nynnyt are Hanna Ohtonen & Selina Väliheikki, a feminist curatorial duo that works from and with the notion of friendship. In our practice we contest the unwritten rules and structures of the art world and search for a feminist mode of curating. Our practice is formed by research, discussion, experimentation, daring and a constant questioning of everything, including ourselves and each other.
For us, nynnyt (Engl: wussies/pussies) is not a derogatory term but a declaration of power that we find in the so called soft & feminine values—in empathy, wellbeing, equality and kindness; it represents how we work and how we will keep on moving forward together.
Recently nynnyt have, among other things,
created a programme of learning for the Museum of Nonhumanity, a project by artist Terike Haapoja and Laura Gustafsson;
produced a series of conversations for Conversation Room, a sound art installation by Ariel Bustamante at Aalto University;
and curated a series of events as part of their ongoing project What Can Feminism Do?, which in 2017 is kindly funded by Kone Foundation.
nynnyt works independently and is also available for hire.
nynifesto
For us, feminism means hope: It means action against patriarchy, a shared resistance against norms and solidarity towards all oppressed and ignored. For us, feminism is a process of learning about ourselves, our positions in the world and about connections we hold towards other humans and beings. It’s about learning to recognise our challenges as well as our privileges. It means we are never complete, always many, always partial and continuously undone by others.
Mission: Feminist curatorial practice We think of feminist curating as a way to position ourselves in the art field and in the society; by calling ourselves feminist curators, we remind ourselves of a job to be done—of a need to move forward until a truly equal (art) world is reached. We want to find joy in killing joy. We take seriously the so called soft and feminine values, and aim for a practice that takes off from them, making their true power visible to the world. What interests us most in curating is the curatorial. By this we mean the research that critically examines the act of curating itself—the practices, traditions, structures and conventions behind staging exhibitions. As curators we find it important to truly listen to and care about people, things and situations we work with. For us curating takes place in spaces between. Above all, it is about mediation and making things public. Instead of just describing and criticising situations, we want to do things.
Vision: We see borders as something we can move, break, liquify and occupy—we see them not only as dividers but also as possibilities to connect. We want to question the norms that bind us and redefine the concepts, notions and ideals that exclude us. We argue for an understanding of gender as a free expression of the self—not as something that restricts or holds one back.
Like ecofeminist writer Donna Haraway wrote in 1988, we are: “(—) arguing for politics and epistemologies of location, positioning and situating, where partiality and not universality is the condition of being heard to make rational knowledge claims. — arguing for the view from a body, always a complex, contradictory, structuring, and structured body, versus the view from above, from nowhere, from simplicity. “
Hanna & Selina
29th of March, 2017