Coppersmithy, Fiskars
15.6.-31.8.2025
Mon-Sun 11-18
The theme of the Fiskars based Onoma Cooperative’s summer exhibition for 2025 is Utopia. Visual artist and curator Anna Ruth (b. 1975, Canada) from Jyväskylä has been invited to be the curator of the exhibition. Ruth has been working in the art field in Finland for more than 20 years, realizing works and events often in unusual spaces. She curated The Mänttä Art festival in 2020.
“My understanding of utopia is that of a daydream for a new social order. A system with specific parameters existing only as an intangible vision, glowing on the horizon.
When we think of utopia, the focus is commonly on the ultimate goal and rarely on the cost. We might talk about making, creating or building a utopian society, but we do not talk about the labour or what must be given up for its realisation. The focus is on positivity, the future and ideas, but as with any strong vision there is always a blind spot.
The opposite of utopia is called dystopia, or a lucid nightmare of suffering and injustice; the complete failure or deterioration of the paradisaic system. In this exhibition, I hope to bring these polar binaries closer together, not to emphasise opposing realities but to expose hell as an inextricable aspect, indispensable for the creation of paradise. I am interested in the tension between inside and out, as the framework that allows a utopia to take shape. Just as death is a part of life, dystopia is an embedded aspect of utopia.
Fiskars ironmongery village, for example, could be seen as a kind of functioning utopia. An intimate community striving towards their own version of paradise. In this utopia, many have built their own contained worlds and their lifestyles and artwork are therefore a natural extension of these spaces. This year’s exhibition, as an Onoma cooperative exhibition, presents work that intrinsically reflects the utopias of Fiskars.
The artwork chosen for this exhibition is for the most part sculptural, and focuses on the use of different technical, physical and exploratory processes. The exhibition includes a combination of monumental, solid structures and in contrast, weightless, intricate objects. As if the shadow cast by solid visions were a reminder of the fragile existence of dreams.
I am always intrigued about the periphery and what is left out. That which it is not included, helps define that which is. And so, in addition to Onoma members, this exhibition also includes several international artists and other Finnish artists whose outside perspectives, like little spears, enter into play with work by the local artists.” Curator Anna Ruth, February 2025.
The exhibition is divided into two differently themed spaces – In the first, the artwork focuses on building, crafting and designing. The second space floats higher into concepts, moods and desires. The exhibition architecture contributes to stimulating the viewer’s imagination and invites them to consider alternative futures.
The artists chosen for the Utopia exhibition are:
Päivi Alajuntti / Upi Anttila / Laura Dahlberg / Wally Dion / Kirsti Doukas / Eero Haikala / Laura Hallantie / Heidi Hankaniemi / Claire Hurley / Pekka Ijäs / Mari Isopahkala / Jarno Kantanen & Reetta Ranta / Olli Kari & Laura Katila / Outi Karikivi / Saara Mahbouba / Laura Mattila & Mikko Merz / Rudi Merz / Jenni Mikkonen / Timo Mikkonen & Kari Virtanen / Ron Nordström / Piitu Nykopp / Stefan Nyström / Jaakko Pakkala / Deepa Panchamia & Viivi Varesvuo / Piia Maria Pekkanen / Elham Rahmati / Sami Ryhänen & Sami Järvi / Sasha Rotts / Pavel Rotts / Rutsuko Sakata & Kari Virtanen / Taru Samola / Meri Helmi Särkkä / Anna Ulff / Tiina Vaskivaara / Man Yau / Zine Kone/Zine Machine
Utopia exhibition: 15.6.-31.8.2025, Kuparipaja exhibition space and its surroundings. Open Mon-Sun from 11 am to 6 pm. Entrance tickets €12 / €8 / Museum Card / Smartum / ePassi.
Work group: Anna Ruth, curator / Antti Yli-Tepsa, architect / Lulu Halme, graphic artist / Matleena Kalajoki, Risto Musta & Kati Sointukangas, production.
Graphic designer Lulu Halme: “Utopias appear to me as an optimistic idea, a hope for something better. However, the idea is seamlessly connected to the craziness of utopias, their unreality and often their collapse. Hence the tower-like flimsy structure that looks like it could collapse at any moment. Utopias can be set in the past, they can be ideologies that have already disappeared, or they can be just beginning, bright-eyed dreams of something better. I have tried to express these ideas in the graphic look of the exhibition.”
Contacts: / / onoma.fi/contact
Media Day is celebrated on June 12th 2025. The realization of the exhibition has been supported by e.g. Fiskars Oyj Abp, Sophie von Julin Foundation, New Classics foundation, Taike (Arts Promotion Centre Finland) and The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.
