Anhedonia
An exhibition "Anhedonia" by the performance art duo Kainulainen & Latva will open at Meno Parkas Gallery in Kaunas (Rotušės a. 27) on Thursday, 7th of July, at 6pm. Curator of the exhibition Vaida Tamoševičiūtė.
The Kainulainen & Latva duo has worked with psychopathological thematics for almost a decade and the show in Kaunas continues to follow this line, being their first solo exhibition.
Anhedonia is a psychiatric term used in connection to mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety. It indicates the inability to enjoy things and feel satisfaction and pleasure.
The exhibition explores the work of Kainulainen & Latva in regard to anhedonia, not merely showing videos and photographs of live performances but using documentation to compose independent work of art opening a new narrative. The show presents a collection of art pieces, born from lack of light, in the dark. Together with artist Vaida Tamoševičiūtė the duo has selected works where a sort of apocalyptic mood holds sway, but that simultaneously show the persistent life force showing its universal energy.
“The visual language of Kainulainen & Latva has so many connotations - cultural and historical symbols, folklore, elements of pop culture, props, references to theater, manga, porn characters - that an art critic or a psychotherapist would have a lot to dig through.
Entering the „screen room“ gives us a feeling of an inner world of fantasy, fear, phobia, trauma, dream, desire, sexuality, care, avoidance… all mixed together. The power of moving images surrounding us makes it hard to divide what belongs where. The images fall down on us making us feel it’s unavoidable and impossible to unsee and to unknow, what you have just experienced. It is like going through a passage of transformation, some kind of initiation ritual”.
- Vaida Tamoševičiūtė
The Finnish performance art duo Kainulainen & Latva was founded in 2014 and has since performed over 60 unique pieces internationally. The duo has taken part in group shows and multidisciplinary art projects with different groups, as well as organized performance art events. Kainulainen & Latva have performed at Kiasma Theatre of Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki as well as numerous performance art festivals around Europe. Before their exhibition at Meno Parkas the duo has visited Kaunas three times during the years, performing live at the invitation of CREATurE Live Art Festival.
Kainulainen & Latva are partners in both art and life. Maximilian Latva (b.1966) is a performance artist and a musician, who composes stage music for contemporary circus, in addition to his own art. Katri Kainulainen (b.1978) is a second generation performance artist, who has worked as performer and event organizer from the early 2000´s.
The works by Kainulainen & Latva are strongly visual and contain handmade costumes and objects along with soundscapes, produced in situ during performances. The work of Kainulainen & Latva is autobiographical, the thematics circulating around sexuality, trauma, childhood and childlessness.
The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Lithuanian Artists' Association.