Pre-Opening
A Greater Miracle of Perception

The Venice Iteration

PE 10.05.2019, 2-5 PM
KLO 14:00 - 17:00 Aalto-paviljonki

A Greater Miracle of Perception: The Venice Iteration is the second in the series of public events developed by the Miracle Workers Collective (MWC) for the Finnish Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
The event will include the members of the collective as well as invited guests, indigenous rights activist Petra Laiti and dance artist Esete Sutinen. The event will be held at the Alvar Aalto Pavilion of Finland in Giardini.

Miracle Workers Collective

The Miracle Workers Collective is formed and informed by a transdisciplinary and transnational community of artists, filmmakers, writers, intellectuals, performers, and activists sharing and developing an ecology of practices including writer Maryan Abdulkarim; scriptwriter and director Khadar Ahmed; writer and filmmaker Hassan Blasim; choreographer and artistic director Sonya Lindfors; artist Outi Pieski; artist Leena Pukki; artist Martta Tuomaala; artist and curator Lorenzo Sandoval; cinematographer Christopher L. Thomas and filmmaker and storyteller Suvi West, as well as curators Giovanna Esposito Yussif, Christopher Wessels and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung.

The MWC’s proposition underlines a critical engagement with collectivity and practices that articulate the notion of the miracle as a poetic vehicle from which to expand what can be perceived, experienced, done, and imagined. Drawing upon nigerian playwright and poet Esiaba Irobi’s reflections of the miracle as “a trope of spiritual and political resistance” and as “an act of community”, the collective’s approach connotes a disciplinary disobedience that emphasises the constant questioning of perception as a political act.

The exhibition A Greater Miracle of Perception at the Finnish Alvar Aalto Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (11 May – 24 November 2019) is commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

Petra Laiti

Petra Laiti is an indigenous rights activist and an outspoken commentator, who currently functions as the chair for the Finnish Saami Youth Organization. Indigenous self-determination and self-governance are issues close to her heart. These themes are present also in her performance “Moratorium Office”, in which she sells the concept of self-governance as a product.

Esete Sutinen

Esete Sutinen is an ethiopian-finnish dance artist based in Helsinki, Finland. She has a vast working experience ranging from contemporary dance and theatre productions to performance art as well as in music videos, opera projects and commercials. Sutinen started her choreographic work in 2017 together with four other freelance artists and their collaboration created a five-part contemporary dance piece called Maps of Fear and Empathy. Her collaboration with Sonya Lindfors started in 2012 with the stage work NOIR?.