Maija Pilvikki Kimanen

Maija Pilvikki Kimanen

Maija Pilvikki Kimanen has made installations, sculptures and machines for years, but now she has returned to her roots to painting. She has had schizophrenia for twenty years, which slows down her artistic work. Kimanen´s experience of the world is unlike anyone else, but the medication makes it difficult to enter flow-states when making art.

To the festival Kimanen brings her new series of self-portrait paintings called Katkarapuasentoja (Shrimp postures). 

Kimanen often deals with limitations in her art. For example she has painted on hospital textiles and some of her pieces convey her shrimp-like posture and cold sweat. Kimanen is also hypersensitive. Kimanen thinks that is a good thing for an artist, because an artist needs to be able to feel things very sensitively. The downside of this for Kimanen is having delusions. But they don’t have to be all bad. Some delusions can be like having a family of ducks staggering into the room or feeling like you´re at a cruise ship. 

Homepage of Maija Pilvikki Kimanen

Curators comments: “Maija Pilvikki Kimanen’s Katkarapuasentoja is a magnificent series of self-portraits. Her paintings are beautiful, personal and touching, and they bring up important topics related to mental health problems. This series has got something very special going on!”