About Plantasy
Imagined as a collectively constructed garden for dreaming a utopian “now”, the Plantasy exhibition seeks to provide a safe space for artists and curators to play, dream, work together, be vulnerable, and experiment within a caring ecosystem. Curators Gladys Camilo and Jonni Korhonen invited a group of artist-friends—Ignata Elana, Ama Essel, Aava Eronen, and Viljami Nissi—to explore “how we come to be together”. Their commissioned artworks—a mixture of video, sound, photographic installations, contemporary ryijy and paintings—are embedded within a plant-based environment conjured by the curators. Visitors are invited into a playful space in which they might wonder what blooming feels like in their bodies.
Plantasy is the inaugural exhibition from Feminist Culture House’s Nestee Program. Thank you to Kone Foundation for generously supporting this work.
For this exhibition, FCH borrows a space at Vaasankatu 15 in Kallio, Helsinki which was previously occupied by Outo Olo and Sorbus Gallery.
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Exhibition info
Opening: 2.12.2021 from 18:00-21:00
Where: Vaasankatu 15, Helsinki, 00500
Dates: 3.12.2021 – 9.1.2022 (closed 23.12. – 2.1.)
Opening hours / visiting hours: Thu- Fri 14-18, Sat-Sun 13-17
Accessibility info
The space is wheelchair accessible with assistance: There is a movable ramp that covers the two steps in the entrance. The door is 65 cm wide. The toilet is very small, and there are two steps on the way there. The nearest accessible toilet is across the road, at Solmu Bar. They have agreed to let our guests use it for free—thanks Solmu! There is also a public accessible toilet at Dallape park. FCH staff will assist with the ramp upon arrival.
Curators
Gladys Camilo (she / her)
Gladys Camilo is a Chicana/Mexican-American painter, dj and textile artist working in Helsinki. She is interested in the intersections of identity and trauma; to dream and explore alternative realities of opacity and agency over her (our) trauma; collective feeling; healing; and the fostering of safer spaces to explore vulnerability and co-care. She is currently working within MYÖS collective, and collaborating Feminist Culture House on various projects.
Jonni Korhonen (they / them)
Jonni Korhonen (they/them) is a queer, Helsinki-based curator and writer. Researching into collective curatorial and artistic practices, they are working to develop a praxis dedicated to radical care and labour solidarity. In their writing they are exploring how stories come to be stories, how bodies become bodies, and how histories come to be futures.
Artists
Aava Eronen (they / them)
Aava is a photographer based in Helsinki. In their work they explore themes of queerness, identity and otherness, taking strong inspiration from magic, fantasy, and death. They are currently working on a series that’s imagined as an ode to gender euphoria, and enacted as a collaborative exploration. Through examining different forms of closeness, they test ways to exist in safe realms, with care.
Ama Essel (she / her)
Ama Essel is a Helsinki-based craft scientist and a pedagogue who specialises in the rya technique, which is used in traditional long pile rugs, amongst other textiles. Her research focuses on colours and their semiotic significance in Finnish rya rugs, and how the technique has been applied in fashion throughout the years. At the moment she is studying how hard materials and the rya technique can be incorporated into this traditional soft context.
Ignata Elana (she / her)
The main motivating force for Ignata Elana’s practice relates to inhabiting a fluctuating corporeity. She uses different forms of installation, video diaries, and live sets to investigate how bodies respond to restrictive movements in social interactions, isolated dancing, and modifications related to gender identity and states of transition. Using sound arrangements as scores, Ignata’s works thread together private materials such as text, video, voice notes, and photos in different constellations.
Viljami Nissi (he / him)
Viljami Nissi (b. 1994, Kannus) is a Helsinki-based visual artist and performer who graduated from Kankaanpää School of Art, majoring in Performance Art. His practice often interrogates and twists different thematics associated with sexuality, fetishes, fantasy, spirituality, and masculinity. In his installations, he often creates fictional tales by exploring alternative realities that are still linked to old histories, and reimagines mythological forms. Through this process, he facilitates the act of role playing and storytelling through image, text, and sculpture.
Installation images
About the Nestee Program
In the Nestee Program, FCH shares their experiences and learnings about feminist curating with 2 early career curators, supporting their practice as they organise exhibitions and commissions. The aim of this program is to uplift and guide the career development of these curators (and the artists they choose to commission), and to collectively create and nurture curatorial practices that foster and pollinate working cultures with equity and sustainability.