Salo Art Museum’s spring exhibitions at Veturitalli share a theme of human impact on nature

Opening at the end of January, the exhibitions will highlight the human relationship with nature and the impact of our lifestyle on the environment.

Photographer Chen Jiagang's images combine hypnotic depictions of the Chinese countryside, the factories and marketplaces of megacities, industrial architecture and still-life human figures. The large photographs open up vast landscapes, revealing the immense proportions of a special kind of nature and, at the same time, the human handprint left there. China's rich natural resources and huge population have enabled the country's rapid economic growth. At the same time, they have created a vicious circle of production and consumption, with big factories producing more and more goods. Chen's work conveys a reflection on the relationship between history and the present and, through this, a concern for the future.

Born in Chongqing in 1962, Chen became known in the first decade of the 21st century as a photographer for his series Third Front, which depicts the restructuring of China's heavy industry in rural areas. With the freezing of Sino-Russian relations in the 1960s, Mao Zedong decided to move most of the large industrial plants and military complexes in the north-eastern provinces and along the coast to the isolated and mountainous areas of Sichuan province. Millions of workers followed the factories and huge new settlements sprang up like mushrooms in the rain. This was one of the biggest human migrations of the 20th century. The region created by the industrial migration campaign the Third Front, at the same time became the industrial centre of the People's Republic of China and a symbol of national unity. As the global political situation eased and the reform of state-owned enterprises began in the 1980s, many factories of the Third Front went bankrupt, buildings were abandoned and cities emptied. For his series of works, Chen visited abandoned villages and deserted factories on several occasions, filming industrial wastelands. The works form an excellent documentary on the impact on society of a grand vision of development.

The depiction of the interaction between humans and nature has since continued with a series of works on industrial mass production, skyscraper-shaded living spaces in megacities, large dams and landscapes blurred by air pollution. The landscapes and interiors Chen depicts are reminiscent of large, scenery-laden stages. The artist's works are delicate in tone and still in movement, creating a romantic and dreamlike atmosphere. Among the monumental, abandoned ruins and industrial wastelands, Chen places ghostly human figures, reminiscent of workers who, having lost their jobs, were sent back home to start their lives anew. Sometimes, a woman or young girl is placed in the pictures, often wearing a traditional Chinese qipao dress. These female figures are symbolic and hark back to Chinese history. They are carefully positioned and many of them look directly at the camera. But the seemingly still moment has actually not stood still at all, as people, seasons and times of day move and change. The multi-layered images are like modern China in miniature.

Chen Jiagang, originally trained as an architect, now lives and works in Beijing. His photographic works have been exhibited at solo and group exhibitions around the world in Asia, Europe and the United States. His works are in the collections of major museums such as MoMA in New York and LACMA in Los Angeles.

At the same time, Veturitalli's Gallery Sivuraide will present a two-channel video installation by Nuutti Koskinen (b. 1975) Primary Succession (2023), which tells the story of the relationship between archipelago nature and humans. The work deals with the infrastructure of representing, experiencing and shaping nature.

Primary Succession highlights systems that guide the way we experience, shape and value our environment. The archipelago is an example of a national landscape where the influence of modern man and nature's own history form layers that are partly incompatible but also partly invisible. Koskinen is interested in the pieces that make up our relationship with nature and what influences the formation of that relationship.

Salo Art Museum Veturitalli 27 January–28 April 2024 / CHEN JIAGANG 
Gallery Sivuraide 27 January–28 April 2024 / Nuutti Koskinen: Primary Succession

Nuutti Koskinen's website https://nuuttikoskinen.com/
Chen Jiagang's exhibition is a collaboration with the Hong Kong gallery Contemporary by Angela Li https://www.cbal.com.hk/

Enquiries: 
Susanna Luojus, Museum Director +358 44 778 4900, susanna.luojus@salo.fi or
Press photos at https://salontaidemuseo.fi/en/forthemedia/
Photo enquiries Oskari Pekonen, Museum Assistant +358 44 778 4892, oskari.pekonen@salo.fi