Monira Al Qadiri: Deep Fate @ Kiasma, Helsinki

Monira Al Qadiri: Deep Fate

Kiasma, Helsinki

21 March - 7 September 2025

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Benzene Float (Para-Benzene), 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Benzene Float (Hexa-Benzene), 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Benzene Float (Kekulene), 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Benzene Float (Tetrakis), 2024

In the back left to right: Future past 3, 2023; NAWA, 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI’s art deals with what it feels like to live a modern life made possible by oil during the accelerating climate crisis. The starting point for her new exhibition is the way that this raw material formed over millions of years has been almost surreptitiously interwoven into human history and destiny. The subject is personal for her: Al Qadiri grew up next door to oil refineries in Kuwait and experienced the Gulf War as a child. Deep Fate is her first solo exhibition in the Nordic countries.

Oil is everywhere in our everyday lives – in fuels, clothes, toys, make-up, buildings and roads. We use it to heat homes and the climate. Wars have been fought over it.

Oil’s dual role in generating wealth and causing crises is a central theme in the new exhibition by artist Monira Al Qadiri (b. 1983). The title, Deep Fate, refers to the origins of oil deep in the earth and also to the way that dependence on oil and breaking that dependence are a matter of life and death for humankind.

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Alien Technology (Diamond), 2023

Above: Benzene Float (Naphthalene), 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

NAWA (details from the series), 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

The Guardian, 2023

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Monira Al Qadiri’s working process is based on research on the cultural history of the Persian Gulf region. The exhibition features sculptures and video works from the last decade. Some of them are very large, while the smallest are only a centimetre in diameter. Various sculptures echo the shapes of the blades and the molecular structures of the chemicals used in oil drilling. Al Qadiri’s works are characterised by iridescent rainbow colours that are reminiscent of oil and the shimmering surface of pearls.

In her video works, Monira Al Qadiri often returns to her childhood experiences. For the child living close to an oil refinery, the industrial structure evoked thoughts of a glowing metropolis rather than of environmental destruction. Meanwhile, burning oil fields were her first conscious encounter with oil.

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Crude Eye, 2022

Video still 

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Deep Float, 2017

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Monira Al Qadiri’s works also contain references to the history of her family. Before the oil boom, one important source of livelihood in the region was pearl diving, in which her grandfather worked. In the 1950s, the oil industry lifted the small country of Kuwait out of poverty and into prosperity, and in so doing brought an end to the pearl-diving industry.

“The formation of oil has set a ‘fate’ deeply intertwined with human history and the exploitation of natural resources,” Monira Al Qadiri says of the idea behind her new exhibition.

“Just as the processes of deep time remain unseen but have clearly shaped our environment, the actions of the deep state remain obscured while shaping political and social realities, creating a narrative of extraction, exploitation, and the resulting crises – climatic, political, and social.”

The exhibition is curated by Kiasma’s curators Piia Oksanen and Jari-Pekka Vanhala.

MONIRA AL QADIRI - BIOGRAPHY

Monira Al Qadiri (b. 1983, Dakar, Senegal) is a Kuwaiti artist educated in Japan. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

MONIRA AL QADIRI 

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Her solo exhibitions include “The Archaeology of Beasts” (Bozar Brussels, 2024); “Benzene Float” (Halle Verriere, 2024); “Haunted Water” (UCCA Dune, 2023), “Mutant Passages” (Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2023); “Holy Quarter” (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2022); “Refined Vision” (Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, 2022); “Holy Quarter” (Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2020); “Empire Dye” (Kunstverein Göttingen, 2019); “The Craft” (Gasworks, London, 2017); “Attempts to Read the World Differently” (Stroom Den Haag, the Hague, 2017); “Muhawwil” (Sultan Gallery, Kuwait, 2014).

Select group exhibitions include Desert X Al Ula (Al Ula, 2024); 24th Biennial of Sydney (Sydney, 2023–24); 8th Boras Biennial (Sweden, 2024); Sharjah Biennial 15 (Sharjah, 2023); 15th Triennial of Small Sculpture, Fellbach (2022); Asia Art Biennial, Taiwan (2021); Dubai Expo 2020 (2021); “Our World is Burning” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2020); “Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars” (MoMA PS1, New York, 2019–20); Asia Pacific Triennial (Brisbane, 2018); Lulea Biennial (Sweden, 2018); Athens Biennial (Athens, 2018). In 2022, Al Qadiri was featured in the Venice Biennale’s central exhibition “The Milk of Dreams.”

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki

kiasma.fi

Kiira Miesmaa: New director of Kiasma, Helsinki, Museum of Contemporary Art

Kiira Miesmaa has been chosen as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Photo: Finnish National Gallery/ Susanna Kesänen

The board of the Finnish National Gallery has selected KIIRA MIESMAA as the next director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma for a five-year term starting from June 1, 2024.

Kiira Miesmaa has worked in leadership positions in various organizations in the art sector, both in the public and private sectors. At Galerie Forsblom, she has been responsible for the operational management of the gallery. While the gallery operated in Stockholm, she handled the strategic management of both galleries in collaboration with the gallery owner. Miesmaa has consistently contributed to the internationalization of Finnish art, with the gallery participating in contemporary art fairs worldwide. She has been a member of the HIAP board since 2019.

“Kiira Miesmaa has excellent qualifications to lead Kiasma and the Finnish National Gallery forward in the next five-year period. Miesmaa’s expertise complements the Finnish National Gallery’s management team in a positive way,” says the chairman of the board Matti Vanhanen.

The Finnish National Gallery initiated the search for directors for Ateneum and Kiasma simultaneously in June 2023. Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff was selected as the director of Ateneum in early November, commencing her duties on January 1, 2024. Both museum directors are part of the National Gallery’s management team and collaborate with the CEO and other department heads to develop the National Gallery’s activities.

Miesmaa will succeed the current director of Kiasma, Leevi Haapala, whose second term in office concludes on May 31, 2024.

“Haapala has done excellent work as the director of Kiasma. He has navigated Kiasma through a challenging period with the pandemic and a major renovation. During his tenure, Kiasma has hosted, among other things, two major international ARS exhibitions and exhibitions of significant Finnish artists such as Markus Copper and Tom of Finland, not to mention numerous international names,” acknowledges Kimmo Levä, the General Director of the National Gallery.

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki

www.kiasma.fi

Markus Copper Retrospective @ Kiasma, Helsinki - The Taste of Metal

Markus Copper – The Taste of Metal

Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki

11 November 2022 – 26 February 2023

Markus Copper

Juggernaut, 1992-95

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Archangel of Seven Seas, sketch, 1996

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper 2009

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

The visual artist MARKUS COPPER (1968–2019) is known for his sculptures that take over the surrounding space. The sounds, mechanical movements and lights reverberating in viewers’ bodies spark their attention. The retrospective at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma showcases Markus Copper’s exceptional art and his worldview with a selection of work of unprecedented variety and depth. Diving into the culture of collective trauma and the human tragedies of our time, the exhibition comprises works that were completed between 1991 and 2018.

MARKUS COPPER: METAPHORS AND SENS OF DANGER

The Taste of Metal exhibition takes a deep dive into the collective trauma culture and human tragedies of our time. The large­scale Estonia (2006) and Kursk (2004) capture the communal fear and anxiety induced by the sinking of the car ferry Estonia and the submarine Kursk. Whaling Station (2009), constructed from external ribs sown together out of leather jackets and a rowing boat, is in turn doomed to repeat a ritual portrayal of the flensing of a whale. 

Markus Copper

Kursk, drawing

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Karjalainen

Markus Copper

Kursk, 2004

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Kursk, 2004

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Estonia, 2006

Finnish National Gallery / Kiasma

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Whaling Station, 2009

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

“Markus Copper wanted his dramatic sculptures to highlight the forces that govern life, the constant tension between destruction and creativity, the fact that art can explore the darkest aspects of life and society on a symbolic level. The sense of threat in his works evokes turning points, the fragility of life, fractures and transience. The power of the works lies in their ability to open themselves up, through the mythical figures that the artist has created, to the sore points of our own time. They create room to think and to experience the meaning dimensions of human existence,” says Leevi Haapala. 

Especially in the early stages of his career, Markus Copper sought to impart a sense of threat to his work, and some of his early pieces even involved a dimension of actual danger. A case in point is Sixpack of Instant Death (1995), which consisted of six sculptural objects that Markus Copper gave to his friends. The objects were designed to explode when linked together. In 2020, the police tracked down the work’s missing components, which have since been rendered harmless. 

Markus Copper

Sixpack of Instant Death, 1995

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

MARKUS COPPER: ICONIC PIECES AND UNKNOWN WORKS

The exhibition also includes Markus Copper’s best-known work, a whale sculpture entitled Archangel of Seven Seas (1998). Part of the Kiasma collection today, the iconic piece is one of the museum’s most cherished artworks. A key component of the work is a set of organ pipes from the church of Kotka that play a low, rumbling “whale song”. 

Markus Copper

Archangel of Seven Seas, 1998

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Archangel of Seven Seas, 1998

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Archangel of Seven Seas, 1998

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Many of Markus Copper’s works have been dismantled or lost. They are presented in the exhibition in the form of drawings, sketches and documentary material. With the help of the artist’s family and friends, Kiasma has succeeded in recovering and partly conserving several works, including the sculptures Whaling Station (2009), South Pacific Execution (2007) and The Khyber Pass (2014). These are all now accessioned to the collection of the Finnish National Gallery.

Markus Copper

Iron Maiden, Bourgeois Door, 2006

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper

Khyber Pass, 2014

Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Markus Copper was also a prolific and skilful draughtsman. The show includes several of his drawings from various museum collections, including his last suite, Roadside Picnic (2018), which is part of the Kiasma collection. Also included in the show are rarely screened video documentaries about the artist from the 1990s.

The exhibition is curated by museum director Leevi Haapala and curator Jari-Pekka Vanhala from Kiasma. The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of a lavishly illustrated book on Markus Copper’s art, produced in collaboration with Parvs Publishing Company. The book offers fresh perspectives on the artist’s work by several authors. 

Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA

Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki

kiasma.fi