Solution 246: Mythcraft

Solution 246: Mythcraft
Finland: The Welfare Game

032c WORKSHOP / Joerg Koch is pleased to present “Solution 246: Mythcraft,” in which a chapter from the latest edition in the Solution Series, Solution 239-246, Finland: The Welfare Game, is exhibited behind a selection of mythological artifacts discussed in the book.

In the Solution Series, edited by Ingo Niermann, designed by Zak Group and published by Sternberg Press, select authors are asked to develop an abundance of concise and original ideas for various countries and regions.

Welcome to Finland. In an aging society where newly founded institutions are already outmoded and geographic impediments are a constant crippling agent, artists see an imperative to create a new, Finnish mythology aimed at catalyzing the nation to face its various problems.

From Tom of Finland’s subversive homoerotica to Bill Drummond’s fabled Kalevala Records to outsider ‘ITE’ art and beyond, the exhibit “Solution 246: Mythcraft” elucidates the northern country’s modern history as a nation under construction, proposing that its identity remain a malleable myth.

Solution 239-246, Finland: The Welfare Game by architect Martti Kalliala with writer and curator Jenna Sutela and architect Tuomas Toivonen, addresses the Nordic country’s numerous predicaments. The three authors propose eight and a half solutions to their native country’s quandaries, ranging from the practical (rescuing ailing public space through climatization and the introduction of the Winter Garden City), to the absurd (dividing the country into two interlocking sub-nations: City and Wilderness) to the earnest, if far-reaching (the repurposing of the country to host the world’s nuclear waste).

“As we imagine it, we will build it. As we shape it, it will mold us. If we trust it, it will work.”

032c Workshop / Joerg Koch is an exhibition space in Berlin. Centered around an eight-meter-long vitrine designed by Konstantin Grcic, its programming features several exhibition series, exploring the idea of the archive, the auteur, or the unseen.