Mirka Raito

My performance installation Under Your Skin premiered in early 2023, and my handsewn costume sculpture based on Venus of Willendorf was at the heart of it. Since then, I have often included the Venus piece in my installations and performances. At the Saari Residence, I will continue the process that got me started on this piece and prepare some exhibitions for 2025. The Venus costume sculpture will be part of the installation to be presented in January at the Mältinranta Art Centre in Tampere.

I examine experiences of connection and separateness in my work. Through my art, I explore inherited body images, traumas and phobias, as well as how these manifest themselves in the way people take control of their physical and mental space and how they interact with others.
In addition to offering a space to work, I hope the Saari Residence will bring about some kind of a therapeutic effect. I look forward to painting with ink on canvas and sewing and working on my costume sculpture, but also to reading, writing letters and outdoor activities. I also hope to have interesting conversations with the other artists-in-residence about their artistic work and content and maybe find common topics or even sew the seeds for collaboration.

Mirka Raito (b. 1975, Helsinki) is a Finnish visual artist based in Hamburg. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (MA 2002) and at HFBK Hamburg (postgraduate studies). For Raito, painting is a way of thinking and her preferred work method at the start of a process. Raito’s latest works are multidisciplinary installations, including paintings, collages, drawings, costumes, objects and video. Raito likes to experiment with new things and loves fast, intuition-driven processes and materials she has found during her rambles.

Collaboration and community are an important part of Raito’s work. Begun in 2009, the JOKAklubi collective of artists is the most important collaboration Raito is currently engaged in. Raito has been collaborating and creating inclusive and performative works with her JOKAklubi colleagues and visual artists Niina Lehtonen Braun and Tellervo Kalleinen since they were teenagers.