Location: Mannerheuminaukio 2, Helsinki
Tel. 09- 173
36501
Open: 10am- 8:30pm Wed- Sun, 10am- 5pm Tue
Closed: public holidays
www.kiasma.fi
Kiasma is a contemporary art museum located in the center of
Helsinki. Kiasma is part of the National Gallery.
Kiasma presents, collects and makes known contemporary art.
In addition to exhibitions, performances and events are
organized at Kiasma.
The Kiasma building, designed by
the American architect Steven Holl, was completed in 1998.
Before that, the Museum of Contemporary Art first operated
in the temporary premises of the State Art Museum on
Kansakoulukatu, and then from May 1991 in the building of
the Ateneum Art Museum.
Kiasma's manager is Leevi
Haapala.
Kiasma operates by organizing various events and museum activities,
such as exhibitions, presentations of its own collections, Kiasma
theater performances, seminars and lectures. Kiasma also participates in
urban art projects.
Ars exhibitions organized since 1961 have
been a major presentation of international contemporary art. Ars has
been organized in Kiasma since 2001. Since 2000, the Kiasma theater has
hosted URB festivals of urban city culture aimed at young people.
At the beginning of February 2013, a Wikimarathon event was
organized in Kiasma, where Wikipedia articles were supplemented with
information about Kiasma, its activities and art for 24 hours.
Throughout its existence, Kiasma has sparked a lively discussion.
Discussions have taken place about the museum's location, architecture,
and contents. In connection with the change of directors, there has been
a discussion about the current line of the museum.
The public has
also actively participated in the discussion about Kiasma, the museum is
in one of the most central places in Helsinki as part of the complex of
cultural buildings located around Töölönlahti. Kiasma encourages its
audience to discuss and leave feedback during their visit by writing,
drawing and answering questions. You can also comment on the museum's
activities in real time via the Facebook pages and Twitter account.
Kiasma's Collection activities are part of the museum's national and
international core activities, which include art acquisitions,
productions, artwork loans and deposits, as well as exhibition and
publishing activities in Finland and abroad. Kiasma's art collection has
more than 8,000 works. The focus of collecting is in Finnish art.
Another emphasis is on the neighboring regions of our country, i.e. the
Nordic countries, the Baltic countries and Russia, and finally the art
of the rest of the world. About 100–200 works of art are acquired
annually, and artwork donations are received.
The collection
includes works by artists who debuted after 1960. The works are selected
according to various criteria, such as the importance of the work, the
artist or the presented phenomenon in the Finnish art life or the
development of art in general. The choices are also influenced by
current, interesting themes and features, as well as the high level of
the artist's work, the definition of which is influenced, among other
things, by the point of view and the viewing environment. There are also
works by artists whose position in the art field has not yet been
established. In addition to object-oriented works, media art, works that
can be read in the boundary between contemporary art and popular
culture, and so-called disappearing art and its recordings. For example,
performances can be attached to collections as authorized documents.
Kiasma spends about 455,000 euros annually to increase its
collection. In the years 2008–2012, more than half of the works were
acquired directly from artists. In addition, works are acquired from
galleries.
In Kiasma, the collections are actively used and
exhibited both in themed collection exhibitions that change
approximately every year, and as part of changing exhibitions.
Information about artworks belonging to the collections of Kiasma and
the Ateneum and Sinebrychoff art museums is available to application
developers and other interested parties via the programming interface or
API, or they can be downloaded as a data package. Data was opened in
October 2013.
When evaluating Kiasma's five-year success in 2003, then director
Tuula Karjalainen stated that it was the most popular museum in Finland
for four years and is still the most famous in the country. He estimates
that Kiasma is probably the world's most popular contemporary art
museum, when the number of visitors is compared to the country's
population.
The Museum of Contemporary Art has become one of
Helsinki's most popular attractions. Its total number of visitors
exceeded three million in 2011. Between 2007 and 2011, Kiasma was
visited by approximately 165,000–194,000 visitors per year. In 2010, it
was the third most popular museum in Finland. In 2016, Kiasma was the
second most popular museum in Finland, with around 320,000 visitors.
65 percent of the visitors are under 35 years old. The average
visitor to Kiasma is 20 years younger than in art museums.
About
30 percent of those who visit Kiasma are foreigners and 20 percent are
from outside Helsinki. In 2011, it was noticed that the number of
Russian guests was increasing rapidly.
The roots of the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art go back to the 1930s. In 1939, Nykytaide ry was founded, which organizes exhibitions focusing on contemporary art. The association was active in the 1950s and, among other things, in organizing the first Ars exhibition in 1961. The Museum of Contemporary Art was featured in the editorial of Taide magazine in 1961. In 1964, Nykytaide ry declared itself the support organization of the Museum of Contemporary Art project and it ceased operations in 1990, when the Museum of Contemporary Art was founded. The museum initially operated in the Ateneum building until it got its own premises after Kiasma was completed.
In February 2008, the Kiasma support foundation was established,
whose mission is to support exhibition and publishing activities and the
expansion of the museum's collections. Through the foundation, it is
possible for the museum to receive art, monetary and testamentary
donations. The purpose of the foundation is, among other things, to
strengthen the dialogue between Finnish art collectors and Kiasma. The
decision to establish the foundation was made because it was seen that
the public funding received by the museum has not increased. The model
has been taken from other countries, for example Stockholm's Moderna
Museet, which is 40 years older than Kiasma (whose current building is
from the same year as Kiasma, i.e. 1998), has already turned to
collectors and influencers of Swedish economic life.
The founding
members of the support foundation are Berndt Arell, Carl Gustaf
Ehrnrooth, Pentti Kouri and Rafaela Seppälä.
In 2018, the board
includes Pekka Lehtinen (chair), Fanny Borgström, Leevi Haapala, Jere
Järvenpää, Kyösti Kakkonen, Riitta Lindegren, Katariina Lipsanen, Riitta
Nelimarkka, Jussi Nurmio, Liisa Ollila, Jyri Sarpaniemi (vice-chair),
Iiris Ulin-Miettinen and Poju Zabludowicz .
Kiasma's directors have been:
Tuula Arkio 1990–2001
Tuula
Karelian 2001–2006
Berndt Arell 2007–2010
Pirkko Siitari 2010–2015
Leevi Haapala 2015–
When Berndt Arell announced at the end of 2009 that he would take
over as director of the Svenska Kulturfonden, the discussion about a new
director and Kiasma's line began. The German cultural historian Nicolaus
Schafhausen, who applied for the position of director, called Kiasma a
dead museum. As Schafhausen did not speak Finnish, it was not possible
to be elected. Tuula Arkio, the first director of Kiasma, also strongly
criticized the museum's policy and said that Kiasma, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, is in crisis. "At the same time, it has lost the
search period for its international breakthrough, which opened up for it
in the late 1990s, when the museum was founded."
Arell, the
former director of Kiasma, stated in the article he wrote that he felt
it was a wealth that he was able to "hire young, visionary colleagues of
Kiasma, whose concept of art did not come from the 1970s".
In
February 2010, the State Art Museum nominated Dr. Marja Sakari, director
of the Suomi Institute in Paris, as the best out of 12 applicants. The
Minister of Culture and Sports, Stefan Wallin, however, chose Pirkko
Siitarin, a bachelor of philosophy who worked as a deputy director at
Kiasma, for the position. He moved to director from the position of
curator of collections at Kiasma. The nomination sparked public debate.
According to MTV3 Uutisten reporter Merja Sundström, the background is a
political power struggle. According to him, Sakari represents a more
leftist view and the line of Tuula Arkio, the first director of Kiasma.
Sundström states that Wallin, who represents the Swedish People's Party,
liked Siitari's apparently more Arellian line.