56. Biennale – IC-98

Il duo IC-98 rappresenta la Finlandia alla 56. Biennale di Venezia col progetto

Comunicato stampa

Frame Finland is proud to present Hours, Years, Aeons, a new site-specific installation by the artist duo IC-98 (Visa Suonpää, b. 1968 and Patrik Söderlund, b. 1974) at the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition is commissioned and produced by Frame Visual Art Finland, curated by Taru Elfving, PhD, Frame's Head of Programme.

IC-98 are known for their animations and installations - landscapes that are shaped by interlaced forces of nature and technology, navigation and exploitation, climate and migration. In Venice the viewer is invited to enter this world. IC-98 have transformed the Pavilion into an immersive chamber with an installation consisting of a pencil-drawn digital animation Abendland (Hours, Years, Aeons) shown alongside, tar, charcoal and jute and accompanied by a sound composition. The timber architecture begins to creak and tremor, while the smell of tar transports us back to early trade routes and charcoal evokes the origins of civilization as we know it.

The scene is set by Alvar Aalto Pavilion of Finland, built in 1956. As a historical document, the building tells the tale of the nation and its growth. The welfare state and its arts scene owe their existence to the ‘green gold’ of Finland’s vast primeval forests.

The wooden structures used here reflect the post-war housing boom, while the pavilion itself was a philanthropic project funded out of fortunes made in the timber industry. Today, the legacy of the forest industry consists of vigorously managed fields of trees, with wealth accumulating and liabilities dispersed across the globe. Not far from the very forests that yielded the funds for the Pavilion will soon lie a tomb for nuclear waste, the repository Onkalo, dug deep into the bedrock.