How to hug an evaporating tree or keep on dancing until the sunset – stoic exercises for a world’s end – Julia Kukkonen

Julia Kukkonen is a visual artist and a gentle radical activist. She was born in 1988 in Kuopio and graduated as a visual artist from the Kankaanpää School of Fine Arts in 2017. Since then, she has worked in various roles, including as a summer visual artist in Seinäjoki and in artist residencies in Iceland, Macedonia, and Finland. She actively presents her art in gallery exhibitions, events, residencies, and public and private spaces both in Finland and abroad. She tirelessly seeks ways to live responsibly and sustainably with everyone here and values art and actions that resonate in real life.

The exhibition at Poriginal Gallery is the artist’s second solo exhibition, and its concept originated from the artist’s realization of the stark assessment that “humanity has only a 50 percent chance of surviving to the next century due to climate change.” The works in the exhibition were born out of a need to address feelings of grief and hopelessness related to finality and lost futures. How to face the approaching death of our planet, our shared home, and how to deal with the approaching death of a loved one. Kukkonen contemplates what matters when we know we are looking at the end on the horizon and, on the other hand, if there is anything that can be done. How can an individual help the planet, humanity, or their loved ones? How to continue living a good life on a dying planet or in a withering body?

Kukkonen works process-based, pondering questions and allowing the works to form along with this process. The exhibition is a total installation, featuring works based on her written texts, video performances, ceramic sculptures, and photographs.

Translated with Copilot