Johanna Sinkkonen, The World Inside My Room, 2021

Exhibition at Sepän talo 21.6.–18.7.2021, Alfredinkatu 3, Rauma. Open mon–fri 12.30–18 and sat–sun 12–15. Closed during Midsummer 24.-27.6. The World Inside My Room -project will be celebrated during the national visual arts day 10.7. at 10-18 o'clock.

Participants: Attendo RaumanAalto youths, Ecole AREVA MLF de Rauma, Rehabilitative workgroup of Eurajoki, Fructus-project in Rauma and Pori, Häplänperän Valittajat (Moaning Ladies of Häplänperä), Kodisjoki School 5th and 6th grades, Rauma Freinet School 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, Rauma Job Seekers, Vasaramäki School 6th grade from Turku, Lukko Ut-children and youngsters hobby group of Rauma street mission, Rauma, Tiina Arvo, Raija Kuisma, Leo, Lotte & Emma Pouwels, Marja Turunen and Marjo Viitama, Katja and Silja Paavilainen, Turku

Residency March–July
Johanna Sinkkonen. (FI)

Come and join! During the spring in the workshops of the spatial place- and context-related community art project, participants will weave mini size rya rugs, which can be of any shape. Former experience is not required and all participants are instructed on how to make one. Mini rya rugs are made by using a technique common during the age of depression, learnt from Johanna's grandmother. It is also encouraged to use your own technique and make it as a part of the mini rya rug. If you do not have any surplus fabric, it is possible to get materials from RaumArs and collaborators. More information Maailma huoneessani (The World Inside My Room) and from a downloadable PDF .

Depending on the prevailing corona situation, community art workshops are held as either local or telework workshops. It is also possible for participants to proceed independently, making it easy to adapt the workshops to their own schedules. Let's use old t-shirts, socks and bedsheets and create a piece of art together!

The community art project The World Inside My Room, which describes the journey of fast fashion, utilizes fabric waste and handicrafts. Sinkkonen's orientation to the field of community art is motivated by an interest in influencing society. The central part of the project is to attract attention to the enormous amounts of cloth and fabric waste. At the same time, the workshop attendees will learn the technique of rya rug and the journey of fast fashion from sweatshops to households to the landfills, while using art to express these issues. Did you know that as much as 73% of clothes end up in landfills or get burned?

The world, once open for us all, has been deformed, becoming rooms inside our homes. We can point the finger at the guilty parties all day long, but all of us are responsible for the well-being of the Earth. Beyond our gaze, in the sweatshops, plenty of cheap clothing items are being produced for us to buy. We are consuming these products and are at fault as well.

The exhibition at Sepän talo will consist of a living room, decorated with furniture and smaller items. At first glance the space seems soft and welcoming, safe. But the exhibition will have a documentation of the used clothing items, amounts and origins. This documentation will show the ugly side of the room. An entirety is created in which each participant is present, an entirety in which many are able to identify. An entirety where the world is inside my room. An entirety that is a picture of our time.

Among the first participants were the 5-6 grades of the school of Kodisjoki. They worked from the beginning of March till the end of May. "Inside the school was created a separate piece of art. It was almost completely designed and created by the students. The original idea was to depict a forest but in the end, the art piece evolved in to a starry sky." says the teacher Miikka Wikholm. The artwork will be shown at the exhibition via audiovisual means, says the artist Johanna Sinkkonen.

Documentation of the exhibition can be seen at the Maailma huoneessani-website too.

Sinkkonen (b. 1983) is a multidisciplinary artist who in her work combines elements from communal-, positional- and media art. Sinkkonen´s specialities are public artworks and impactful communal and societal art projects e.g. a communal environmental artwork "KaiPuu" and an interactive media artwork "I see you". Works of Sinkkonen have been exhibited on multiple different festivals and exhibitions, both in Finland and abroad. Interest in communal art has been motivated by an interest for having an impact on society and a desire to bring art processes to places where they might not be a common experience. Sinkkonen implements many techniques on her projects with different assemblies and has been an active member in the city of Turku and its art scene, for example being a founding member of a cooperative working society Canadantuijat.