Sharing Inspiration

Shanghai Expo is a meeting place of different cultures that provides an opportunity for the world to learn about China and for China to learn about the world.

The Shanghai Institute of Visual Art and Finland at Expo 2010 have collaborated on an exhibition for the pavilion opening. Second grade students of the Institute designed posters depicting Finland and it’s participation theme “Sharing Inspiration”. Altogether twenty-five posters are exhibited and some of the posters will be later chosen to be used for the Finland Day invitation. The posters of four students were further selected to win them an entry to the Expo opening day.

Wellbeing, competence and the environment are the three main themes of Finnish participation in the Shanghai Expo. The Finnish approach to the Expo is easily derived from the Finland at Expo slogan: “Sharing Inspiration”. The idea of doing things together is why many of Finnish cultural events in the Expo are products of collaboration between Finns, Chinese and other nationalities. Through this approach we wish to create long-term interest towards Finland and also use the opportunity to learn about China.

With very little previous knowledge about Finland, the young students embarked upon the challenge to grasp their own preconceptions and ideas about Finland and channel them through the medium of graphics and illustration. Guidance about Finland and the Finnish participation at the

Expo was given to students by the Director of Culture Programme Mr. Jani Joenniemi from the Finland at Expo 2010. The students then worked for weeks to produce silk screen prints about Finland. The exhibition process has truly been about Sharing Inspiration and about Finnish and Chinese visual elements and ideas merging.

The exhibition is curated by artist and designer Pan Jian Feng, the director of shtype.org. Pan Jian Feng was the first Chinese citizen to participate in the Greater Helsinki Promotions’ Invitation to Helsinki Programme. The programme invites professionals to spend time in Helsinki and created the base for this project.

A special thank you to teacher Ms. Zhao Jie and the second grade students of Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts: Cai Jiayi , Chen Lin. Chen Ming, Dou Yajun, Fang Shasha, Huang Mengtao, Liuxia, Liu Xin, Pan Yujie, Ren Xiaoshuang, Sun Hui, Xu Shan, Xu Xia, Xu Xun, Yang Huanjun, Yang Liyan, Yeye, Yu Ping, Zhang Chen, Zhang Li, Zhang Yanlin, Zhang Yuxing, Zhao Xiaolin, Zhao Xiaoyan, Zhong Junchuan.

The exhibition is organized by Finland at Expo 2010 and sponsored by Stora Enso China.

Finnish Kasino Creative Studio and Chinese designer and calligraphic artist Pan Jianfeng come together to produce a Chinese-Finnish visual dictionary.

The project was initiated during Pan Jianfeng’s recent artist residency in Helsinki. The productive collaboration resulted in the creation of a series of photographs depicting Chinese calligraphy characters for words such as ’snow’ and ’skin’. The meaning of the characters is translated for the viewer through visual representations of the words in Finnish landscape.

The photographs will be part of the visual imagery of the Finnish pavilion and marketing material of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. The images will also form a part of the visual identity for the City Festival taking place in Shanghai in May and produced in collaboration with the city of Helsinki. The collaboration will continue in the form of a planned publication.

The project has already received widespread attention and has been invited to participate in the 2010 International Calligraphy Art Festival Hangzhou, the most significant contemporary calligraphy show in China. The exhibition is curated by the Center for Modern Calligraphy in China Academy of Art and is attended by the 120 best-known calligraphers in the world.

Kasino Creative Studio team consist of creative director Pekka Toivonen, script writer Tero Kartastenpää, photographer Jussi Puikkonen and copy editor Jonathan Mander. Kasino Creative Studio specializes in editorial concepts, content and design, and arts marketing, moving image entertainment as well as photography and art direction. Pan Jianfeng is a Chinese visual artist working with a variety of media including painting, porcelain, design, video installations and animation. Pan Jianfeng participated in artist residency in Helsinki in February 2010 as a guest of the Greater Helsinki Promotion’s Invitation to Helsinki programme and Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme (HIAP).

www.wearekasino.com