Triennial of Community Arts 2019: Voice Opening

This spring, Kone Foundation’s Saari Residence for artists and researchers is organising its second Triennial of Community Art. Held every three years, the event’s theme this year is voica opening. The event devotes special attention to the study of the processes of community art and its various voices.

By voice opening, we are not just referring to starting artistic activities but also the practices that help to maintain art. It is not possible to make art without frequent practicing and upkeep.

The triennial is a call to make art, but also to ask questions and become engrossed in the activity. We provide a forum where makers of art, both artists and participants, can examine their collective processes. There will also be researchers and writers outside the processes reflecting on how community artworks come about and on their effects in and outside the world of art. This reflection will particularly focus on issues relating to aesthetics, ethics and power.

How can the artistic quality of community art be determined? What possibilities are there for the critique of community art? Whose voice is heard in community art? The voice of community art influences different areas of society and the patches between them. Is it possible that community art has radical potential as an innovator in the field of art?

In the spring of 2019, community artists and local communities will carry out six community art projects at different residences in Mynämäki, Lempäälä and Lauttasaari. The triennial works of art and the writers’ contributions will be presented and discussed at the Voices of Community Art seminar held at Lauttasaari Manor in Helsinki from 7 to 8 June 2019.

The triennial is designed and coordinated by community artists Pia Bartsch and Veera Lehtola.