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Kaisu Koivisto: The Absorption of Pollution (detail). Installation, cow horns; 1998-2012

Kaisu Koivisto - Portfolio / Selection of work 2011 – 2013 - Artist Statement - Biography - CV

Kaisu Koivisto

Käenkuja 8 A 41 00500 Helsinki, Finland

+358 40 705 1908

kaisukk@yahoo.com www.kaisukoivisto.com

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Kaisu Koivisto: Flood Salvaged leather, cardboard; 2013 Installation, 4,5 m x 7 m Intersezioni / Intersections Kaisu Koivisto / Claudia Peill Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome, 2013 - 2014

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Kaisu Koivisto :Ghost Polar bear skin, steel, plywood; 2009 137 x 180 x 171 cm On the wall: Claudia Peill: Pianeta solitario (2013) Extraterrestre (2013) Intersezioni / Intersections Kaisu Koivisto / Claudia Peill Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome, 2013 - 2014

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Kaisu Koivisto: Paradise Deer Electro-zinc plated steel, leather, fabric, glass; 2013 84 x 57x 38 cm

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Kaisu Koivisto: Puppy 106 Steel, rabbit skin, fabric, glass; 2012 72 x 62 x 30 cm

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Biography / Kaisu Koivisto In her works Kaisu Koivisto incorporates different media and materials such as salvaged leather and fur as well as steel. Installations, photography, drawing and video are integral aspects of her artistic practice. Koivisto's topics are often closely knitted with the materials she employs: waste materials produced by a society of excess. Regardless of the topic or medium of the work, an undercurrent of uncertainties tinges her works. Intriguing, beautiful materials and images have a seductive aesthetic. It attracts the spectator, who gradually perceives other meanings - the dark side of stories - than one can see at first glance. Kaisu Koivisto´s work have been shown for instance in the following institutions: Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; PS 1, New York; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki; Pori Art Museum, Pori. Kaisu Koivisto (b.1962) has studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (MFA). She has also studied art history and aesthetics at the University of Helsinki. She lives in Helsinki, Finland. www.kaisukoivisto.com

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Kaisu Koivisto: From the series Landscapes of Longing Pigment print; 2012 100 x 150 cm

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Kaisu Koivisto: From the series Landscapes of Longing Pigment print; 2012 100 x 150 cm

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Kaisu Koivisto: From the series Missile Hangars Pigment print; 2013 100 x 150 cm

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Kaisu Koivisto: Artist Statement The relationship between natural phenomena and technologies is an ongoing subject of exploration for me. I investigate the intersections of nature and culture and the modes in which mankind harnesses and exploits - or attempts to control - natural phenomena. How do we look at animals and nature? What is nature? How is the impact of technologies visible in the environment? My artistic practice traverses photography, drawing and video as well as sculptural elements. These diverse strands come together in the framework of installations. The topics and materials which I focus on are charged: materials such as recycled leather and fur, bones, horns and other organic matter bear traces of wear and tear, thus indicating the passage of time. The transience of materials is a connecting aspect of my sculptures and photographs. I am interested in an ambivalent aesthetic, the simultaneity of attractiveness and repulsiveness, the synthetic and the organic, stark geometry and the ornamental. I am inspired by the rough wilderness of the North as well as by the signs of human activity in the environment. Thus, my work tell more about people than nature: about the commodification of nature, the production of raw materials and the allegorical aspects of natural phenomena. The roots of my work are also in the realms of zoos, wunderkammers, science fiction and domesticated animals.

My interest in cultivated and restrained nature leads me to well-known metropolises as well as areas which no longer are in focus of international geopolitical attention. Places in a dreamy state of oblivion such as former Cold War nuclear missile bases in Eastern Europe represent in my works estranged landscapes of the subconscious. Left to the elements, the massive structures of the abandoned military areas gradually erode and become engulfed by vegetation. www.kaisukoivisto.com

Kaisu Koivisto drawing rubbings on abandoned nuclear missile launch pads. Taurage, Lithuania (2011) and Barta, Latvia (2012).

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Kaisu Koivisto: Täydellinen ympyrä Kaksikanavainen videoinstallaatio; 2011 Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/52605559

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Kaisu Koivisto: The Wild North I (Svalbard) Lambda print / Silisec; 2013 60 x 90 cm

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Kaisu Koivisto: The Wild North II (Svalbard) Lambda print / Silisec; 2013 60 x 90 cm

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Kaisu Koivisto: Bombé Lambda print mounted on dibond / Silisec; 2011 -2012 48 x 55 cm / part Bombé : bomb-shaped. Keep the city clean! The bomb shaped objects are waste containers in Liepaja, Latvia, a small city which was formerly the site of a Soviet army submarine base. The shape brings into mind a Greek amphora.

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Kaisu Koivisto: Oblivion Video. 2012. 00:03:49:19; 2012 On Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/57288659

I would like to forget, I would like to remember. Political, historical and economical aspects meet in a remote forest clearing in Latvia. The film shows fragments of images from the Cold War time. I clean a Soviet army propaganda art relief of debris, moss and weeds. The exposed concrete work, tipped over by vandalism or the forces of nature, depicts the history of the Soviet army from felt-capped warriors and cavalry to troops which operate space-age airplanes and missiles.

Oblivion refers to quotidian chores such as cleaning and organizing: I sweep, brush and wipe. It is not a solemn ritual such as an unveiling of a sculpture. The concrete relief is not a celebrated art work; it is a redundant and forgotten piece of propagandist representations. The overgrown site where the relief is situated used to be full of activity; part of the arms race of the super powers. I want to bring forth the abandoned plaque in its cracked condition. What does it tell us? How do we look at ideological images of the past and how does it relate to the ideological images of today?

The focus of the video work concerns the ways in which the past is remembered or forgotten. In a wider context the work deals also with the issue of how and why objects, as signs of the past, are taken care of, neglected or destroyed.

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Kaisu Koivisto Curriculum vitae kaisukk@yahoo.com tel. +358 40 705 1908 www.kaisukoivisto.com SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015 Galleria AMA, Helsinki 2014 Galleria Harmaja, Oulu 2013 Techno Nature. Schuebbe Projects, Düsseldorf Intersezioni. Kaisu Koivisto / Claudia Peill. Museo Andersen, Rome Loud Silence. Kuntsi Museum for Modern Art, Vaasa, Finland 2012 Loud Silence. Aboa Vetus& Ars Nova Museum,Turku, Finland Index. Galleri Konstepidemin,Gothenburg,Sweden 2011 In a Different Light. Forum Box, Helsinki The President of Finland´s Invitational Exhibition. Kultaranta. Naantali 2010 Eye to Eye. LOOV galerii, Tartu, Estonia Bambiesque. Nurmijärvi Library Gallery 2010 Strawberry Patch. Galleria Å, Turku. Galleria Pihatto, Lappeenranta 2009 Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki

Changelings. Galleria Harmaja, Oulu; Galleria Himmelblau, Tampere 2007 Interiors. Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki Planet Bread. Almondine, Brooklyn, New York 2006 Surface Traps. Galleria Heino, Helsinki 2005 Global Nomad. Galleria Ama, Turku

Cows in New York City:Reintroducing the Species. E.Jaske Gallery,Sydney, Australia

2004 Parallel Systems. Galleria Heino, Helsinki Cargo. The Finnish Paper Art Gallery, Kuusankoski 2002 The Great Meat Book. Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki

Earthbound. Galleria AMA, Turku 2001 Cows in New York City: Reintroducing the Species. Photographic Gallery

Hippolyte, Helsinki Wild. Hafnarborg Art Center, Hafnarfjördur, Iceland. Galleri Enkehuset,

Stockholm 2000 Wild. Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku

Cows in New York City: Reintroducing the Species. Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, New York; and Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland

1999 Inseparabile. Galleria Arco di Rab, Rome Under the Skin. Studio X, Pori, Finland Revier. Schuebbe Projects, Düsseldorf 1998 Galerie Mann, Paris 1997 Milk and Honey. Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki, Finland 1996 Young Artist of the Year. Tampere Art Museum Cornucopia - Runsaudensarvi. Titanik, Turku, Finland 1995 Procedures. Argument, Tilburg, Holland 1994 Knowledge and Emotion. Kluuvin galleria, Helsinki 1993 Galleri 11, Reykjavik, Iceland SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 Intersezioni / Intersections Kaisu Koivisto / Claudia Peill. Museo Andersen, Rome

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OpenART. Örebro Art Museum, Sweden 2012 Camouflage.Visual Art and Design in Disguise. Kiasma Museum for

Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland Reality Bites. Document in Contemporary Art. Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland Helsinki Photography Biennal 2012: URBANITET. Finlandsinstitutet, Stockholm 2011 An Exchange with Sol Lewitt. Mass MoCa,North Adams, Massachusetts Tierisch - menschlich. Kulturforum Alte Post, Neuss, Germany 2010 Kajaani Art Museum. Kajaani, Finland Luvassa lämpenevää. Joensuu Art Museum. Joensuu, Finland 2009 Richtung Norden. Maerz Künstlervereinigung, Linz, Austria

Talent 2009.Between Dream and Reality.Designmuseum, Eindhoven,Netherlands

Parallel Worlds – Fleeting Realities. Scala Mata Exhibition Space, Venice 2008 Pewna Finlandia. Center for Polish Sculpture, Oronsko and BWA Contemporary

Art Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland Nordic Drawings. Skellefteå Konsthall, Skellefteå; Rackstadmuseet, Arvika, 2007 Puska. Environmental Art, Nurmijärvi Pewna Finlandia. BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice, Poland 2006 SHIFTscale. Extended Field of Contemporary Sculpture. KUMU Estonian Art

Museum, Tallinn, Estonia Horsepower. Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki 2005 Acceleration. Kunsthalle Helsinki; Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma Une certaine Finlande. Atelier 340 Muzeum, Brussels Poles Apart, Poles Together. Parallel Project for the 51.Venice Biennial, Venice

Sculptor 2005. Salo Art Museum, Salo, Finland Faunomania. Röda Sten, Gothenburg, Sweden Sata palaa. Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma

2004 Gokann. IV Triennial of Finnish Art, Kunsthalle Helsinki Love Me or Leave Me. Kiasma, Helsinki Sparks in your Shoe. Poriginal galleria 1984-2004, Pori Open Studio. Triangle Artists Workshop, Brooklyn, NY 2003 Gokann. IV Triennal of Finnish Art, Kyoto Art Center, Japan 2002 Klosterstrasse/Berlin. Ruine der Franziskaner-Klosterkirche, Berlin 2001 Skin Forms Map. Museo Laboratorio dell´Universitadi Roma, Rome, Italy; Galleria

Uusikuva, Kotka, Finland 6th KCAA - Seoul International Art Festival, Seoul, Korea Art-Cattle-History. Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, Hollanti 2000 No es sólo lo que ves: Pervirtiendo el minimalismo. Museo Nacional Centro de

Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid 1999 Animal. Anima. Animus. PS 1, New York 1999 Por iArt Museum, Pori, Finland;

Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem, 1998; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada 1998 Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf 1997 World Award Winners Gallery. Intergrafia 1997. Cracow, Poland Loggia del Temanza, Venice, Italy 1996 Volcano. Pori Water Tower. Pori Art Museum and NYTE, Pori Beautiful. Honkahovi, Mänttä The Forgotten Present. Vilnius, Lithuania 1995 Joy, Temptation, Pathos. Alvar Aalto -museum, Jyväskylä Exhibition of Finnish Artists. Helsinki Kunsthalle (also 1992) Nordic Drawing Triennial. Sweden, Denmark, Norway (also 1992) 1994 Grafinnova 1994. International Print and Drawing Biennial, Vaasa,Finland Young Artists. Helsinki Kunsthalle (also 1987,1990, 1992,1993) AU. Tokyo Meropolitan Museum, Tokyo, Japan

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STUDIES 2007-09 University of Art and Design Helsinki, MFA University of Helsinki, studies in art history and aesthetics 1982-86 Art School of Kankaanpää, Finland

AWARDS Europol Art Competition. Europol, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2011

Young Artist of the Year 1996 Nordic Drawing Triennial 1995 City of Pori: Culture Award 1992, 1996 Culture Award of Satakunnan Kansa 1991

WORK IN COLLECTIONS

Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, Turku Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki Turku Art Museum Helsinki Art Museum Statens Konstråd, Sweden South Carelia Art Museum, Lappeenranta Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden City of Skellefteå,Sweden Oulu Art Museum Tampere Art Museum Paulo Foundation Wihuri Foundation Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku Pori Art Museum Saastamoinen Foundation Kumu, Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia

University of Helsinki

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

2014 The Arts Promotion Centre Finland Residency, Berlin

2013 The Arctic Circle. Svalbard 2013 Arts Council of Uusimaa Residency, Berlin 2012 Circolo Scandinavo, Rome 2010 Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Rome 2004 Triangle Arts Worskhop in Brooklyn, N.Y. 2000 Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, New York 1999 Finnish Cultural Institute in New York 1999 Circolo Scandinavo, Rome 1997 Höherweg Studios, Düsseldorf 1995 Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Rome 1992 Finnish Cultural Institute in New York 1991 Konstepidemin. Gothenburg, Sweden

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BIBLIOGRAPHY / books Kaisu Koivisto / Claudia Peill Intersezioni / Intersections Texts by Matilde Amaturo, Maria Giuseppina di Monte and Luciana Tozzi Palombi Editore, Rome, 2013 Camouflage. Visual Art and Design in Disguise Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland, 2012 Reality Bites. Document in Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland, 2012 Loud Silence Texts by Taru Elfving and Kaisu Koivisto Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum, Turku, Finland, 2012 Acceleration Maria Duncker, Timo Heino and Kaisu Koivisto at Kunsthalle Helsinki Text by Pauline von Bonsdorff 2005 Spark in your shoe. Poriginal galleria 1984-2004 Text by Leevi Haapala Pori Art Museum publications, 2004 El Arte que Viene/The Art to Come Text by Paco Barragán P. Barragán, Subastas Siglo XXI, Madrid, Spain, 2002 Kaisu Koivisto >Claudia Peill Pelle > Forma > Mappa > Galleria Uusikuva, Kotka, Finland and Museo Laboratorio d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy Text by Augusto Pieroni Adriano Parise Editore, Verona, 2001 Fresh Cream Text by Gerardo Mosquera Phaidon Press, London, UK, 2000 No es sólo lo que ves: Pervirtiendo el minimalismo Text by Gerardo Mosquera Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 2000 Cows in New York City: Reintroducing the Species. Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York Text by Thyrza Nichols Goodeve 2000 Animal. Anima. Animus Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland; PS 1, New York, USA Winnipeg Art Gallery,Winnipeg - Canada, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands Text by Marketta Seppälä Pori Art Museum publications, 1999

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Young Artist of the Year Text by Hannu Castren Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, 1996