Curated by Raul Zamudio March 22 – April 23, 2005 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 6-8pm With a special performance at 5:30pm by Roi Vaara in collaboration with Franklin Furnace

ARTISTS: Axel Antas / Elina Brotherus / Veli Granö / Pia Lindman / Teemu Mäki / Jaakko Niemelä / Fanni Niemi-Junkola / Riitta Päiväläinen / Anu Pennanen / Ilppo Pohjola / Riiko Sakkinen / Juha Suonpää / Santeri Tuori / Roi Vaara @(VIDEOBOX) Veli Granö, Pia Lindman and Roi Vaara

The second installment of White Box’s three-year series on Finnish art is titled Under Your Skin. The exhibition’s title is culled from a landmark 1966 film by the acclaimed Finnish director Mikko Niskanen. Niskanen’s film is a watershed in Finnish cinema in that it eschewed conventional formal structures as well as circumventing film studios by becoming the first independent work. The term “under your skin” also alludes to an English idiom that refers to something troubling, irritating or provocative to the point that it gets “under one’s skin.” Taken together, both film title and idiom converge as metaphor for the interaction between Finland and the world beyond it which at the same time extends the theme of White Box’s 2004 exhibition on Finnish art. Titled Finnish Tango, the initial exhibition cited Finland’s importation of Argentine dance and used this phenomenon as a foil to address how Finnish artists absorb, translate and reconfigure influences from abroad into transnational art practices. In contrast, Under Your Skin looks at Finnish artists who work outside of their native country as well as within it. The resulting dialogue between the myriad geo-cultural points of reference from inside and outside will underscore the global nature of Finnish art that is influenced by the locality of wherever it is made. It is through its malleable and absorbent nature that Finnish art undermines essentialism, and questions the mechanisms that construct nationalist discourses, both within its own borders as well as where Finnish artists may work in the international arena. Under Your Skin is further enhanced by its curatorial approach that will progressively mount the exhibition, starting on March 22 and culminate with an official opening on April 2. The intent of this piecemeal curatorial strategy is to literally and conceptually build up the exhibition to the degree that this protean undertaking mirrors the multivalent nature of Finnish art and of the overall exhibition. The progressive opening will be topped off with a performance on April 2 at 5:30 pm by one of Finland’s most renowned artists, Roi Vaara and a screening at the Anthology Film Archives on Sun., April 3 at 6:30 pm.

@WHITE BOX ANNEX

Stagings of Sorrow an installation by Jaakko Niemelä 601 West 26th Street, 14th Floor Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 6-8 pm

@ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

Film Screening: Sunday, April 3, 6:30 pm Ilppo Pohjola’s Daddy and the Muscle Academy + Asphalto and Veli Granö’s Meet You in Finland Angel

The exhibition has received generous sponsorship from FRAME, Finnish Fund for Contemporary Art with additional support from the Finnish Film Foundation. Special thanks to Anthology Film Archives, Franklin Furnace, Jean-Pierre de Andino Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., Dr. Phillip Cohen, Washington D.C. and Galerie Anhava, Helsinki.

White Box’s exhibition program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council for the Arts. White Box is a 501[c][3] not-for-profit arts organization.