“Who do we think we are?”
The name of the classic album released in 1973 by the legendary heavy rock band, Deep Purple. The most authoritative rock critic in Finland at the time, Waldemar Wallenius, took the name seriously and wrote that nothing is more monotonous than monotonous rock. So. Except, of course, monotonous critics.
Of course, no one has come to us at Galleria Ranka to ask such a question. Could not have. We don’t have to think anything, because we are us. The one even demons fear. We are artists, not the usual ones, because they don’t exist and can’t be measured as a median. Artists are not born from the deep springs of the plains. All sorts of other things, yes.
Are we proud? Well, we’re in hell. We have chosen our own destiny and we do what needs to be done – in our own mind. We don’t listen to others. We have also chosen our name Galleria Ranka, according to the chairman of our association, Aarno Ranka. With this choice of name, we rub the elite, who hasn’t heard of Mary Boone. On the same road. And so different, because Rankka is tough.
But who are we really? Let’s repeat this again: artists; those who believe that the world is not as monotonous a place as a critic may drift into. We have Petri Hytönen’s colorful delirium, Marika Kaarna’s oil paint swearing in the name of justice, Mikko Paakkola’s desolation heralding the end of the world, Aarno Ranka’s figures swaying in his faith, and Jyrki Riek’s apocalyptic moralities. And none of this would have happened without Jessica Leino. He is not the discipline and order, but the glue that has held this thoughtless idea together. Thanks to that, we have been able to produce exhibitions since 2015, within the framework of which it is perfectly possible to ask who we really think we are.
The answer: us. Servants of the people.
