Invisible Race

I feel most colored when I’m thrown against a sharp white background.  

- Zora Neal Hurston  

Invisible Race is a group exhibition that looks at the role of photography and visual culture in the creation of a racialized understanding of humanity, and the effects that photography has had on upholding racist societies. In recent years, racist political parties and movements have been on the rise in the Nordics, Europe and North America, making racism once again a topic of mainstream social and political discourses.  

However, Whiteness is still rarely part of these conversations, even though it is an ideal against which all other races are compared and which we all have internalized. In the Nordic countries, being White has been an implicit part of the national identity.  It has shaped the way we look at and understand the world so much that it has become synonymous with our understanding of what it is to be human. Whiteness functions as a way to justify the uneven distribution of power and resources among people. Thus, in order to work towards a more equitable world, it is crucial to make Whiteness visible. 

As memory organizations, museums hold a vital role in shaping the ways we understand the societies we inhabit. By collecting and archiving the national photography collection of Finland, the museum continuously creates an image of this country’s history. Some artists in the show have addressed the ways in which Whiteness impacts archives, and how it shows up in the collection of the Finnish Museum of Photography. In the show they approach Whiteness both directly and indirectly, looking at how it manifests in social media, in everyday interactions, notions of nationalism, beauty ideals, and the stories we tell and the ones that we don’t.   

Invisible Race shows that the way racism is generally looked at is inherently flawed. In a racist society, there is no outside; We are all affected by the hierarchical relations of power that stem from the notion of race. That is why it is crucial to understand the workings of Whiteness and the havoc it has wreaked upon this world. Photography, video and archives all hold a pivotal role in the normalisation of White supremacy. However, as tools for producing knowledge and memories, they are also vital in its resistance, and in recreation of a decolonised, anti-racial understanding of the world. 

Artists in the exhibition:

Tayo Adekunle
Sim Chi Yin 
Yujie Zhou 
Minna Henriksson 
Ima Iduozee 
Uwa Iduozee 
Nayab Ikram 
Arthur Jafa 
Kahlil Joseph 
Raakel Kuukka
Rene Matić
Zanele Muholi
Karl Ohiri
Elham Rahmati 
Lada Suomenrinne 
Ana Zibelnik and Jakob Ganslmeier 

The exhibition has received a state grant from the Finnish Heritage Agency. Saastamoinen Foundation has supported the exhibition.