Maritta Nurmi. Fish Belly, summer 2016

Fish Belly is a community art project, which focuses to ecological issues. It will be made with dwellers in the city area and of shores and islands off Rauma.

Come and join the making! Due to be completed in June–July, Fish Belly (FI: Kalanmaha) will be on show until the beginning of September. Both seamen and landlubbers are welcome to participate art (fish!) making with visual artist and biologist Maritta Nurmi. Final installation piece - FISHBELLY - will be hanged at Kylmäpihlaja light house island and near the Holy Cross Church Bridge.

To be able to join the project, you will see the artist Maritta Nurmi in the city or just go to the Rauma Art Museum, where the instructions will be given. Nurmi can be identified by her red beanie and the Kalanmaha sign, and the public can meet her where things are happening: in the Market Square, at Poroholma Camping site, Seppä House, the saunas by the shore at Merikylpylä (Sea Baths), the Art Museum, Kylmäpihlaja etc. Everyone is welcome to knit and help to build the work together with the artist.

Nurmi is challenging us to discuss the littering of nature and decomposition of matter. Time for fishing line to decompose is 600 years! Correspondingly plastic bottles and diapers 450 years, plastic bag 250–450 years, aluminum can 200-500 years, cigarette butt 5-15 years, chewing gum 5 years, milk carton or a cardboard cup 1-5 years. The glass stays forever, it does not decompose.

Nurmi also challenges people to think more ecologically. You can reduce a consumption of plastic bags eg. by buying a textile shopping bag that is designed and made by Maritta Nurmi in collaboration with local Hellapuu design cloth company. Bag is sold at Hellapuu, Kuninkaankatu 13, and at the Rauma Art Museum.

Maritta Nurmi's project is part of the Rauma Biennale Balticum 2016 exhibition Vulnerability that opens on Friday 17th June. It is also connected to Veden alla – Underwater art, music and environmental acts in Rauma, an event production by the Association for Rural Culture and Education. Later in summer (17.–20.8.) Life Aquatic event with underwater concerts, sound scapes and sculpture in Rauma Swimming Pool will be organized by the Association for Rural Culture and Education. The underwater concerts in Rauma is the first of its kind in Finland and evening concerts will feature live music by performers from Rauma and Helsinki. Soundartist Petri Kuljuntausta and artist Kristiina Ljokkoi (coming to residency for July) will host guided tours and discussions during the weekdays. For the evening concerts musicians will join them: Tuomas Toivonen, Jarno Tikka, Takku Ylinen and Ville Eriksson.

Maritta Nurmi has created an international career from two quite different but real peripheries, Finland and Vietnam, between which she has been commuting for over 20 years. In 2015 she did Eastern Light project and participated a group show while working at RaumArs residency. Her background in both the arts and natural sciences plus years spent in South-East Asia have introduced alchemist-like methods and experimentation into her work. Through exploring different materials and media, Nurmi’s art has expanded to metal, furniture, clothes and ceramics. She has also engaged in fabric design, fashion and sculpture. The Asian influence in the dynamic of her works is reflected in constant motion and energy and the apparent absence of logic. Lately Nurmi’s works have been shown in Berlin, Paris, Helsinki, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.