LIVRES

The Helsinki School. New photography by TaiK

L’Université d’Art et de Design d’Helsinki (la TaiK) a formé plusieurs générations de photographes qui forment l’«école d’Helsinki», à laquelle les éditions Hatje Cantz consacrent un volume richement illustré.

Information

— Titre : The Helsinki School. New photography by TaiK
Présentation

Andrea Holzherr, Timothy Persons

The Helsinki School. New photography by TaiK

Ce second volume consacré à l’«Ecole d’Helsinki» constitue une approche unique de l’état de la photographie conceptuelle aujourd’hui. L’ouvrage est destiné à nourrir le dialogue entre une génération nouvelle et celle qui a enseigné ou suivi les cours de l’Université d’Art et de Design (Taik) d’Helsinki.

Ce livre accompagne une exposition qui occupera divers lieux dans le monde. Cette publication richement illustrée est le fruit d’une idée originale de Timothy Persons, directeur d’études à TaiK, et Jorma Puranen, professeur à TaiK.

Introduction, par Timothy Persons (extraits, en anglais)
«The beauty of photography rests in its capacity as a process to capture the silent hunger that floats between the image and the concept that resides behind it….
…Deep within this silence we can listen for what our eyes can see, feeling for the image that fills the thought.
This book, Helsinki School: New Photography by TaiK is dedicated to sustaining that conceptual dialogue between one generation and another from those artists who have either taught, graduated, or attended the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland. These conversations are more than just the exchanging of words, ideas and positions. It represents a search for questions and answers, the sharing of experiences to create and realize new ways to conceptualize how we see, feel, and wear the world we live in.
One of the primary goals of any education system is to develop new approaches regarding how to climb the tower of information. The challenge is to create situations where the harvesting of experience transforms itself into a living knowledge.
To do this the University of Art and Design through its Professional Studies program conceived Gallery TaiK in the mid nineteennineties. As a site-specific gallery its primary aim was to open up new opportunities for those selected artists to exhibit their works abroad. To realize this, Gallery TaiK began participating in several selected international art fairs, specifically Art Forum Berlin and Paris Photo. This enabled a forum to be established to present as well as to reference from, creating a transient classroom. The balance between theory and reality is to taste the ordeal of doing. Thus, the « Helsinki School » was born.
Its path to the present has been built one step at a time. Combined together these steps resonate a strong conceptual sound that echoes through four generations, each with their own voice.»