ARCTIC HEAT

The exception that proves the rule

The very fact that 17 artists from Lapland and the region of Oulu are being invited to show their works in the context of a group exhibition in four different exhibition spaces in Berlin is an exception.

An exception, also because artists from Lapland and the region of Oulu do not especially overcrowd the art world, and because this pilot project is an example of a sophisticated and courageous cultural policy, which has the potential of introducing the participating artists to a network of curators, artists, and art institutions in Berlin.

This project’s suspense is already discernible from its title Arctic Heat. Well aware that the Arctic is not equatorial, this ironic title creates a curiosity for the magnitude of the artistic involvement in Northern Finland and for its realization within the context of Berlin.

The gallery elm75 is partner to the project Arctic Heat by the Finnish Institute and has on its part decided to engage in cooperation with the project space SAVVY Contemporary. Thus, the next exception: SAVVY Contemporary – The laboratory of form-ideas was founded to instigate an international discourse as well as the development and exchange of ideas in contemporary art and culture, with Berlin-Neukölln as its podium. The project space regards itself as being a communication stage with changing exhibitions by artists who, according to an art theoretical definition, are categorized as “Western artists” and “Non-Western artists,” and who jointly realize a project. With the Project Arctic Heat, SAVVY Contemporary wants to set the exception that proves the rule. There must be room for this exception, particularly as it is the ambition of SAVVY Contemporary to give a voice to positions which are not seen on the world map of art every day, a voice for them to demonstrate their legitimacy.

With Kalle Lampela (born 1973 in Finland), who at the moment engages himself with the socio-aesthetic responsibility of the artist, using the example of his own artistic work, and Steve Pratt (born 1949 in England), who deals with collective and private traumata caused by aggression, attacks, or the military, SAVVY Contemporary seemingly takes an exceptional conceptual step, but one in the right direction: providing (free) space for an intercultural dialog of the arts at eye level.