Finland notable for its lack of developed contemporary art market, claims Serbian artist

print this

The works of art by Serbian Milica Tomic, born in Belgrade in 1960, deal with topical, even agonising themes.
      Her touching video on the element of political violence included in the definition of ethnic and national identity was shown at the Ars 01 exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki in 2001.
      In another video by Milica Tomic, presented at the Paranoia exhibition in London last winter, the artist’s mother was seen discussing her own feelings of paranoia amid the Belgrade traffic.
      The current exhibition on Art Systems, Art Market, and Education at the gallery of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts is entitled Reading Capital. Actually, in one of the video performances, American citizens are shown reciting passages from Karl Marx’s Das Kapital.
     
A series of video interviews with the protagonists of the art system and the contemporary art market in Zurich, Helsinki, and Belgrade reveals three strikingly differing market situations.
      "The contemporary art market in Zurich is strong and the art system is very capitalistic and corporativistic", says Milica Tomic.
     
Helsinki is characterised by its almost total lack of a developed contemporary art market.
      Tomic studied the situation in the Finnish capital in collaboration with a group of students from the Academy of Fine Arts.
      Footage entitled Educating Capital Helsinki consists of some interviews of Finnish art protagonists, including Cultural Director Pekka Timonen from the City’s Cultural Office, as well as some curators and researchers. Even a couple of outside observers had been interviewed.
      "The existence of the state organized contemporary art system has left the Finnish art situation stagnant", concludes Tomic unambiguously.
     
Belgrade is also without a local contemporary art market. There is no real art system, nor any state subsidy, either.
      "Belgrade is experiencing a transitional stage. Most interviewees are artists who are trying to build networks of their own", Tomic goes on.
     
The transfer from socialism to capitalism has not been easy. Belgrade artist Sasa Markovic, for instance, brings up what happens when a work of art becomes a product that can no more be evaluated from the perspective of art in the same way as in the socialist system.
     
Milica Tomic: Reading Capital exhibition in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts gallery until September 9th. Address: Lönnrotinkatu 35. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.


Links:
  Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
  Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
  Finnish Academy of Fine Arts - Milica Tomic: Reading Capital

Helsingin Sanomat