CALM BEFORE A CAPITALIST STORM IN ENGLAND
24 October 2016, Pepino
This week I have a very easy schedule what makes me anxious. The contrast with the next week couldn't be bigger - then I'm at Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre working with my show The ABC of Capitalism. We don't ship any works but I make them all on-site.
I'm going to paint 13 huge portraits of the heroes of capitalism. They would have been too big to exit from my studio door and that's why I have to execute them in the museum. In addition I paint three murals with Disney figures praising the joys of capitalism and install a class room where the basics of capitalism are taught to children.
However, that's next week. I'll fly on Sunday to England and before that the only thing I have to do is to buy more socks. And an umbrella!
CLOSING BORDERS
13 October 2016, Pepino
My solo show Closing Borders opens at Serlachius Museums, Mänttä, FInland, in February.
The museum's website mentions my trip to the Balkans - though it didn't happen yet! Pauli and me are off to borders again in November when I've inaugurated my show at Bury Art Museum.
CLOSING BORDERS
The refugee crisis has shaken the whole of Europe. Countries are building fences on their borders, and societies are also internally divided. Riiko Sakkinen’s exhibition Closed Borders studies a Europe that is barricading its borders and turning in on itself.
In Sakkinen’s view, today’s world is better understood on borders than in urban centres. He has travelled and studied the new border walls on Europe’s frontiers and followed the refugee routes in the Balkans. The works of the exhibition address refugee status, immigration and the new Europe.
Also highlighted is a Malaga-based company that manufactures razor wire used on border fences and which has grown during the economic crisis. The curator of the exhibition is Pauli Sivonen.
THE ABC OF CAPITALISM PANEL TEXT
03 October 2016, Pepino
I'm writing the text for the te the introductory interpretation panel of my show The ABC of Capitalism. It will open the 12th of November at Bury Art Museum, Greater Manchester. It's good to work with English people, they can easily correct my language.
THE ABC OF CAPITALISM
We live in a capitalist world. Though our system is often called democracy or freedom, it is capitalism that defines every aspect of our society, politics and culture. The free market is considered the cornerstone of all our liberties. Some people think that capitalism is not perfect but most of us believe that it is the best of all possible worlds.
Lamentably capitalism is not a school subject in the UK or other capitalist countries. Children and even many adults don’t understand the mechanisms of capitalism, the world where they live their lives. The School of Capitalism will rectify the problem teaching the basics of our system to primary school aged kids.
The portrait series Heroes of Capitalism celebrates people who have shaped and defended capitalism. The selection includes politicians, generals, philosophers and business magnates.
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
26 September 2016, Pepino
Today I ordered Europe's Final Countdown as a vinyl single. I'll use it for a work titled The Final Countdown for the European Values (Music for Refugees).
We're leaving together / But still it's farewell / And maybe we'll come back / To earth, who can tell? / I guess there is no one to blame / We're leaving ground (leaving ground) / Will things ever be the same again? / It's the final countdown / The final countdown / Oh! / We're heading for Venus (the EU) / And still we stand tall / 'Cause maybe they've seen us (the coast guard) / And welcome us all, yeah / With so many light years to go / And things to be found (to be lost) / I'm sure that we'll all miss her so.
TO DO
20 September 2016
Things I'm doing now at the studio: Buying shoe laces with led lights, making improvised climbing shoes for climbing border fences, applying a World Passport from the World Government, drawing hooks, preparing work sheets for the School of Capitalism, making my kids to color letters, ordering some rolls of concertina razor wire, planning the Border Field Trip 2 to Lesbos and the Balkan Peninsula, buying beer cans for a sculpture.
