The first phase of Minna Henriksson’s work for Together Again takes place in collaboration with Frame Contemporary Art Finland at The Showroom in London 25 January – 18 March. Minna Henriksson’s work is presented as part of Editorial Tables: Reciprocal Hospitalities, an exhibition and public programme. The collaboration forms part of the core exhibition and public programme at The Showroom in 2023; Rehearsing Hospitalities, Frame Contemporary Art Finland’s public programme for 2019–2023.
The work will be further developed for the Together Again festival in Helsinki, in collaboration with the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland.
Editorial Tables: Reciprocal Hospitalities
Editorial Tables: Reciprocal Hospitalities is an exhibition and public programme bringing together the publishing practices of Ruth Beale, Sezgin Boynik (Rab-Rab Press), Minna Haukka & Kristin Luke (The Mobile Feminist Library), Minna Henriksson, Rose Nordin, and Elham Rahmati & Vidha Saumya (NO NIIN magazine).
Editorial Tables celebrates the production and dissemination of knowledge through the act of independent, experimental and artist-led publishing, with a focus on intersecting feminist and decolonial perspectives. The project involves a range of publishing, archiving, print and distribution practices by artists, curators and art workers from the UK and Finland, bringing these into relation and dialogue in the lead-up to the realisation of the exhibition at The Showroom.
The space of the exhibition aims to open up new connections through live processes of encounter and exchange around printed matter, where visitors can engage and think with the material in the space. There will be opportunities to connect, correspond and collaborate during the public programme and over the eight-week duration of the show.
Kiila feminist archive (The Wedge)
Kiila feminist archive (The Wedge) an archive-as-artwork was exhibited at The Showroom in London. The work involves a long-term and ongoing process of research into the early years of the Kiila artists’ and writers’ association in Finland, which has been running for over eighty years.
The Kiila Feminist Archive is compiled of materials which foreground intersecting feminist issues which were present in the founding of Kiila; but which have since been obscured, lost or edited out of its official histories. As an active current member of Kiila, Henriksson continues re-tracing, translating and subjectively situating these feminist orientations.
Editorial Tables: Reciprocal Hospitalities is a collaborative project between The Showroom and Frame Contemporary Art Finland, building upon a long-term process of curatorial exchange following the inaugural Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities 2019, convened by Frame in Helsinki, Finland; and leading to the establishment of a new partnership with the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland. The exhibition and public programme are co-curated by Lily Hall at The Showroom and Yvonne Billimore & Jussi Koitela at Frame.
The collaboration forms part of the core exhibition and public programme at The Showroom in 2023; Rehearsing Hospitalities, Frame Contemporary Art Finland’s public programme for 2019–2023; and Together Again, a programme by the Finnish Academic and Cultural Institutes, towards which artist Minna Henriksson will further contribute in 2023.
Rehearsing Hospitalities 2023 is part of the EU-funded project Islands of Kinship: A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions. The Finnish Academic and Cultural Institutes’ commissioning programme Together Again is funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Wihuri Foundation. The Showroom is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Minna Henriksson
Minna Henriksson (b. 1976, Oulu, lives in Helsinki) is a visual artist working with a disparate range of tools including text, drawing, painting and linocut. She studied art in Brighton, Helsinki and Malmö. Henriksson’s work relates to leftist, anti-racist and feminist struggles, and aims at highlighting positions of power and oppression. The works are based on research and often draw from real historical events.
Henriksson has been active in various art workers’ collectives. She is a member of Kiila association. In 2017 Henriksson was awarded with the Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Award of artistic work committed to the ideal of democracy and antifascism.
Image: Minna Henriksson, Lentolehtiset / Leaflets (after Elvi Sinervo, Runo Sörnäisistä, p. 76-77). Linocut on paper. Courtesy of the artist.