Taidehanke taidetapahtumana

Meidän perhe -hanke Euroopan unionin institutionaalisen kehikon tällä ja tuolla puolen

Abstract

I examine an art project as an art event. I follow the process of making an art project Our family belonging
to the Turku European Capital of Culture 2011 programme. The European Capital of Culture programme,
as a part of EU’s wider cultural policy, promotes European citizenship. The underlying idea is to foster a
feeling of a citizenship based on shared European values, diversity of cultures and mutual understanding.
In this paper, I argue that the institutional framework enables certain practices. A project formulation falling
inside the programme’s political framework is given financial support. Our family project fulfilled the
aim of a better inter-cultural togetherness by bringing Islam in Finland to the scene. Nevertheless, an art
project cannot merely be interpreted as a reflection of cultural policy, but the eventual character of the
project needs to be taken into account. Besides of Our family taking place within the institutional framework,
it was produced in negotiations between the project actors during the process of conducting the
art project. The artist and his project companions were co-curators who produced Islam in Finland to be
encountered in events built around an exhibition of photo-portraits of families with Islamic background.
Yet, as an art event, the photos are detached from the scene: photos are alive and have the capacity to
form into relations with the viewer.