Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova (summer of 2011)

For those of you who haven't been there already, the Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova is the museum of history and contemporary art. Located maybe 500 m from Turku Cathedral, it's both near the market square and the rest of the city center. And the museum closest to where Mikael and I live.

My good friend Mimi is working in the museum this summer summer, and since her sister came for a visit yesterday, Mimi guided us around the museum. I think she's a brilliant guide, and I'm not saying it just because she's a friend.

The museum is divided into two parts. The historic part (Aboa Vetus, or 'old Turku') is located in the basement, and the sections for contemporary art (Ars Nova) is located on the two upper levels. The ground floor is where the ticket office, gift shop and the Aula café is located ('aula' is the word for 'lobby', so it's a slight play on words). Click on the link to see the virtual tour.

The exhibition at the contemporary art section changes when the current exhibition has run it's course, which takes about 1/2-1 year. The current exhibition, the "Turku Biennal 2011 - Patterns of the Mind" will be on until the 9th of October (2011).

I loved seeing, again, the ruins that are left of the old merchant district of medieval Turku, and the new section covering the epochs between the years 1600-1920. Next time, I'll spend a little more time there, because there simply wasn't time enough yesterday.
I really enjoyed the Biennal-exhibition, and I'm sure you would enjoy it too. The artist who've contributed to it all have "rooms" of their own, so as you walk from room to room you're taken into their version of the theme "patterns of the mind". There were three rooms/artist(s) I enjoyed immensely:

• Elena Gubanova's and Ivan Govorkov's graffitis, where they had taken thin calligraphy markers and drawn croquis' all over the room, many on to of one another. You could literally loose yourself in them, they were so nice.
• Cia Rinne's play on words, in which one of the pieces was this section with small mementos is plastic bags together with small comments. Enjoyed it immensely, made me smile.
• the room where the artist had made an optical labyrinth just by attaching black threads from focal points in the room. Brilliant, I must say.
• the artist who had made a 2-bit calculator, which calculated away when you put switched it on.

[I know, when I visit again in 2 weeks, I'll make a note of the names and re-post them aling with the proper names of the pieces. I was so mesmerized, I forgot to write them down!]

And, since the exhibition itself is off limits to cameras, I'll just leave you with a few personal pictures instead.

Standing in the stairwell leading up to the second floor.
Tommy (Mimi's BF), Sussi and Mimi.

View from one of the second floor balconies.

Outside the museum.
Sussi watching as Mimi is taking a picture of the sea gull sitting on
top of one of the plastic eiders floating on the Aura river.
"A bird, on a bird"