FRAGMENTS OF A LANDSCAPE (2026)
Concept / performance / installation: Suvi Tuominen
Curation: Riikka Thitz as part of the Waterways exhibition at Lappeenranta Art Museum
Photos: Tuure Leppänen
Support: Viipuri Säätiö (Vyborg Foundation)
Fragments of a Landscape was based on the history of landscape paintings from the Vyborg Historical Museum that were destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War. Some of the works were transferred in time to the collections of, among others, the museums in Lahti and Lappeenranta, but of others only catalogue entries remained. In these entries the landscape paintings were recorded by size or subject - no images of these paintings exist.
The installation examined the ways in which landscape(s) is attempted to be preserved. Composed of archival fragments, the artwork plays with absence: the landscape is not present as images or spatial elements. The installation was constructed from Stone Age axes found in the Karelian Isthmus that survived the bombings, the Guide catalogue of the Vyborg Museum from 1909, and landscape paintings owned by Tuominen’s Vyborg-born grandmother’s family. The installation was complemented by a dance and performance.