The installation presents a compilation of two collections:
1) Fire Museum
Amassed over a long period of time, the collection is based on artist Jussi Kivi’s passionate interest, going back to his childhood, in everything that has to do with firefighting.
2) Sillamäe Underground Bunker Exhibition
The collection consists of Soviet educational poster art on the theme of civil defence and firefighting designed to illustrate procedures in case of an attack with weapons of mass destruction. The material was discovered in an abandoned underground bunker on an artistic-geographical expedition to Eastern Europe in spring 2008.
The bunker had in Soviet times housed a training exhibition for civil defence and firefighting personnel. Although the material was upon discovery exposed to the forces of nature and vandalism, the small part of it now on exhibition was rescued for future generations.
Fire & Rescue museum ( as an artwork)
The original function of Kivi's collection was nostalgic dreaming of his personal childhood experiences and excitement of Fire Department. Although the collector is an artist, he has up to now kept the collection strictly separate from his artistic work.
Merging of the apocalyptic soviet poster collection with the earlier firefighting material led to the inevitable transformation of the new compilation into a socially conscious work of art.
The exhibition is produced by FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki.
