Rauma Biennale Balticum 2010
Mitämeri? - What's up Sea?
The Rauma Art Museum, 12 June - 19 September 2010

Let's dive into the blue waters!

Things are flowing, making waves, floating and foaming at the Rauma Art Museum… The traditional Rauma Biennale Balticum, now being held for the thirteenth time, presents contemporary art taking the sea as its theme. What's up Sea? takes up ecological, aesthetic, economic and ethic perspectives on and for the sea.

The Rauma Biennale Balticum is an art exhibition created around the sea. For over two decades, the Rauma Art Museum has invited artists of the Baltic Sea region to participate in a joint exhibition. The sea has linked artists of the region, and continues to do so. Over the years, the Biennale has taken on new dimensions, and now in 2010 its theme is the sea for the first time. The main role is given to the Baltic, our shared environment, whose ecological state is acute and a subject of wide concern. In the background, however, there is also the sea as a broader concept, myth and symbol of diversity and grandeur that is hard to match.

The sea as infinite, unknown and frightening has also inspired human imagination. It is an element in which one can still feel the power of nature. Navigational skills revolutionized the world, and for the individual, the experience of the sea is still strong. The sea has always been a route to the unknown, bringing change and impulses. It links cultures and is a source and mediator of shared experience, which is necessary for life on Earth. Man, however, has a conflicting attitude to the sea and through his activities, he has become its worst enemy. The negative effects, the pollution of the waters, eutrophication and the extinction of organisms are evident on the shores of the seas, in the oceans and at the ice caps alike.

While the environmental perspective is central to many of the works on display, the artists of this exhibition have also addressed the theme of the sea from many other angles. Nonetheless, the sea is important to all of them.

What's up Sea? is curated by Chief Curator JanneKoski and Curator Henna Paunu of the Rauma Art Museum. The catalogue presents the artists of the exhibition and their works. It contains a selection of excerpts from the books of the Rauma-based author Tapio Koivukari on the Sea of Rauma. The graphic design of the exhibition is by Pasi Rauhala.

The artists of the exhibition are:

A Kassen (DK)   Johanna Billing (SE)   Katja Bjørn (DK)   BlueSoup Group (RU)   Ulu Braun (DE)   Sergey Bratkov (RU)   Egle Budvytyte (LT)   Terike Haapoja (FI)   Kaspars Groševs, Ruta Kiskyte, Dara Melnikova, (LT)   Antti Laitinen (FI)   M.A.R.I.N. / Tapio Mäkelä (FI)   Miks Mitrevics (LV)   Jaanus Samma (EE)   Claudia Schmacke (DE)   Dominika Skutnik (PL)   Laura Stasiulyte (LT)   Jaan Toomik (EE)   Julita Wojcik (PL)   Vadim Zakharov (RU)   Graphics/Pasi Rauhala(FI))  

Deeper Than Surface underwater photography course for children.
Location: Otanlahti beach, outdoor swimming pool and Rauma Art Museum.
Instructor: Anna Salmela (Network of Children’s Culture in Satakunta). Take a swimsuit, a towel and packed lunch with you – the camera will be borrowed!
Group 1, 7-8-year-olds, 27th July, 10 am – 12 noon, Otanlahti beach, 28th July, 10 am – 12 noon, Rauma Art Museum.
Group 2, 9-10-year-olds, 27th July, 1 pm – 3 pm, Otanlahti beach, 28th July, 1 pm – 3 pm, Rauma Art Museum.
Binding registration in Rauma Art Museum (+358 2 8224 346). 10 children will fit in both groups. Course fee 10 euros/child.

The Opening Night (11th June)
9 pm Antti Laitinen, Voyage, performance, Rauma Channel.

The Black Lace Night (30th July)
7 pm – 9 pm Antti Laitinen, Voyage, performance, Rauma Channel.
7 pm – 11 pm The Ballpointpentattoodictionary, the yard of Rauma Art Museum. Tero Juuti tattoos words and anchors with a ballpoint pen.

Raumars - Rauma international Artist in Residence Programme takes part to exhibition also. Office of International Cooperation - artists from USA Ron Saunders and Mackenzie Bristow has been working with Rauma community members producing work Repositioning Nostalgia - An Emigration of Dormant Sentiments situated in front of museum for opening evening and will be moved to courtyard after performance in Syvärauma bay 12th June.

This exhibition is part of the Ars Baltica Cultural Network of the Baltic Sea region. It has received funding from the City of Rauma, the Finnish Ministry of Education, the Satakunta Region Arts Council and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Activities for children and young people have been supported by the Taikalamppu (Magic Lamp) network and the Satakunta Region Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The exhibition and its artists have also received the kind support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Auramaa Group, Fatboy / Lumenor Ltd., Hotel Vanha Rauma, Ideacca, Leica Microsystems, Rauma Stevedoring, Siemen Flora and the TVO organization.

The Rauma Art Museum extends its warmest thanks to the exhibition's artists and associates and all parties who have helped make the exhibition possible.

For more information, please contact:

Chief Curator Janne Koski, janne.koski@raumantaidemuseo.fi Tel. +358(0)440224154

Curator Henna Paunu, henna.paunu@raumantaidemuseo.fi Tel. +358(0)440224155

Press photos: Pauliina Monto-Kokkonen, pauliina.kokkonen@raumantaidemuseo.fi Tel. +358(0)440224152