Evolution of the Mind

As strange as it may seem, Evolution of the Mind, covering both floors of Art Museum Tennis Palace, is the Museum’s first solo exhibition by a Finnish contemporary artist. It displays paintings and video art by the well-known artist Osmo Rauhala. Rauhala splits his time between his organic farm in Pirkanmaa and cruising the international art world. He seems to have boundless energy – a lion’s share of the works in this extensive exhibition were made this year.

Rauhala is also a prolific writer and has contributed articles to the tri-lingual catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition. Rauhala combines his personal memories with universal laws of the structure. The catalogue includes two longer essays on Rauhala’s art by the New York critic Robert C. Morgan and Pessi Rautio.

In the exhibition, a section of the first floor of Art Museum Tennis Palace is reserved for his video works in which projections, reflections and translucency create spaces that affect body and soul. Visitors may notice that they, too, belong to a cycle of images, to their own surroundings and finally perhaps even to the order of nature. While the Retretti Art Centre put on the first large-scale showing of Rauhala’s videos last summer, the works seen in Evolution of the Mind form an entirely new entirety.

The painting section on the second floor is based on eleven recently completed, gloomy paintings which take his treatment of the relationships between nature and humans and the laws of nature further. As a backdrop for these paintings, seen for the first time, there are a few paintings from various Finnish collections, whose dimensions alone are global, almost universal. They include some of Rauhala’s key works, such as the five-metre paintings of the River series.

Rauhala’s art tries to remind us of our role and place in the scheme of nature. He shows how the same structure is repeated in chains of molecules, animal behaviour, the meandering of rivers, the shapes of galaxies and the human mind and perception of time. By closely examining Rauhala’s works – his videos, paintings and writings – one can find an explanation of the universe and how we understand it that is exceptionally comprehensive and sound.

Guided tours: guided tours free of charge in Finnish on Wednesdays at 18 o’clock and on Saturdays and Sundays at 14 o’clock; in Swedish, on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month at 13 o’clock. To book a private tour at another time or in another language, please call: +358 9 310 87003.