Pia Euro and Marika Orenius

Opening Reception: October 19, 6–8 PM
Artist Talk at 6:15 PM

Pia Euro (b. 1970, Helsinki) earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1999. She has also studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

Marika Orenius (b. 1971, Jyväskylä) earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1999. She has also studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg.

Both artists are affiliated with the Department of Art at Aalto University’s Pori unit: Pia Euro as a lecturer and Marika Orenius as a doctoral student. This exhibition integrates their personal artistic practices into the activities of this academic community.

The current exhibition consists of two distinct bodies of work. Pia Euro’s two-piece series, It is a disaster my love and It hasn’t always been like this, is displayed upstairs, while Marika Orenius’s installation Sillä se on tässä / Therefore it is here is exhibited in the downstairs space of Poriginal Gallery.

Marika Orenius’s work, utilizing moving images, light, and soundscapes, reflects on the complexity of experiencing time. The present moment remains undefined, yet spatial depictions reveal its connection to past experiences and future possibilities. Feelings of otherness arising in everyday life are highlighted in various public spaces and at home. The work exhibited at Poriginal Gallery is part of Marika Orenius’s artistic research project: Home base – Bodily Response and Spatial Experiences processed into Works of Art, which explores human corporeality as a fundamental structure from which broader social and political frameworks are approached.

Pia Euro’s series consists of constructed spaces and disintegrating objects. The gallery space has been altered by constructing areas in front of the windows that block out light. The external world and the existing light conditions frame the works displayed within these enclosed spaces (It hasn’t always been like this). The remaining gallery space, outside these enclosed areas, is left dim, featuring a sawdust-based artwork that explores themes of decay (It is a disaster my love).

Acknowledgments: Aalto University, Department of Art, Pori Unit; Renor Oy/Kalevi Halminen; Academy of Fine Arts; Alfred Kordelin Foundation; VISEK.

Translated with ChatGPT