Franziska Opel – Frenzi and Friends in the Black Box/Helsinki

The exhibition as a place where people meet.

My suggestion for the HyCP/Port Journey Exchange was to bring an exhibition to Helsinki. In 2015 I did a show called Frenzi and Friends – a Holy Circle. This Holy Circle can be considered as a group of people gathering around a camp fire, telling each other stories while watching the flames. These stories are various ways of thinking delivered in the form of artworks. An invisible bond keeps this group together – its called friendship. So I invited friends from different countries like Danmark, Spain, Georgia, Bulgaria, Japan, Slovakia, France, Bolivia and Germany and asked them what their new works can tell and contribute. Over 40 artists replied with different pieces and approaches. So the black room of the Forum Box  a small room of approximately 6 sqm originally meant for video-screenings was turned into a Wunderkammer.  In this case we can speak about a Kunstkammer.

The sound of video-works projected on the floor made the visitor stepping from a big white and bright gallery-space into a very small room with dim lights. After some minutes the eyes adjusted to the new surrounding and started to travel through the worlds of each artist. All pieces were arranged without any hierarchy – a democratic hanging. The motif of letters and dinning plates repeated in various forms in the room. In fact that motif of „eating on the same table“ took literally place. During the exhibition Veronika Gabel, Alexa Grande and me invited finnish artists to a dinner in the gallery space. This was the most effective moment of the exhibition. So the exhibition became a place of exchange about art and experiences – informal, warm and with a touch of romanticism.

Artists invited : Franziska Opel and Angela Anzi, Claudia Apel, Andrea Becker-Weimann, Utz Biesemann, Julia Calvo, Armin Chodzinski, Sungeun Claire Choi, Julia Maiquez Esterlich, Veronika Gabel, Anna Grath, Alexa Grande, Ole Henrik Hagen, Sho Hasegawa, Anna Skov Hassing, Lars Hinrichs, Philipp Hartmann, Simone Hodemacher, Sophie Krambrich, Michael Kress, Buero Klass, Nick Koppenhagen, Michel Lamoller, Ida Lennartsson, Martin Meiser, Stefan Mildenberger, Micha Mohr, Mitko Mitkov, Matt Mullican, Lennart Münchenhagen, Johanna Noack, Bastian Preussger, Hannah Rath, Blanca Estela Rodríguez, Claus Sautter, Gunnar Saecker, Caspar Sänger, Jenny Schäfer, Anke Schima, Chinook Ulrich Schneider, Nino Svireli, Hermes Villena, Nina Wiesnagrotzki & Maximilian Schmoetzer

View on the exhibition in the small Black Box of the Forum Box, Helsinki

 Learn more: www.franziskaopel.de