Universities Bringing the World Together - Hosting Scenes
The world is increasingly digital and global communities connect through the internet and social media. There is a trend to move out from megacities, where the price of living has exceeded moderate limits. Still it looks like subcultures, networks and platforms thrive in just a few geographical spots.
What people have conceived as ‘the world’ has changed from time to time. Our era might be the first when inhabitants of the globe feel like sharing the same space. Cusco (‘Centre of the Earth’, the capital of the Incas), 19th century Paris and Edo (historical Tokyo) were unchallengeable focal points in what their inhabitants thought of as ‘the world’. But today we (at least should) know that what is lacking in New York, exists in Mumbai, and what is missing in Shanghai, marks the scene in Accra.
Higher education has always been a key agent in mashing up intellectual and artistic scenes. Students have relocated to their university to make a personal change. They have brought their history and agenda.
They have left a mark. This way, universities have formed scenes of their own. And the more they are international, the more they form a miniature model of the world, and of course, of our shared future.
Vidha Saumya’s critical life work on female pleasure and gender roles traveled a long way from Mumbai to Espoo, presenting here a new contemporary passion for drawing and a witty, lighthearted way of using poetry to accompany the images. By taking her visualized, troubled bodies existentially close to the viewer, she invites them to wrestle with force-fed roles and complex bodily reactions.
Re-viewing the world marks the work of other VÄRE artists too. For example, the Swiss-born Sasha Huber has dedicated her life work to question European societies to rethink their monuments and heroes. ‘Painting’ with staples she raises a latently violent atmosphere, while at the
same time gently picturing key figures of human rights history so that an atmosphere of sympathy and dignity takes over. Huber has, like Saumya, left a progressive mark on what art and culture means at the campus, like the whole niche of artists exhibited in VÄRE, who portray alternative worlds.
The diversity of the cultural and political horizons, which the VÄRE artworks employ, testify the challenges and potentials, which today’s academic centers face. We share a lot, but not much can be taken for granted. If ever, the university needs humbleness. Its staff, a constantly changing international community too, needs to recognize its role as a host. How to make space for the constantly surprising, unexpected ways of seeing and picturing the world? How to handle the unavoidable clashes? And how to steer the dialogues?
Renaissance city centers in Italy were intended to be model cities. Maybe this could be a way to think about campuses?
Although they are centers for the life of the young and the bold (and to some extent of course always privileged), they must stay affordable for living. Exhibiting artworks from alumni is one way to celebrate the tradition of universities and their campuses being both scenes and miniature cities (or world villages).
Max Ryynänen, lecturer/ Aalto University