17 juni tot 23 september 2018
KAARINA KAIKKONEN
Close to the Heart
Lähellä Sydäntä
PRACTICAL
Sint-Anna-ten-Drieën Church, Hanegraefstraat 1, 2050 Antwerp-Left Bank
Easily accessible by trams 3, 5, 9, 15, stop Halewijnlaan
From 23 June to 23 September 2018
Open on Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.
Free entrance
My Shirt Becomes Art
Clothing is usually associated with fashion, shopping, dressing up, ...
The Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen looks at it differently: she is mainly interested in old, worn out and discarded clothing that gives her a second life. She is going to look for those old items of clothing, and with those she creates spatial installations that enter into conversation with the environment. Old shirts are her favorite material. It is for her physical emotions for memories. In these shirts she still feels the warm heart of the man or woman who used to wear it.
Kaarina Kaikkonen created a gigantic installation with more than a thousand shirts in the modern Sint-Anna-ten-Drieën church on the Antwerp Left Bank.
You can walk under it, between and around as a visitor. The shirts were collected by dozens of volunteers who sometimes also brought special stories about the shirts they had collected. Kaarina made the installation on site with the help of volunteers.
After the exhibition De Collection will recycle the shirts.
At the exhibition there are also documentaries to watch: an interview with the artist, images of earlier realizations, the stories of the shirts and a stop motion film of the installation.
Kaarina KAIKKONEN (°1952)
Kaarina Kaikkonen is one of the founders of the Environmental Art. Her work has been seen all over the world: the Maxxi in Rome, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, the Museum Hundertwasser in Vienna, K11 Art Space in Shanghai, the Kennedy Center in Washington, ...
Her work has also been shown at various arts festivals, not only in Europe but in Canada, Chile, USA, Japan and China.
Until the end of August the installation 'If I Had Wings' can be seen at the elevator at the court of justice in the Marollen district of Brussels.
Website www.kaarinakaikkonen.fi
