They Saved War Orphans in the Chechen Wars 1994…2009.
Teemu Mäki. 2023. Oil on canvas. 200 x 300 cm.
Teemu Mäki (b. 1967) is a writer, visual artist, director (theatre/film/opera) and researcher.
Artist’s homepage.
Mäki on Finnish Painters.
Mäki was born in Lapua, and he lives in Helsinki. Besides his work, Mäki takes active part in cultural politics: he is the chair of the board of the Artists’ Association of Finland and the president of the International Association of Artist (IAA) Europe.
He brings a revised version of his exhibition DO YOU REMEMBER CHECHNYA? to Critical Gallery. The exhibition deals with the fate of Chechnya, a small country within the borders of or next door to a great power. It is worthwhile to remember Chechnya for a number of reasons, for instance because Putin’s regime attempts to achieve the same in Ukraine as it previously did in Chechnya.
Besides the Chechen war and history, the exhibition deals with Finnish history, world politics and the shifting nature of warfare as well as justification of wars. In the text part of the exhibition, Mäki examines the differences and similarities of, for example, Finnish wars (1918, 1939–1940, 1941–1945), Chechen wars (1994–1996, 1999–2009) and the two wars the US waged against Iraq (1990, 2003).
In addition to works of visual art, the exhibition includes texts written by Mäki and also Lahti-based docent Juha Mäkinen (b. 1964) from the National Defence University; artist, researcher and educator Raisa Foster (b. 1976) from Tampere; and Laura Puumala who is finishing her PhD thesis at the University of Turku. Foster, Mäki, Mäkinen and Puumala work together on the research project Just and Unjust Environmental Wars (JUEW), which is a four-year scholarly and artistic project funded by Kone Foundation investigating connections between wars and environmental crises.
More info about the exhibition and related events here:
Saturday, 16.3.2024: Introduction of the exhibition & Critical Club: WAR & NATURE
Teemu Mäki: RIVERBULLS — a Letter to Vladimir Putin. A documentary film. You can watch it on YLE Areena (Finnish Broadcasting Company), but only with Finnish or Swedish subtitles. 16.3.2024–1.3.2026.