Andy Warhol, Pauno Pohjolainen and Francine LeClercq open a new perspective on a traditional subject

Contemporary Art Challenges the Audience and Exhibition Venue at Turku Cathedral

The Finnish national shrine is in for something new and unprecedented when contemporary art fills the chapels of its middle-aged church.

Pauno Pohjolainen’s powerful sculpture, The Last Supper has been joined the saints painted on the Agricola chapel walls. The small Tigerstedt-Wallenstjerna chapel features works by the world-renowned legend of pop art Andy Warhol; and a large installation, mise en [s]cène by Francine LeClercq, dominates the Pormestari side chapel. The underlying theme of all the works of show is one central to Christian art, namely the Last Supper. R.W Ekman, who created the fresco of the Last Supper in the main chapel, handled the same subject during the mid-1800s.

The artwork on show is quite remarkable in itself and an added dimension is born from the dialogue between the exhibition space and the artwork.

Curator Perttu Ollila emphasises that the exhibition is designed for this day and age as well as for this specific location.

The exhibition venue has also inspired the artists and helped in getting hold of the four pieces by Andy Warhol, on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the United States.

Usually, big museums only loan works to each other. However, luckily for us, the unique location in this case stirred the interest and goodwill of the museum folk, claims Ollila.

The exhibition also features an extra four pieces from Warhol’s Electric chair collection, which are on loan from the Turku Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova -museum. Collectively, these eight works reveal a completely new side to Andy Warhol, who to many is known more for his commercially orientated pieces.

The piece by Francine LeClercq has been on show once before in the United States. Mise en [s]cène is based on the famous fresco, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci and gives the viewer a sense of participation. The exhibition visitor is able to circle the table and take the place of the apostles or place their hands into gloves in a plexiglass box and mimic the hand movements of Jesus as he gave Holy Communion to his disciples. A web camera housed in the plexiglass box feeds real time events surrounding the communion table, which can be viewed via the www.turku2011.fi pages.

Pauno Pohjolainen was so inspired by the theme and location of the exhibition that he created a completely new Last Supper piece for Turku Cathedral. Pauno is one of Finland’s star artists and has won, for example, the Ars Fennica award. Pohjalainen has never shied away from religious subjects in the past.

The Last Supper exhibition has been organised by Turku and Kaarina Parish Union. Financial assistance has been granted by the Turku 2011 Foundation, the Archdiocese of Turku, the Church Council and the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Varsinais-Suomi Regional Fund. The exhibition is part of the Capital of Culture’s official programme for the year.