Paavo Räbinä 1965 Kuopio, Finland Lives and works in Helsinki Studies

1986 - 91 Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland

Solo exhibitions 1989 City-stipend, Gallery of Finnish Painter's Union, Helsinki, Finland 1990 Finland Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland 1991 Persons & Lindell Galerie, Helsinki 1992 Ars Libera Galerie, Kuopio, Finland Galerie Lång, Malmö , Sweden 1993 Young artist of the year 1993, Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland 1994 Galerie LUUM, Tallinn, Estonia 1995 Galerie Kaj Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland Tampere Museum of Contemporary Art, Tampere, Finland 1997 Galerie Leena Kuumola, Helsinki, Finland 1999 The Seven Deadly Sins, Factory Hall, Herttoniemi, Helsinki 2000 Macbeth, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland 2001 Be Wise Be silent, House of Sculpture, Stockholm, Sweden 2002 Galerie Sculptor, Helsinki, Finland 2003 Moans of Scars, Tampere Museum of Contemporary, Tampere, Finland 2005 Fuck and Peace, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland 2007 Kuopio Art Museum, Kuopio, Finland 2009 Nothing else matters, Kluuvi Galerie, Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland 2011 Kerava Art Museum, Kerava, Finland 2012 Storm in the city, De Garage, Mechelen, Belgium 2015 Finlandia, Galerie Sculptor, Helsinki, Finland 2016 Here and Now, Galerie Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland Finlandia, Galerie Pleiku, Berlin, Germany 2017 2018 Galerie Sculptor, Helsinki, Finland

Group exhibitions 1987 Ars Libera Annual Exhibition 87 / Kuopio Art Museum, Finland 1989 Exhibition of the Young, Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Finland Objects, Galerie Mikkola & Rislakki, Helsinki 1990 Porvoo Art Museum, Porvoo, Finland 1991 Rauhalahti Manor, Kuopio, Finland Finnish Contemporary Art in St.Petersburg, Russia Svea Galerie, Stockholm, Sweden Otso Galerie, Espoo, Finland 1992 Rauma Biennale Balticum 92, Rauma Art Museum, Rauma, Finland Love amongst Ruins, Tampere Museum of Contemporary, Tampere , Finland Art Galerie Lång, Malmö, Sweden Nordic Art Centrum, Helsinki, Finland Mesiac Fotografie, Bratislava, Slovakia Galerie Kaj Forsblom, Helsinki , Finland 1993 Prejudices, A circulating exhibition in Art Halls in Liljevalchs, Södertälje and Luleå, Sweden and Oulu Art Museum, Sweden, Finland 1994 At These Wretheous Borders, Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma, Finland Extra muros, S.M.A.K. Gent Museuom of the contemporary Art, Belgium 1995 Port of Art 95, Kotka, Finland Time in Mazzano, Art Hall, Helsinki, inland Kalmar Art Museum, Kalmar, Denmark 1996 Unknown Adventure, Karsruhe Art Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany Relations, Vantaa Art Museum, Vantaa, Finland 1997 Summer Exhibition of Purnu -97, Orivesi, Finland 1998 Silpakorn University Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand Exhibition of the Wihuri Foundation Collection, Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland 1999 View 05, Forum Box,Helsinki, Finland 2001 Korjaamo Galerie, Helsinki, Finland 2002 Contemporary Art from Finland, Galerie L'Usine, Brussels, Belgium 2005 Koninklijk Conservatorium, Brussels, Belgium Fractures of life, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland View06. Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland 2006 Return of Son, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Finalnd 2008 The fatal moment, Museum of Modern Art, Lappeenranta 2009 Purnu -09, orivesi, Finland Spacious horizon, Oulu Art Museum, Oulu, Finland 2011 Galerie Beim Engel, Luxembourg 2012 Meanwhile Elsewhere, De Garage, Mechelen, Belgium Comparing the Caves, Retretti, Punkaharju, Finland 2013 Karelie, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Finland 2015 2000 m2, Lappeenranta, Finland 2017 Identitet, Galerie K21, Brussels, Belgium 2018 Civil War, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland

Public works 1992 Justice Bridge, Puolarmaar Allotment garden, Espoo, Finland 2002 Photograph, Pakkala International School and Library, Vantaa, Finland Videoinstallation, Tikkurila School of Communication, Vantaa, Finland 2012 Guardian angel, light work of art, Särkijärvi Bridge, Tampere, Finland

Video Installation 1995 Be Wise, Be Silent, 1 x projection with sound I Talk with My Hand, 2 x projection with sound 1997 Absurdity in Sacks, 1 x projection with sound 1998 Liar, 6 x projection with sound Remember 1999 us, 1 x projection with sound The Seven Deadly Sins 2000 Macbeth, 3 x projection with sound 2002 Out, Out, Out, 1 x projection with sound Yes or No, 8 x projection 2003 In – Out, 1 x projection with sound Moans 2005 of Scars, 9 x projection Power, 1 x projection 2009 True Love, 1 x projection with sound Protection, 4 x projection 2010 Plan B, 5 x projection with sound 2102 Storm in the City, 8 x projection with sound 2015 Finlandia, 2 x projection with sound 2016 Escape, 1 x projection with sound Live, 6 x projection with sound We - With, 4 x projection

Collections

Janton Oy Academy of Fine Arts Kuopio Art Museum Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Tampere City Collection The Art Museum of Helsinki Sampo Group Paulo Foundation OP Financial Group The Wihuri Foundation Lars Swanljung's Collection

Awards 1988 First price in the Environmental Art Competition of Puolarmetsä Allotment, Espoo 1989 Award of City Journal, Helsinki 1993 Young Artist of the year 1993 in Finland 2000 Second price in the competition of Töölö Arena, Helsinki 2002 First price in competition of pakkala International school, Vantaa, Finland 2010 First price in the competition of Särkilahti Bridge

Educations 1998- 2000 Academy of fine Arts, Sculptor, Helsinki STATEMENT: Paavo Räbinä

Having resided in Belgium for a several years, Paavo Räbinä (b. 1965) is an artist who views Finland from a small distance. Instead of the good, the beautiful and the right his works unscrupulously depict man and his surrounding society. In Räbinä’s video installations image, drama and music are amalgamated into moralities fuelled by the frustrated rage of people in breadlines, deprived and shoved aside to the perimeter of their own lives.

Tearing the society apart with such straightforwardness has been rare and shocking in Finland, not unlike the effect Yael Bartana’s works deconstructing national rhetoric of Jewish Israel. Räbinä also challenges the commonly accepted clichés of national narratives, but the intensity of his expression is more head-on than Bartana’s and his approach borderline blunt. Despite this he doesn’t use simple statements – even when dealing with themes like war, violence, struggle for power, suffering and life as a refugee – but instead leaves room for cerebration, pondering and people’s own opinions.

Räbinä’s acute awareness of European history is also a rarity. In 1993 as the war raged in the former Yugoslavia, Räbinä was chosen as the Young Artist of the Year and made Tampereen kapina (Revolt of Tampere) – a piece that refers to Finland’s Civil War. The situation in Yugoslavia prompted an introspection into our own past. In Räbinä’s work the refugees fleeing from Iraq, Syria and other crisis regions are in a sort of limbo. They are physically present but any genuine participation and interaction with the original population is absent. How are they going to change our country? When will their stories be heard? Räbinä creates a mood, situation and space for questions which only the future can answer.

Räbinä has successfully realised several large-scale projects and proven that he masters both the production process and responsible scheduling. He has also worked as a teacher of sculpture at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 1998–2000. His expression is distinct, unique and provocative. It is either hated or loved. Perhaps that is what good art should do.'

Arja Elovirta Curator