The Nature of Finland: Saara Ekström presents works at the Kolvenburg in Billerbeck

Exhibition sets the mood for the Münsterland Festival part 12 in autumn

Saara Ekström creates multi-layered experiences for the viewer in her photographs, video works, sculptures and drawings. From Sunday, 20 August, the works of the Finnish artist can be seen at the Kolvenburg in Billerbeck. The exhibition "Designing with Nature" is a harbinger of the Münsterland Festival part 12, which will bring art and culture from the land of 1000 lakes to the region for a month from 6 October.

Shaped by associative narratives, Saara Ekström's works move in interplays between reality and fiction, growth and disappearance or the seductive and the repulsive. Different chronotopias - i.e. connections between time and space in a narrative - are placed in a dialogue in her works. In the process, time is sometimes the breeding ground, sometimes the undermining of actions and thoughts, so that the ambivalent desire for memory on the one hand and forgetting on the other is reflected. Again and again, motifs from nature appear in the exhibition curated by Dominik Olbrisch, which enter into a relationship of tension with motifs from industry, human actions or supernatural phenomena.

Dominik Olbrisch will talk about Saara Ekström's work at the vernissage on 20 August from 5 pm. Guided tours will take place in the run-up to the Münsterland Festival concerts at the Kolvenburg on 8 October (2.30 pm) and 27 October (6.30 pm). The exhibition will run until the festival finale on Sunday 5 November.

Tickets for the exhibition are available on site at the Kolvenburg. More information and tickets for the Münsterland Festival events are available at www.muensterland-festival.de.

Organisers & Sponsors

Organiser: Münsterland e.V.
Festival Director: Lars Krolik (Münsterland e.V.)
Artistic Director: Christine Sörries

Supporters: Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Regional Culture Programme NRW), districts of Münsterland (Borken, Coesfeld, Steinfurt and Warendorf), City of Münster, LWL Cultural Department, Finland Institute, Visit Finland, Sparkasse Münsterland Ost, Sparkasse Westmünsterland, Kreissparkasse Steinfurt, Hilde und Bode Crone-Stiftung, Stiftung Kunst und Kultur Münsterland, KulturStiftung Masthoff, Pianohaus Micke, reiseart, Münsterland Siegel, kultur.west (media partner), Westfalenspiegel (media partner), WDR 3 (cultural partner).

General information about the Münsterland Festival

Music, art and dialogues. The concept:

Every two years, for one month each autumn, the Münsterland Festival helps to overcome borders in Europe. With music, art and dialogue, the traditions and attitude to life of a European country or a particular region flow into the Münsterland - in the midst of the people. For that is the special conceptual aspect of the series of events that began in 2005. The extensive programme is not staged in the region's large event halls and museums, but in special, often somewhat smaller venues - in historic moated castles, former industrial wastelands, exhibition halls and art associations, selected concert halls or theatres.

The musical focus is on jazz, pop, folk and classical music and is complemented by a diverse range of exhibitions and excursions. The artists represent the cultural diversity and current trends of the respective host region - sometimes they are already internationally known, sometimes they are exciting newcomers. Exhibitions, excursions and other varied programme items expand the intensive examination of the culture of the host region, so that the Münsterland Festival makes its contribution to cosmopolitan cordiality and lived tolerance. At the same time, it invites you to discover the Münsterland and get to know it even better.