Kimmo Ylönen:
Omnitaurus

Omnitaurus is a wooden cabinet the size and shape of a bull, from which an installation spreads out into the space. Inside, it conceals a model of the city of Jerusalem based on medieval maps and the architecture depicted in Giotto's paintings. The city scape also hides souvenirs from the artist's own life. The city is erected on display on the shelves of the sculpture and on the levels that open up from it.

Why Omnitaurus:

The bull is an animal of countless myths. It is also an animal that humans tamed and harnessed to pull plows. Jerusalem is 3,000 years old. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. It is the holy city of three global religions, the only one believed to also exist in heaven. Jerusalem is the center of the old world, around which maps were drawn. It is divided and constantly tense. On the other hand, even the most extreme groups are forced to live side by side there. By loading the city of Jerusalem onto bull's back, Ylönen seeks to understand the big picture and on the other, to sculpt visible the difficulty of forming a complete worldview.

About the history of the bull: 

The first sketch is dated January 2012. The drawings and scale model were made at the Tuulensuu studio in Viitasaari. For years, the bull has been the prince of the studio. Ylönen returns to the bull from other work and travels. As a counterbalance to the heavy wooden sculpture attached to the workshop, parts of the city have been built in artist residencies in Bali, the Finnish Institute in Athens, and North Macedonia, among other places. The temple was created in Mänttä, at the Serlachius Residence.

Omnitaurus has been exhibited four times. It first found its feet in Hämeenlinna in April 2017, on the floor of Gallery Kone. For the second time it was exhibited in October of the same year, at Gallery Aarni in Espoo. The third appearance took place at the Kouta Gallery in Kouvola in September 2019. In April 2022, Kaikkihärkä was seen in Turku, at Gallery Joella. Now Kaikkihärkä takes its place on the floor of Gallery Katariina. Between exhibitions, the bull's load keeps on crowing.

Through continuous, perhaps never-ending work Ylönen also wants to explore the life cycle of a work of art and reflect on the mark he leaves in a world already full of human activity.

About the artist:

Kimmo Ylönen (born 1970, Ylöjärvi) is a visual artist based in the outer archipelago of Parainen.

At the workshop Ylönen builds sculptures using recycled materials and wood collected from the forest floor and from the demolition sites.

Ylönen explores the big questions of humanity and the universe. The construction time of ever crowing work as a whole seems to stretch out over a lifetime.

Alongside the work with the sculptures Ylönen is honing his ability to work on the road with a light set of tools. A piece of work can be, for example, a long performance carried out on foot or by bicycle during which Ylönen creates site specific works that eventually disappear back into nature.