Tino Sehgal
15 August–27 September 2015
Jani Leinonen
The School of Disobedience
4 September 2015–31 January 2016
Kiasma
Museum of Contemporary Art
Mannerheiminaukio 2
00100 Helsinki
T +358 (0)294 500 501
The opening exhibition of the autumn season at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma features three works by Tino Sehgal. The show is produced in cooperation with the Helsinki Festival. School of Disobedience, an exhibition by the Finnish artist Jani Leinonen, opens in September. Commenting on consumer culture critically and with audacious humour, Leinonen’s works have attracted attention also internationally.
Jani Leinonen: The School of Disobedience
Jani Leinonen’s works are prime examples of how art can take political action and make a statement. His exhibition, opening September 2015, is built around a new piece called The School of Disobedience. It is not only a real school, but a metaphor for the entire show, a retrospective of Leinonen’s work to date. The exhibition explores Leinonen’s art through the legacy of pop art, civic activism and transformations within the world of education.
“The greatest problem in our society is not disobedience. Our problem is obedience. Historically, the most terrible things—war, genocide, slavery—have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”
–Jani Leinonen, referring to Howard Zinn in the exhibition catalogue Handbook of Disobedience.
School of Disobedience forgoes obedience, teaching instead how to form your own opinions, how to express them and how to promote what is important to you. The themes of the School of Disobedience parallel ongoing changes within the world of education about the nature of learning.
Jani Leinonen’s upcoming exhibition at Kiasma comes at an interesting juncture in his career. Leinonen is increasingly shifting his practice towards a collective approach, producing art that is based on shared authorship and in which inclusion is a key dimension of the work. Leinonen is interested in how art can be used to make a difference and even change the world. And that is what he does: disturbing our thought patterns, he challenges us to question the structures and practices of art as well as politics and the world of education. He is a new kind of public artist, exploiting in his work the practices of the media, publicity and social media.
Jani Leinonen was born in Hyvinkää, Finland in 1978. He graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2002.
There will be a press conference for Jani Leinonen’s exhibition School of Disobedience on Wednesday, 2 September at 11am, followed by an opening on Thursday, 3 September at 6pm. Welcome!
More info:
Piia Laita, Communications Manager: piia.laita [at] kiasma.fi / T +358 (0)40 590 8805
Päivi Oja, Press Officer: paivi.oja [at] kiasma.fi / T +358 (0)40 575 1486
Kiasma is part of Finnish National Gallery.
