Evening  reception: Mars – War Gods and masculinity

We receive horrifying news about wars more or less on a daily basis. For a long time, these news felt distant and somehow of no concern to us, until Russia invaded Ukraine. It changed our very relationship to war, and Finland abandoned its neutral position and joined NATO. War in our consciousness is no longer something that just happens somewhere far off. The situation in Israel and Palestine has also raised global attention to war crimes and the atrocities of war. 

Paul Krispijn’s and Nana Blomqvist’s exhibition explores the connection between patriarchal cultural values, (patriarchal) masculinity, and war. We raise a glass together for the opening of the outdoor exhibition Mars – War Gods and masculinity on Luostarin Välikatu. The art exhibition has free admission and is open to the public until 13 October 2024.

Images: Paul Krispijn
Exhibition conceptualisation and texts: Nana Blomqvist
Technical execution: Nana Blomqvist & Paul Krispijn
Frame design and execution: Hasan Al-Rubaye

Paul Krispijn is an artist and graphic designer from the Netherlands. He has had a career in the music industry and has a degree in Audiovisual Communication (AKK). He has been living and working in Turku since 2006. Paul has been creating video art sequences and large-scale projections, through which he has also developed his animated multimedia art form. He currently focuses mainly on freelance art direction, music combining acoustic and digital recordings, painting, digital imaging, and video art. He has also made documentaries of art exhibitions, for which he has composed the music. His particular interest in masculinity stems from his own journey where he has come to consider the meaning and enactment of masculinity as something better than competitiveness, aggressiveness, and scorn for what are considered feminine qualities.

https://www.paulkrispijn.com/art

Nana Blomqvist is an experienced project manager and project specialist with a focus on social equity, gender, and sexual health. She has successfully carried out several projects related to art, education and empowerment work for marginalised target groups. She is responsible for the didactic framing of the exhibition’s content. Currently Nana is working as a project specialist in an integration project mostly with the Arabic-speaking diaspora in Finland.