Finland’s exceptional and vibrant contemporary folk
art is at last getting the attention it deserves. Exhibitions
have recently been staged, and a major international
conference, hosted by the newly-opened ITE-Contemporary
Folk Art Museum, was held last spring. Photographer
Veli Granö’s pioneering project ‘Onnela – A Trip to
Paradise’, created nearly two decades ago, was the first
exhibition and book to present contemporary Finnish
folk art, and helped it to gain a wider acceptance.
Veli Granö
describes his work recording and researching Finnish
folk art.
Translated by Jyri Kokkonen
Excerpt:
...In the summer of 1985 I began to photograph ensembles
of works and yards by self-taught artists, art I then
called ‘backyard art’. Over a period of three years,
I photographed 45 artists and ensembles of works (exhibition
held in 1986, book published in 1989). The project was
motivated by my personal questions about the significance
of art and my interest in how creativity emerges.
At that time, folk art, even in the form of photographs,
aroused a great deal of resistance in Finland. Self-taught
art had not been studied, though paintings by patients
in mental hospitals had been on show in the 1970s. It
wasn’t until the 1990s that there was a more tolerant
attitude towards folk art in Finland.
