Sorbus — Wasted Years

‘Wasted Years – Sad, sexy, and artist-run’ is a printed publication edited by the artist-run space Sorbus, published in August 2020. From the perspective of the small northern art space, it opens up a view of art, artist work, and self-organised artist-run initiatives in the 2010s, and outlines ways to approach exhibiting art in the future.

Sorbus gallery was an art space operating in Helsinki from 2013 to 2019. It was run by six artists who wanted to fight against their own paralysis, create conditions for the kind of doing they felt was lacking in their environment, generate concrete experiences of alternative approaches for themselves and other artists, and thus put activism into practice in the art field.

But when you’re trying to fuck the system, you just might end up making love to it…

During the extensive artistic project, the ripe vapours of Sorbus wafted far beyond the gallery walls, and the working group got the opportunity to collaborate with some 300 artist colleagues and others involved in art in different ways. Whatever Sorbus is has evolved from these encounters. Accordingly, the ‘Wasted Years’ publication is also made up of many voices: it includes 16 contributions from writers, artists, friends and acquaintances—people who, in one way or another, have influenced Sorbus. In addition, the publication includes excerpts from email interviews with artists; photographs of exhibitions and events; as well as other dank archive material.