Contemporary Art Documentation Project

Documenting contemporary art consists of recording information about artists and art related phenomena of our time. The information and material collected are analysed and preserved for the next generations.

In 2019, a documentation project recorded information about the “Journey to the Heartland” (Matkalla maan keskipisteeseen) exhibition artists, their lives, work and their thoughts related to the themes of belonging and exclusion. The methods used for this documentation project were themed interviews, photography, video and observation.

The documentation project is a collaboration between the Jyväskylä Art Museum, the Keuruu and Saarijärvi Museums, and the Jyväskylä Artist Association which represents artists from all of Central Finland. During the winter and spring of 2019, the exhibition curator, Rickard Borgström, examined all 213 proposals that had arrived within the application period. After a selection process, 21 artist interviews were conducted. These interviews took place during 2019 and most of them were conducted in the artists’ studios in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Kangasala, Kangasniemi, Keuruu, Tampere and Uurainen. For the artists living and working outside of Finland, interviews were conducted by email. There were eight interviews answered through email. The digital material including photographs, video and sound recordings are conserved in the museum’s photography, sound and image archives.