Tea Mäkipää, FI-Helsinki / D-Weimar (*1973)

The infrastructure which man uses to live his daily life in a modern way is often hidden or concealed. In her sculpture 1:1 (2004), Tea Mäkipää exposes precisely these things and lets them stand out alone, without the rest. She created a fragile, tilted cube out of supply lines and conduits (heating, water, power, telephone etc) and the respective terminal devices including lamps, radiators and sanitary installations that reflect the infrastructure of a modern block of flats. Upon first sight this system of mains and pipes functions as a synonym for the highly developed technological conditions under which modern man lives today. But the installation also visualises an abstract view of interpersonal connections.

In her works, Tea Mäkipää wants to reflect these conditions of a Western lifestyle, as well as the technological development and the interpersonal coldness accompanying mankind ever since the industrialisation, at the latest. The desire for prosperity, (interpersonal) warmth, comfort and happiness, which all people probably share, is addressed in her installation World of Plenty (2005). The seamless stringing together of close to 1,000 individual digital photos for the EXPO 2005 in Aichi, Japan, is an ironic genre picture in the style of a gigantic Renaissance panel painting. But the World of Plenty is hopelessly idealised - depicted as a paradise that can never be reached. Man has gambled away his chances of living in harmony with nature. The original relation between man and nature is an illusion.

Tea Mäkipää: Wonders of nature 2000 photograph from the series
Placeless 180 x 125 cm Photograph: Mikko Auerniitty

Curriculum vitae
1973 geboren in Lahti
1998 Academy of Fine Arts, Bachelor in Fine Art, Helsinki
1998-1999 Konst & Arkitektur, Kungl. Konsthögskolan, Stockholm
2003

Royal College of Art, Master in Fine Art, London

 

Tea Mäkipää: Wonders of nature 2000 photograph from the series Placeless
180 x 125 cm Photograph: Mikko Auerniitty


Tea Mäkipää: Parasite 1997-98 installation 500 x 220 x 250 cm
Collaboration with Pasi Mann and Anni Laakso. Images of Parasite in Espoo Center by: Mari Kalinen


Ausstellungen

solo exhibitions
2005 "Sexgod", Galleri21, Malmö
2004 "Solitude", Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart / Galerie K&S Künstlerhaus Bethanien & Akademie Schloss Solitude, Berlin
  "Expert", Ateneum, Finnish National Museum of Art, Helsinki
2003 "Expert", Jerwood Installation commission in Wapping Project, London
2001 Nordic Council of Ministers, Kopenhagen
2000 "Placeless", Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
 

"Domesticated Dreams", mit Pasi Mann, Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki

 

group exhibitions
2005 "Drawings for EXPO 2005", Spiral Center, Tokyo
  "World of Plenty", EXPO 2005 Weltausstellung, Aichi
  "Passion des Sammelns", Halle 14, Leipzig
  "Irony is dead. Long live Irony!", ACC Galerie Weimar
  "Unheimlich", De Warande, Turnhout
2004 "Expert", Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
  "Along the Gates of the Urban, Galerie K&S, Berlin / Oda Projesi, Istanbul
  "Para Sites. When Space comes into Play", MUMOK / Museum for Modern Art, Wien
  "shrinking cities", Kunstwerke Berlin
2003 Royal College Art, London
"20 White Chairs" Wapping Project, London / Design Museum, Leeds
  Jerwood Space, London
  "Paradise", Bunker, Berlin Alexanderplatz
  "Rape of Europe", Gallery Luke & A, London
  "Supermarket", Helsinki Art Hall
2002 Art Forum Berlin
2001 Stockholm Art Fair
2000 "Some Parts of this World", Museum of Photography, Helsinki
  "Realm of the Senses", Turku
  "Human-, Animal-, Plant Life", Brandenburg Art Days
1999-2000 "N.E.W.S.", Baltic Contemporary Art, Szczecin / Riga / Visby
1998

"Artgenda 98", Kulturhuset, Stockholm

 

public installations
2005 "1 : 1", Halle 14, Leipzig
2004 "1 : 1", Museumsquartier, MUMOK / Museum for Modern Art, Wien
2001 "Permanent Installation", Sunspot School, Helsinki
1997-1998 "Parasite", Espoo / Kulturhuset, Stockholm
1996

"Air Cubes", mit Pasi Mann, Helsinki

 

awards and grants
2005 Stipendium Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
  1st Price in Competition for Permanent Public Video Art for Digitalo of VTT
  Technical Research Center of the State of Finland, Espoo
2004 Stipendium ACC Galerie in Weimar
2003 Stipendium Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
  Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award, London
  Henry Moore Foundation, London; Unterhaltsunterstützung