the illuseum
March 17 iLLUSEUM 19:00 - 21:00
The strange & surreal case of Riina Hanninen drew our attention … Are we caught in a time warp that brought us straight into pre-2nd-war era, when the Nazis decided which art had to be forbidden and the makers criminalized OR are we thrown back even further in history…back to the dark days of the inquisition where people, mostly women could be accused and condemned for … whatever really …..?
….Come and see the work and meet the person who recently was Persona non Grata … on trial for her art in … 2009!
The Abyss
Riina Hänninen`s death, destruction and resurrection. Riina Hänninen was an artist who lived in 21`st century. Hänninen was raised in the middle of recession in Finland, in a small town full of alcoholism, unemployment and social exclusion. This young girl had many names, and she could not write or count properly. She had an appointment reserved for social welfare officer, but by mistake she was accepted to a favoured art institution. In this institution, she first flourished until the increased control over the people resulted in everyone to search potentially dangerous people among those who were different, weird and abnormal. Her paintings became objects of fear and deranged personality. The girl was given more names; the mass murderer, the school murderer, attention seeker, fake artist, insane, monster. Place that was used to be considered free, became a prison. Art became conservative, corrupted business institution. She didn’t belong there anymore; she belonged only among the mentally insane and forgotten. The girl saw people’s hypocrisy, weakness and she opened her eyes again in isolation and worthlessness. She saw the Abyss and how the Abyss was infinite. She realized how her paintings had been trying to express it, but she always thought it as just the darkness of mind. The Abyss had been a constant presence. We could fall to it, lose the borders or search it with carefulness. It is within each one of us, the fight between the restrictions of society, morality and humanity. The Abyss has been with us since the beginning of consciousness, the question of reality, life and its purpose. In Abyss live all the dreaded words, monsters, and visions. Her expression was restricted, the fear was planted on her, the fear that you shouldn’t speak about the Abyss because society needs people to work as machines, not realize their true nature. But Hänninen wanted to know the answers to all the questions that people were afraid to ask.
These paintings are made in isolation process by Hänninen in small dark room of the attic in the border of Amsterdam’s winter sky.
This exhibition in sponsored by Finnish government to keep people silent and happy with antidepressant pills.
