5.5. to 15.10.2023
The main exhibition for the summer season opens up the world of artist and designer Kustaa Saksi (b. 1975), who is renowned for his textile designs. The exhibition Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands includes a wide selection of his textile art works, created with jacquard weaving technique between 2013 and 2023. A number of large works specially commissioned for the exhibition will also be on show.
The exhibition In the Borderlands explores moments between reality and illusion, which are the starting point for many of Saksi’s works. First Symptoms is a series of works in which the artist visualizes his experiences of the visual disturbances that often accompany migraines with aura, while the works in the Hypnopompic series explore the hallucinations experienced in the moments between sleep and wakefulness.
The new and the old meet in Saksi’s works. Modern designs and prints come together with jacquard weaving technique and Finland’s long tradition of textile making. His works also find their place among the surge of modern designers who seek to revolutionize woven textile traditions by testing new kinds of techniques and visuality. Saksi uses a wide array of materials in his textile designs, introducing rubber, metal, acrylic and phosphorescent threads to complement natural materials.
Interested in the materials? You are not allowed to touch the works in the exhibition, but you can get to know the materials either on our guided tours or at the ticket desk downstairs. At the ticket desk, you can touch a material sample of the Nightless Night jacquard weave, and in the guided tours you can feel different samples from the material sample bag containing various test weaves.
Photo: Jussi Puikkonen