The 13th international printmaking triennial
12.6.–27.9.2009
Organised since 1975, Graphica Creativa is the oldest recurring international printmaking exhibition of the Nordic countries. Graphica Creativa differentiates itself from other traditional printmaking bi and triennials in its efforts to find particular themes or perspectives in current printmaking. Previous themes included printmaking outside of Europe, publishers and work-shops, the border zone of printmaking, and the 2009 theme, printmaking collaborations with other artists.
This time, Graphica Creativa 2012 presents current prints from Finland and its four neighbouring countries; Sweden, Norway, Russia and Estonia. Five countries which greatly differ from one another in government, politics, and economics but which are also brought together by history, culture and language. This exhibition also strives to regenerate collabora-tion and the exchange of knowledge in these northern countries as well as to offer important networking possibilities for our close neighbours in Russia and Estonia. The exhibition is also part of Jyväskylä’s 175 anniversary events.
The idea behind this exhibition is to consider the contemporary circumstances and state of printmaking with in the field of the Arts, and to present the most interesting trends from each country. Each country is represented by 5-6 artists, who were chosen by a curator from their own country in the fall of 2011. In December 2011, a 10-day workshop was also organised at the Jyväskylä Centre for Printmaking during which five printmakers from St. Petersburg prepared a portion of their prints for this exhibition.
The exhibition curators are Veikko Halmetoja (Finland), Stefano Beccari (Sweden), Liv Dysthe Sønderland (Norway), Petr Shvetsov (Russia) and Jaak Visnap (Estonia).
The artists chosen for this exhibition are Maija Albrecht,Heli Kurunsaari, Ari Pelkonen, Tomas Regan ja Antti Tanttu from Finland; Eva Björkstrand, Nina Bondeson, Maya Eizin Öijer, Bess Frimodig and Eva Zettervall from Sweden; Espen Dietrichson, Asbjørn Hollerud, Anna Christina Lorenzen, Pushwagner and the group Sex Tags from Norway; Kadri Alesmaa, Peeter Allik, Tarrvi Laamann and Marko Mäetamm from Estonia; as well as Petr Belyj, Mihail Karasik, the Mylo Group, Vitali Pushnitski, Juri Shtapakov and Irina Vasiljeva from Russia.
This summer, in addition to the exhibition in traditional form, the Jyväskylä Art Museum will also offer the popular, non-stop printmaking workshops open to the public; the special work-shops for school children in August and September; along with an exhibition related event-week, during which lectures will be given on a range of topics including the current politics and societal aspects of the participating countries.
This exhibition has received support from the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland, the Nordic Culture Fund , the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) and the Finnish-Norwegian Culture Institute (Finno).