Cadavre Exquis

7.5.–6.6.2021

Cadavre Exquis – surrealist game, is a playful and experimental project that opens the process of collective creation to be observed and experienced by the audience. 

The inspiration behind the project is Cadavre Exquis (or Exquisite Corpse) game invented by surrealists. In the game, participants continue a drawing created by another artist based on little markings left visible after the paper has been folded. The approach emphasises collaborative working process rather than the display of a completed body of work. 

Trough the game – and other artistic processes – surrealists tried to distance themselves from the concepts of efficiency and reason as organising principle behind the society. According to surrealist conceit, it is possible to achieve freedom only via collective action, using the method of automatization whichprovides subconscious an opportunity to reveal itself. This encourages artists to use methods they normally wouldn’t use, techniques that are foreign to them, and distance themselves from their oeuvre. The purpose of the game is to have fun, fulfil fantasies, dreams and visions without any premeditation. 

At Titanik, the project examines how a direction for the future can be found collectively, in dialogue with other artists, and without a set goal. The process strives to support collectivity with the help of polyphony, not despite of it. The project also critiques the demands of productivity and efficiency set by the society and the artworld, which is manifested in the competitiveness and earnestness of the field. This time and place, distorted by the pandemic, provides an opportunity to test new, unseen ways of operating. No logic appears to hold, so instead of adapting existing plans, why not let go of them altogether. 

During the four-week-long project, each artist inhabits the gallery for one day during which they create a work of art in response – and continuation – to the work of the previous artist. The project expands and changes every day, creating a way toward a whole that has no aim, a whole that cannot be known and apprehended during the process. 

Taiteilijat / Artists

Camille Auer
Juha Allan Ekholm
Anni Haunia
Marie Johnsson
Sirkku Ketola
Hertta Kiiski
Jessica Koivistoinen
Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova
Kaisa Lempinen
Sami Pikkarainen
Anni Saijonkivi
Schmuck
Hans Peter Schütt
Hanna Storm
Anna Tahkola
Rita Vaali
Sanna Vainionpää
Jani Petteri Virta
Mervi Vuolas
Paula Väinämö
Maria West

Arte is an artists’ association founded in 1960 by Turku based visual artists. The association runs the oldest contemporary art space of the city, Titanik, which was founded in 1988. Ten years later Arte established an international artist residency, which has focused specifically on sound art since 2013.