Exhibition

Artists:
Eirini Tiniakou
Teo Paaer
Gabriella Presnal

Co-curated by: 
Martina Šerešová
Mana Tashakorinia
Amy Merigo
Lau Kaker
Erika Cárdenas Manzanilla
Jade Lönnqvist
Rebekka Yallop

Ancestral Futures

Publication designed for the exhibition ‘Fog is a cloud that touches the ground’

Contributors:
Micol Curatolo
Julia Fidder
Marjolein van der Loo
Delilah Sykes

As our world seems to be stuck in a perpetual multitude of interlacing crises, looking at the future of what is yet to come seems like an increasingly bleak task; always revealing yet-another crisis already lined up on the horizon. Against the backdrop of this perpetual production line of crises, imagining different, more caring futures becomes a difficult, but important endeavour.

Ancestral Futures is rooted in  the belief that imagination and dreaming are essential parts of our worldmaking; of activating the potentiality of being otherwise, of bringing about futures that are different from the projections offered by the linear, uninterrupted systems of today. Together, we are looking towards stories that divert from the established routes we inhabit, stories that open up new pathways to different and more grounded imaginaries, to a deviation from the now.

The artists and story-tellers that came together as part of Ancestral Futures offer us alternative possibilities of realigning ourselves in relation with each other, through stories of heritage, place-making, non-human agency and disruption of the normalised. They expand on themes of mutuality, resilience and alternative worldmaking and, in the process, divert from the structures of individualism, competition and perpetual crisis production, turning instead towards more caring and connected futures.

Eirini Tiniakou
Eirini Tiniakou (b.1993, Athens) is based in Helsinki and is active in Greece (with a focus on Lesvos), and Vienna. She holds a MA from the University of applied arts Vienna, Department of Art and Science (2021), and a BFA from the Athens School of fine arts (2018). Her practice is grounded in field research, involving a mix of documentative, participatory, and imaginative approaches. Her work mainly deals with themes of rural life and folklore, in a quest to redefine the connection with the land and the self. She often employs photography, textiles, objects, and text. Recent shows include “Invasive Spirits” (Vienna, 2022) and “The border of the grocery store” Myymälä2 (Helsinki, 2022). She has been awarded by ARTWORKS (2022) and is a Fellow of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Support Program.

Gabriella Presnal
Gabriella Presnal is a Finnish-American artist based in Southern Finland. Born in Germany and having grown up living in countries like Sweden, Canada, and multiple states in the U.S., they have been living in Finland for the past 5 years. They have primarily worked with mediums such as painting, video, and sculptural installations. Many of their works are inspired by their nomadic adolescence, queerness, spatiality, culture, and land. At their root, there is an ongoing conversation with themself on how they exist within dynamics like relationships and place. For example, feeling both at home and alien whilst living in Finland.

Teo Paaer
Teo Paaer is a freelance artist, mainly working within the fields of installation, set- and costume design.Teo is interested in the outer rims of thinking and phenomena. He has been working with the themes of the sacred, masculinity and sexuality.