Terike Haapoja
A central theme in Terike Haapoja's (b. 1974, lives and works in New York and Helsinki) work is otherness surrounding the individual and its culture. This otherness manifests itself especially in encounters with death, nature or other species. Haapoja's works raise questions of the existential basis that this otherness provides for being, but also how different societal structures of exclusion work as foundations for identity and culture. In recent projects Haapoja's work has been focusing more explicitly in humans' relationships with other species and in political structures of discrimination and exclusion.
Haapoja approaches the above thematics by constructing large projects, often realised in the form of installations and related publications and participatory acts. Recent projects include Closed Circuit – Open Duration (2008/2013), last seen in the Venice Biennale 2013, which focused on questions of mortality, co-existence and human-nature relationship while adopting scientific technologies; 'The Party of Others' project (2011-) that looks at the status of other species and other groups of excluded in the face of law by appropriating the form of a political party; and 'The History of Others' (2012-) – a large scale encyclopedic project in collaboration with author Laura Gustafsson that re-writes cultural history from the perspective of other species. Haapoja's work has been exhibited widely in solo and group shows in Finland and internationally.
Haapoja writes actively for Finnish and international art journals and publications. She was the editor of mustekala.info issue ”After the Animal” (2013, co-editor of special issue ”Animal” of Esitys journal (2013) and co-editor of the Finnish Bioart Society's publication 'Field_Notes: From Landscape to Laboratory' (2013).
Haapoja represented Finland in the Venice Biennale in 2013. Her work has been awarded with Dukaatti prize (2008), Säde -prize (2009) and Finland Festival's artist of the year honorary mention in 2007. Haapoja was nominated as Ars Fennica –prize candidate in 2011. Haapoja and Gustafsson's The History of Others -project was awareded with Kiila prize in 2013.
