HOLY DESTRUCTION
Holy Destruction (Pyhä Tuho) – On the Purifying Power of Beauty
Galleria Maaret Finnberg, Turku
29 June – 1 August 2010
Artists: Jenni Hiltunen, Anna-Liisa Kankaanmäki, Torsti Niskanen, Kukka Paavilainen, Tiina Pyykkinen, Matti Rantanen, Kim Somervuori, Timo Tähkänen
Curators: Juha-Heikki Tihinen & Annamari Vänskä
Artist-curators: Ville Laaksonen, Maaria Oikarinen, Janne Räisänen, Sara Toivanen
Concept: Ville Laaksonen
Project description:
Holy Destruction – On the Purifying Power of Beauty was a landmark exhibition exploring painting, curatorial practice, and beauty as philosophical problems. It was both an exhibition and a living research process — a collaborative experiment where curators and artists shared equal authorship, shaping a multi-voiced reflection on what sustains meaning in art.
At its core, the project questioned the survival of painting — not through nostalgia or resistance, but through reinvention. The title Holy Destruction referred to the paradox that renewal often requires a form of undoing: that beauty, when truly experienced, can also destroy the boundaries of certainty, taste, and self.
The exhibition introduced a hybrid curatorial model, combining professional curators (Tihinen, Vänskä) with artist-curators (Laaksonen, Oikarinen, Räisänen, Toivanen). The structure reversed the traditional hierarchy: artists acted as curators, and curators as dialogical collaborators, emphasizing reciprocity over authority. The selection of eight painters from over 150 applicants followed transparent criteria that balanced conceptual dialogue, gender parity, and aesthetic contrast, transforming the act of curating into a public process of inquiry.
In the accompanying publication Pyhä Tuho, the curators engaged in an extended theoretical dialogue on the art of curating. The discussion between Ville Laaksonen, Juha-Heikki Tihinen, and Annamari Vänskä explored curating as care (from curare), authorship, and pedagogy. It questioned the myth of the “star curator” and proposed curating instead as an act of parrhesia — fearless truth-telling within the art field.
Laaksonen’s contribution, both as artist-curator and editor, positioned the exhibition as a prototype for process-based curation — a way to think, write, and act through art, where exhibitions are conceived as living arguments rather than fixed displays. His own essay stated:
“I want to tell what is true. I believe that what is true must also be beautiful.”
In this sense, Holy Destruction became a statement on curating as an art form of its own — not simply the organization of works, but the creation of frameworks for collective thinking, emotional intelligence, and aesthetic risk.
The project culminated in a public symposium on beauty held at the Turku City Library, where curators, artists, and philosophers debated art’s ethical and existential role. The discussions asked:
“What kind of thought is sustainable? On which values should art — or life — be built?”
Context:
Conceived and co-organized by Ville Laaksonen, Holy Destruction prefigured his later development of Art Incubator as a platform for experimental, cross-disciplinary, and reflective curatorial models. The exhibition’s structural innovations — shared authorship, dialogical method, and curating as pedagogy — became foundational to his ongoing exploration of art as a system of living ideas.