In 2015, three professors – Anita Seppä, Henk Slager and Jan Kaila – from Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts managed to create an academic-world hit. On its very opening day, the Research Pavilion, constructed for the Venice Biennale, attracted a full house at the Pavilion’s venue at Sala del Camino.
“Thinking back, we were all amazed at the number of guests on opening day,” says Anita Seppä, the Research Pavilion’s commissioner.
“We opened on the same day as every other pavilion at the Venice Biennale, so there was huge competition for audiences. Yet we were bursting at the seams with people of all ages.”
Rectors of arts academies from all over Europe, directors of museums, and specialists in European art took part in the opening of the 2015 Research Pavilion.
“We received extremely enthusiastic feedback, and people at the networking meetings began asking how they could join in. We felt that we had introduced the right concept at the right place,” Seppä explains.
This success from a few years ago formed the framework for this year’s – and hopefully a future – Research Pavilion. The event has grown immensely in scale.
While in 2015 the pavilion was open for two months, now it stays open for five and a half. The exhibition space has spread from the Sala del Camino monastery to the adjacent ones. This year the entire variety of arts from Uniarts Helsinki, i.e. fine arts, music, theatre and dance, will take part in organising the Research Pavilion. Steering group of the second Research Pavilion is pan-Nordic. It has members from both Norwegian Artistic Research Programme NARP and Swedish Konstex which is a national network including all Swedish higher education institutions that have the right to award artistic degrees. Other partners for the exhibitions of this summer are Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the new Zurich University of the Arts.
WHAT COMMISSIONER?
Anita Seppä’s own role as the Research Pavilion’s commissioner is to be an artistic leader for the pavilion. In addition to this she leads the steering group and various working groups both in Helsinki and internationally. The steering group deals with the broad lines of the concept and contents, while the discussions with the producer, communication and different management groups of Uniarts Helsinki revolve around practical matters.
“I am a messenger, shuttling between the groups. The Research Pavilion is a democratic project consisting of different expert groups. Everyone contributes and shoulders their responsibilities,” Seppä explains.
The whole project has a transnational flavour.
“We are currently living in a political age of building walls and segregation. We are reacting to this with increasingly visible international cooperation,” she says.
The hope is that the project will become permanently Nordic. In fact, networks have already formed while organising the event, such as one between Finland and Norway.
A RAINBOW PLATFORM IN VENICE
Seppä encourages people who enjoy art and artistic research to head to Venice next summer.
“I would love to spend the entire summer in Venice, but unfortunately I cannot. The autumn in Venice is also terribly charming,” Seppä recommends.
“Various working groups, artists, institutions and students were able to apply for the Research Pavilion space through an open application process. The major networks in the field will be attending, and it is becoming a rainbow platform that unites the European art community.”
Because the whole Uniarts Helsinki is so closely connected to the project, the Research Pavilion’s programme will also be particularly multidisciplinary.
“We were surprised that the overwhelming majority of applications for the Camino Events came from the Sibelius Academy, from music.” Along with the change of focus, some very interesting working groups from the Theatre Academy are coming to Camino Events and almost the entire professoriate of the Academy of Fine Arts will be present.
Another change is that Masters-level students will come to Venice.
“For a very long time we have thought that artistic research only belongs in the realm of doctoral studies. Now higher education is changing so that elements of research are also entering into Masters-level education,” Seppä says.
“This does not mean that all students will become academics,” she emphasises. “The intention is to develop thinking and reflection.”
FROM THE ACADEMIC WORLD INTO THE ARTISTIC
Although Anita Seppä’s own background is in art education and philosophical aesthetics, she has taught and supervised artists in various art universities for 20 years.
“I am not an artistic researcher, nor will I become one, and that has never been my goal. Instead, I am an art researcher, who has always sought out new frontiers.”
At the beginning of the millennium, Seppä was among the founders of a visual culture programme at the former University of Art and Design Helsinki, now part of Aalto University. The programme’s purpose was to reform artist education and overcome boundaries in traditional art education.
“Currently, I am interested in seeing how artistic research is going to influence art research. I see artistic research as a promise to all science which is at the same time something more than science. It is one of the important laboratories of contemporary art,” Seppä says.
“I respect historical and philosophical research, but they look back in time. Artistic research looks forward.”
According to Seppä, 20 years ago when artistic research had only just begun in Finland, it lacked respect in academic circles. Now the situation is changing as it becomes better known.
“Artistic research does not happen outside of art but in its core. It brings forth new ways of representing art,” she says.
“There are still not a whole lot of places in society where artistic research is visible. Artistic research is awaiting support from two important institutions: the Academy of Finland and art museums should acknowledge the position Finnish artistic research has gained internationally.”
THE DIVIDING LINES BECOME BLURRED
Should an average art lover visit the Research Pavilion?
“It is difficult to say where the line between art and artistic research lies. We have so many contemporary artists who do not call themselves artistic researchers but who still conduct research in history, concepts, memories or archives,” Seppä explains.
Artistic research can study the same things as verbal science, but in addition it can deal with emotions, memories, effects, embodied knowledge, and so on.
The Research Pavilion is a way of giving artistic research visibility. Venice was chosen as the venue, because it is one of the most important art cities in the world. It is a small city that has an incredibly global art audience flowing through it during the Biennale.
“Venice is a meeting place and also a place to be seen.”
The Research Pavilion complements the Biennale programme by presenting several artistic research exhibitions. Simultaneously, Uniarts Helsinki will also gain visibility.
“Venice is a wonderful milieu. The city has an almost mystical light, and all those layers of history will also inspire art and research at the Research Pavilion.”
Seppä hopes that an after-event of the Pavilion could be organised in Finland, for example in the summer of 2018.
“It would be truly wonderful if we could bring samples from the Camino Events and the exhibitions to the centre of Helsinki.”
Anita Seppä
- Born in 1969
- The commissioner of the Research Pavilion in Venice both 2015 and 2017
- Professor of History and Theory of Art at Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts
- Studied art education, philosophical aesthetics, and art history
- Has served earlier as Professor of Artistic Research (2013–2016) and as Professor of Visual Culture Studies (2004–2006)
This article has originally been published in the May issue of Uniarts Helsinki's IssueX magazine, this time a special edition dedicated to the Research Pavilion.