Exhibitions | The artist commenting on the drug culture immortalized the Sanna Marini of the party videos: “It was a surprise to me too that she went to the exhibition”

Art hall Young people 2023 – the artist participating in the exhibition Maisa Majakan among the works examining the connections between drug culture and social class, there is a portrait sculpture of the prime minister who appeared in the party video From Sanna Marin (sd).

The sculpture rose to wider awareness over the weekend when Marin made an exhibition Instagram post and photographed himself You don’tnext to the sculpture named

The artist’s according to Marin, he didn’t know that there was a work depicting him in the exhibition.

“It was a surprise to me too that he went to the exhibition there, although I consciously made a piece that commented on last summer’s party frenzy,” says Majakka in a phone interview.

According to Majaka, the publication of the work as part of the exhibition was exciting precisely because Marin herself did not know about the work in advance. He says that he thought about whether it is worth bringing it up.

“This was kind of a non-consensual portrait.”

According to Majaka, he talked with Marin on Instagram “very briefly but in a positive tone” after Marin visited the exhibition.

According to the artist, Marin seemed to be delighted and to have understood the artist’s point of view on the matter.

The lighthouse recent exhibitions have been specifically related to the culture of drinking and partying. The main characters of his works are mostly girls and young women. The subject area is therefore not new in Majaka’s art.

Majakka is interested in drug culture, as it is a good way to look at “misogynistic control of women”.

“At the core of the works in this exhibition are women’s experiences and what kind of roles women are offered and what kind of behavior they are punished for.”

According to Majaka, Marini’s party commotion summed up what kind of treatment a celebrating woman can get in a public conversation. In the work, according to the artist, Marin is like any other woman and she is depicted in that light: she is one of the partygoers.

“I feel that Marin received an unreasonable amount of slander in the media and pure misogyny from the ‘party scare’. Putting this work in the headlines tells me quite a lot about what kind of magnifying glass he lives under.”

Majakka feels that women are punished for unruly behavior, even if it is harmless. That’s why Majakka wanted to look at the women and girls who are partying and drinking in the works of the exhibition.

Detail from Maisa Majaka’s Bimbo summit piece. Picture: Patrik Rastenberger

To his art Lighthouse likes to bring “some real references from the world we live in”.

That is why, in addition to the Marin sculpture, Majaka’s exhibition works include, for example, a kapakka triptych, where you can find various characters from popular culture as well as real people such as Johanna Tukiainen.

Set up in seven different spaces one after the other Young people 2023 -exhibition will be seen first at Taidehalli, where it will be on view until May 28. This time there are 36 young visual artists.

You can find more detailed information about the exhibition from here.