+++On Art, Destruction & Belonging+++

+++Aleksi Malmberg & Annukka Vähäsöyrinki (eds)+++

+++

'The concept of home is in constant flux and deeply political, and it holds within questions of gender, ethnicity and social status. Many people live without a home or in between homes, voluntarily or by force. The middle-class utopia of a mobile home, epitomised by the motor home, easily turns into a travesty of itself.' From the foreword by editors Aleksi Malmberg and Annukka Vähäsöyrinki

Autumm 2017, the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux and Jap Sam Books launched their joint essay collection Home Reassembled. On Art, Destruction & Belonging. The book comments on the many dimensions of the Mobile Home(less) project. The starting point for the book’s texts are different interpretations of Finnish sculptor Anssi Pulkkinen’s new contemporary artwork that deals with homelessness, Street View (Reassembled). Pulkkinen’s challenging and topical installation composed of the ruins of a Syrian Home is the thread that draws the book’s different and diverse texts together thematically. 

The team of authors include experts from the fields of contemporary art, architecture and Middle Eastern research. The texts in essay format offer unexpected perspectives on Pulkkinen’s artwork, and by way of which to some of our time’s most critical concerns. The publication, for example, reflects on war and the loss of home, reality and its representation, the relationship between private and public space as well as the value creation process.

The authors include Syrian architect and writer Marwa Al-Sabouni, Islam scholar and professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, art historian and professor Hanna Johansson, senior lecturer in visual culture Max Ryynänen as well as Dutch curator and critic Vincent van Velsen. Artist Anssi Pulkkinen also discusses the starting points for his artwork in the book.

The essay collection Home Reassembled. On Art, Destruction & Belonging was launched at the Habitare expo at Helsinki Messukeskus from 13 to 17 September. Anssi Pulkkinen’s artwork Street View (Reassembled) was also on display in Finland for the first time at Habitare, the largest furniture, design and interior decoration event in Finland. 

Nine essays on home, identity, and ruins. Writers, artists, curators, and researchers discuss homelessness and war, utopias of free movement, reconstructing cities and their histories, and the ethics of art. Viewpoints from Benelux, Finland, and Syria are bound together by artist Anssi Pulkkinen’s Street View (Reassembled), a mobile installation of a ruined Syrian home. The essays offer surprising perspectives into timely themes in today’s world.

With contributions by Umayya Abu-Hanna, Marwa Al-Sabouni, Jaako Hämeen-Anttila, Hanna Johansson, Anssi Pulkkinen, Max Ryynänen, Issa Touma, Rosa te Velde, Vincent van Velsen and the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux.