Krister Gråhn

Krister Gråhn (born 1979) has been appointed curator of the XXIX Mänttä Art Festival, which will take place in the summer of 2025. Gråhn has worked extensively in the realm of art since the early 2000s. Besides making his own art, he has been involved in the work of art societies, edited art magazines, and engaged in the practical operations of art museums. Over the last couple of years, he has studied curating and exhibition practices in the Praxis Master’s Programme in Exhibition Studies at the Uniarts Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts. In 2023, as part of his studies, Gråhn produced and curated exhibitions for ten residential properties that were for sale in Mänttä. In November, he will also be curating the FLASH4 – Uusi pimeä (“The New Dark”) light art biennale in Tampere.

Gråhn was born in Turku, but spent his formative years in the Ostrobothnia region. Before moving to Mänttä in 2011, he also lived in Liminga, Imatra, Tampere, and Helsinki for various periods of time. He recalls visiting the Mänttä Art Festival for the first time around the turn of the millennium. In 2008, he was one of the exhibiting artists, and in later years, he helped several times to construct the exhibition as a volunteer. For the last 13 years, he has experienced the art festival as a local.

XXIX Mänttä Art Festival will be observed through the word “no”

The summer 2025 exhibition of the Mänttä Art Festival will be observed through the word "no". Subjects such as locality, childhood and parenthood, the human environment, traditions, and the mind and body are examined through the NO lens. The XXIX Mänttä Art Festival will also look at art curation from different perspectives. In addition to about 40 contemporary artists, the exhibition will feature numerous co-curators making this the most extensive curatorial process in the history of the exhibition.

“NO is a small, strong, and difficult word. When I was invited to curate the Mänttä Art Festival, my child was at that age when they would respond to every question with a NO! It made me think about why identities are largely constructed through what we are not," recounts Krister Gråhn on the origin of the theme, “Yet, as an adult, I am repeatedly reminded that I should learn to say no.”

“NO is surprisingly broad in its absoluteness. Not only does it imply external constraints, but it is also a counterforce coming from within. NO refers to something we no longer accept or believe in. NO is autonomy and equality, but it also breeds censorship and racism. Some prohibitions go unnoticed as we consider them so self-evident while others raise the question: why NOT?”

Art curation under the microscope

In addition to the traditional and topical contemporary art exhibition, visitors at the XXIX Mänttä Art Festival will see art curation examined under the microscope. The focus will be on the distribution of power and responsibility of the artistic directing known as curating. Krister Gråhn has invited a group of co-curators, experts in different roles in the art world, to participate. They will bring an unprecedentedly wide range of artists and themes into the programme. The work of the co-curators is largely based on the local context and Mänttä-Vilppula as the setting for the Festival.

“The idea is to dismantle the curator’s autocracy and share the position. With this, the aim is to move the Festival as an institution towards a more community-oriented and conversational direction, which will further connect art and everyday life. I also hope to get away from the one-off nature of art projects. Overall, we are creating an entity, in which the activities linked to the art are an integral part of the exhibition - not just afterthoughts," describes Gråhn.

Art means communication

For Gråhn, art means communication above all else. “While watching my own child grow up, I have often reflected on how children conceive the world before they learn the meaning of words and speech. Toddlers interconnect the sensations provided by the various senses, although they only learn the words for them at a later point in life. For us adults, words seem to obscure this ability. Is art as a medium comparable to this wordless power of deduction that frees us from the shackles of speech?” he ponders.

Despite this question, attempts to turn art into words are a perpetual source of reflection for Gråhn. “The Finnish language, for example, has many dialects, which are spoken in different parts of the country. Perhaps similar dialects also exist in imagery – perhaps images are interpreted differently depending on the environment, context, and era”, Gråhn suggests.

Art is not disposable

For Krister Gråhn, novelty is not an intrinsic value in art. Art is not disposable. In his work, Gråhn often seeks ways for the artistic community to take more responsibility for the environment, on both a local and a global level. For him, one of the most important tasks of a curator is to re-examine established practices from this point of view. Art can only endure through the views of different audiences, and works of art deserve a variety of curating practices during their existence.

Gråhn has purposefully organised exhibitions not only in established art hubs, but also in smaller localities. The objective of his work within the realm of art is to reach a wide audience and to advance the accessibility of art to all.

“The role of art in society is bigger than one may realise. There is art hidden almost everywhere around us. Art is a medium for propaganda and marketing, an educational tool, an indicator of well-being, and a recreational pursuit. New inventions and platforms are often adopted by the artistic community very quickly. When someone comes up with a new way of communication or of conveying a message, it will soon be used in art, as well.”

Looking to the Future

Gråhn considers curating a continuous process rather than one that has a beginning and an end. He works with various curating projects simultaneously. He is the exhibition architect for the KORU8 – International Contemporary Jewellery Triennial, which was on display at the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto until 1 December 2024. From 25 January 2025, the exhibition can be visited at the Oulu Art Museum. In November 2024, Gråhn also curated the FLASH4 – Uusi pimeä (“The New Dark”) light art biennale in Tampere. Preparations for exhibitions to be held in 2026 have already begun, and some plans have even been laid for 2027.