Aki-Pekka Sinikoski, Head of Helsinki Biennale
23.05.2007> The Giant has woken up! After a long and chilly winter we are ready for new adventures! Sooner than you expect we will make your ass do the samba! We have just started cooking sessions for the next happening! We are preparing you incredible deluxe gourmet with the best flavours and aromas! While our 12 dishes menu is in the oven, we would like to see you in Barcelona at Sónar festival! If you want to have a beer with us or you want to show some of your projects don't hesitate to contact us.
We are also happy to tell you that last year’s Helsinki Biennale poster made by Norwegian Grand People won gold at Visuelt07! More information can be found here:
http://www.grafill.no/visuelt07/
http://www.grandpeople.org
We are the perfect couple!
01.01.2007> Happy new year to all you pretty ponies from Mars! We would also like to say happy hóla to all the rest of you from other planets! It’s time for you to start bugging your local mail man… Finally a month after the first Helsinki Biennale exhibition Santa O.G. Claus brought us a mysterious brown paper box full of Voittaja Liite from Helsinki Lost & Found office. The Voittaja Liite is a legendary yellow paper section that was ment to be inside the Helsinki Biennale Business to Business zine. We do not have any ideas were they have been during these weeks but we can now mail it to you, if you send us an old school mail with return stamps to Super8, Castreninkatu 8, 00530 Helsinki, Finland. Just like back in the days when you ordered C-casettes from your favourite indie artists via mail.
Year 2006 was great! Helsinki Biennale would like to thank all of you for your support and love! Next months we will go deep down to our think tanks for working new ideas and brilliant consepts. Helsinki Biennale has learned all the tricks from grand old ninjas. We are never sleeping, we are just waiting! Year 2007 is going to be a good time, all the time! Sooner than you think we are back with pockets full of diamonds and dynamites!
Best regards, Aki-Peki Sinikoski
25.11.2006 > Hey friends and oil paint sniffers! I just came back from Amsterdam and now I finally have time to update some news for you. Yep, with no doubt the opening of Helsinki Biennale was a success! We had more than 500 guest visiting Myymälä2 -gallery! By the end of the evening both Myymälä2, Bar Åbo, and the street between these two spots were full of our people. Also the feedback from different medias has been really positive: Suomen Kuvalehti had a nice whole page story of Helsinki Biennale, Helsingin Sanomat wrote a positive review about the new art institute Helsinki Biennale and it's exhibition. Deko mag wrote that HB is a November's must exhibition. Even teenage magazine Suosikki had a small article about us! There will still be a seven pages long story about HB collectives in the next LÄS -magazine so it seems to be that we are the prom queens with nice white teeth! I would like to thank all those lovely people in Finland and abroad who have sent me e-mails and stuff. Even if it might sound a bit stupid I have to say it: it's so cool that Helsinki Biennale has fans in Japan! Take care! /Aki-Peki
10.11.2006 > Hello fellows! This is the time!!! And time is now! Welcome to Helsinki Biennale opening 6 pm–9 pm at Myymälä2 gallery, Uudenmaankatu 23. I can promise you won't be alone! I'm expecting to see you there! It will be blasting!!! Afterparty will take a place at Piano Baari, Rauhankatu 15. Piano Baari will open at 9.30 pm. There will be an amazing line up for the evening: King Nosmo DJs (FIN) will play italo disco from early eighties! Gareth Hayes (UK/FIN) will play northern soul! Mael (Fra) and Mr.Casual (Fra) are going to make you sweat with sweet dubstep! There will also be some other special quests... but that's not all! I have some great great news for you.The one and only Alfa Kaza & Africa Biya have flown all the way from Benin, Africa, to play us a gig!!! One love, babies, one love!!! C U soon! /Peki
06.11.2006 > The curator of Helsinki Biennale, Aki-Pekka Sinikoski, was interviewed by the art historian Tomas Ivan Träskman, who works within visual culture, design, media and education. This fall Träskman takes part in Singapore Biennale, Burning the Dreamlands exhibition in Budapest and the Naked Life exhibition in Taipei as a participant of the YKON artist society (www.ykon.org). The interview is free for use. Please inform us if used or quoted at office@helsinkibiennale.com.
Tomas Ivan Träskman: How did you come up with the idea to organize your own biennale?
Aki-Pekka Sinikoski: I thought it was an inspiring thought that I could build exhibitions in my own way so that they would be more alike what I would hope to get out of exhibitions. One of my targets in the first Helsinki Biennale is to try to get rid of the snobbism, which is typical for the art world, and be left with the mind-set of doing and fresh solutions. It reminds a little of the punk-movement back in the days.
Tomas Ivan Träskman: Sounds good! What have the reactions about the project been like?
Aki-Pekka Sinikoski: The exhibition has already eagerly been welcomed among both artists and media. In Finland there’s going to be a seven-page story about the Helsinki Biennale studios in LÄS magazine, among others. The interior magazine DEKO has also named the exhibition as a MUST target in November. Also a nice surprise was when I heard that the Norwegian web pages Transformator and Underskog have hyped that the exhibition is the most interesting one organized in Finland this year. The studio (työhuone) theme seems really successful. For the moment there are new studios coming up here and there. The subject has growingly been written about in different medias.
Tomas Ivan Träskman: In the studios activity is usually important: in the exhibition space the activity often stops and the result can be a pile of “dead art”.
Aki-Pekka Sinikoski: Helsinki Biennale’s exhibition space has been divided between all the artists so that each one of the 46 participants has been given 1, 2 X 1, 2 meters of wall space. In that space the participants of the exhibition has been given the freedom to carry out what ever they want. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the voice of the sole artwork when the gallery is filled up from the sealing down to the floor. The exhibition construction follows the same logic as the operation in the studios. A group of skilled people takes a space to their use without predetermined views or goals.
Tomas Ivan Träskman: Some of the studios have become famous especially within design and others within arts. What kind of works can be expected at the exhibition?
Aki-Pekka Sinikoski: Actually there is going to be a lot of works that can be placed both in arts and design at the same time. As cliché as it sounds I still think that the most interesting works are the ones that can be found on the border of different things. Kasper Strömman’s Golden Chair, which is going to be presented at Helsinki Biennale, could be used as an example of this. As his starting-point he has used a white plastic garden chair, which has been tuned into a new baroque golden chair by painting it with felt pens. Somebody might see the work as a unique design object, others again as pure art.
02.11.2006 > Yup loved ones, we don't leave you guys alone on this snow white thursday. It's time to confirm the rumours. We are going to publish a Helsinki Biennale: Bisness 2 Bisness -zine 10th November at 6pm at the opening party in Myymälä2 gallery. It's going to be stricly limited edition, only 200 copies. If you want to get your own piece of heaven better be there on time. it's going to be sold out, without a doubt, before you have said awesome! As a sneak preview you see the cover made by Syrup Helsinki below! Take Care! /Peki
27.10.2006 > Kajaani is not only the capiltal of small town angst in Finland but also the hometown of Jussi Super8 and Ilja Super8. Brothers and sisters, are you ready to testife!?! We are happy to introduce Mr. Randy Steele. A new star from Kajaani. You might know him as a leadsinger and the guitar player of the Jeep. Jeep is with no doubt the best band in Kajaani. You can find their only recorded song and some pictures HERE. In the picture below taken by Juliana Harkki Randy Steele is wearing his own Helsinki Biennale limited edition T-shirt. Wear it proud, keep it real! /Peki
11.10.2006 > Haidi hou! This is a good day! Not just because it happends to be my grandmom's birthday but also because Helsinki Biennale is from this moment online! Big thanks for that goes to Matti from our Super8 studios who has done a great job with the site. I would also like to thank my Norwegian friends from Grandpeople studios, especially Store-Magnus. His nick name Store comes not just from the Norwegian word 'big' but also the fact that he is bigger than his colleague Lille-Magnus. As if this would not be enough it is also because always when I call him he happends to be in a store... Anyway Grandpeople's blasting design can be seen on our posters, limited edition clothes etc. So see you soon again! Make sure you will be the first to find Helsinki Biennale goodies. More news soon! Yours, Aki-Peki
