Ugo Rondinone

Frahm & Frahm and Kunsthalle Helsinki are proud to present the Finnish solo debut of internationally acclaimed Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964). The exhibition is organised in conjunction with the Helsinki Festival.

The centrepiece of the exuberantly coloured exhibition is vocabulary of solitude from 2014, a meditative installation of sculpted clowns in passive poses. The installation expresses the artist’s characteristic straddling between joy and sorrow: clowns are traditionally meant to be funny and entertaining, but in Rondinone’s exhibition, they are sombre and thoughtful, almost melancholy. The hyper-realistic clowns are of different genders and ethnic backgrounds. Collectively, they form a ‘day in the life’ portrait of a single confined person narrated through 45 different mundane activities: be. breathe. sleep. dream. wake. rise. sit. hear. look. think. stand. walk. pee. shower. dress. drink. fart. shit. read. laugh. cook. smell. taste. eat. clean. write. daydream. remember. cry. nap. touch. feel. moan. enjoy. float. love. hope. wish. sing. dance. fall. curse. yawn. undress. lie.

To find out more, please visit helsinkifestival.fi/en