June

Sorbus collective was invited to take part in Manifesta11 biennial's performance program and ended up making a reading piece about the problematics of the biennial, based on their own experience. Sorbus collective were not the only ones in Zürich addressing the issues. September (Photo: Aurélie Mermod)

In November Sorbus collective's exhibition Fucked Up in a Bad Way appeared in a new form in KASKL, an artist run space in Berlin.

In continuation to exhibitions in SIC and KASKL, Sorbus collective's Fucked Up in a Bad Way appeared in Jupiter Woods, coinciding the 40th anniversary of punk in its place of birth, London. The exhibition was also the second part of the exhibition exchange between Jupiter Woods and Sorbus. November (Photo: Original&theCopy)

Traditional Finnish birchbark shoes modified with rivets in Sorbus collective's Fucked Up in a Bad Way at Jupiter Woods (Photo: Original&theCopy)

In the Jupiter Woods exhibition Sorbus collective also published an eight page mini zine, listing the Finnish airline company Finnair as one of the sponsors for the exhibition. (Photo: Original&theCopy)

"Bye bye! See you again soon!" A paper note by Sorbus-Henna as a readymade in Sorbus collective's exhibition Fucked Up in a Bad Way at SIC, Helsinki in June (Photo: SIC)