4 September–10 January 2021
Soil Matters exhibition explores the materiality of soil and how it is interwoven with human activity. The design industry steers consumer habits, thus contributing to the contamination and transformation of the land. Soil Matters highlights how, among other factors, the glass and porcelain industries and new technologies have left their mark in the soil. In the exhibition, designers, artisans and artists explore the relation between human and soil through experimental design projects. Soil Matters will open in September for Helsinki Design Week. It will mark the end of the three-year Design Club Open Call series, in which impressive new curatorial content has been sought for Design Museum’s Gallery.
The exhibition is being curated by Maarit Mäkelä, ceramic artist and Doctor of Arts, and Riikka Latva-Somppi, curator and artist. Mäkelä works as an associate professor in the Department of Design at Aalto University, where she is the head of the new master’s degree programme in Contemporary Design and the Empirica research group. Latva-Somppi has worked in various professional roles in the field, including a post as a part-time teacher at Aalto University which she has held for over two decades. At the moment, she is completing her doctoral studies as a member of the Empirica research group in the Department of Design at Aalto University.
Artists and groups at the exhibition: Tzuyu Chen (TW), Annelie Grimwade Olofsson (SE/DK), Özgü Gündeşlioğlu (TR), Catharina Kajander (FI), Riikka Latva-Somppi (FI), Maarit Mäkelä (FI), Pauliina Purhonen (FI), Erna Skúladóttir (IS), Unknown Fields Division (Liam Young & Kate Davies) (UK), Un/Making Studio (Åsa Ståhl & Kristina Lindström) (SE)
In Partnerships with the Design Club – Design Museum’s business network, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Saastamoinen Foundation, Aalto University, Association for Rural Culture and Education, Embassy of the Republic of Iceland Helsinki, Geological Survey of Finland, Wienerberger, Kultelan Tiiliputki, AJ Tuotteet.
Ceramic test tiles made of natural clay from Sipoo. The colors are from different places in Uusimaa: Vuosaari, Sipoo, and Espoo. Photo: Tzuyu Chen: Soil Care
