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Year: 2011

Platform Live 18.12.2011

Published 13/12/2011 by Platform

Welcome to Platform Live, 18.12.2011, 15.00 at the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art.
On the program is an artist talk by Dutch artists Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis.

Also, before & after the artist talk, there are guided tours of the To have/To own exhibition:
14.00 Tuomo Väänänen, in Finnish
16.00 Ulrika Ferm (curator of the exhibition), in Swedish

Your Home is in our Hands © Wouter Osterholt & Elke Uitentuis

The Dutch artist duo Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis will present several of their former projects and tell about their more recent experiences at Occupy Amsterdam, where they had set up a tent in order to contribute to a global political movement. During seven weeks a collective of artists, writers and theorists has been formed around the tent of Artists in Occupy Amsterdam, creating a public program on spot and starting several collective productions.

See also: www.osterholtuitentuis.nl

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To have/To own

Published 28/11/2011 by Platform

A group show organised by Platform.
Kuntsi museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Finland, 4.12.2011–31.1.2012.
Welcome!

Dragos Alexandrescu (FI/RO) & Sarah Browne (IE)
Maria Nordbäck (FI) & Brynhild Bye (NO)
Stefan Constantinescu (SE/RO)
Kane Do (DE/US)
Audun Eriksen (NO)
Maria Ångerman (FI) & Miha Erman (SI)
FinnFemFel (FI) & Simo Brotherus (SE/FI)
Rasmus Hedlund (FI) & Maria Lundström (FI) & Eija Leinonen (FI) & Tuomo Väänänen (FI)
Esther Pilkington (GB/AT)
Jimmy Pulli (FI) & Christian Rupp (AT)
Anri Sala (DE/AL)
Helga Steppan (SE)
Andrew Taggart & Chloe Lewis (NO/CA)

Curator: Ulrika Ferm (DE/FI)

The exhibition To have/To own at Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art in Vaasa is a part of a larger program organized by Platform in celebration of their first ten years of activities. Earlier this year Platform organized an international symposium and launched the catalogue, Don’t look back. With this program, Platform seeks to highlight the importance of their past and present activities to the artists who have participated, as well as the local community and the cultural life of Vaasa.

The theme for the year 2011 To have/To own is a reaction to the on-going events where art as well as other aspects of society, have gone through huge social, cultural, economic and ecological changes. The selection of the theme is based on the hope that different artists’ and individuals’ reactions toward and understanding of the terms “to have” and “to own” would raise questions and generate discussion on cultural heritage, nomadic patterns, communication, independence, and sustainability.

One part of the exhibition consists of the projects carried out by Platform artists-in-residence during 2011. From circa 270 responses to an open call on the theme of To have/To own, six artists were chosen to spend time in Vaasa. The artists had differing approaches to the theme.  All of these projects will be presented in the exhibition. The other works in the show are based on collaborations. Active members of Platform have decided to form internal collaborations or invited other artists to either collaborate with them or participate in the show. The curatorial starting point for this part of the exhibition was to make the Platform members invest their artistic capital in a joint project – where collaboration is encouraged.

The original goal of Platform was not to function as a forum for showing members’ work, but to serve as a facilitator for other artists. However, over time, Platform members have gradually become more artistically involved in Platform’s activities. For example, Platform created the artist group Cheap Finnish Labour, which initially provided the workforce necessary to realize other artists’ projects, but eventually, Cheap Finnish Labour went on to develop their own projects. Where Platform has been very much about being in Vaasa and engaging with community in Vaasa, Cheap Finnish Labor has sent artists from Vaasa out into the larger world, Istanbul, Venice, and Warsaw.

Fanzine – konstpedagogisk material för lärare.

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TO HAVE / TO OWN

Published 22/09/2011 by Platform

During 2011 Platform has chosen to work with the theme To have / To own; both because it fits well as a theme for a late 10th (11th!) anniversary, and as a reaction to the current cultural situation where art as well as other cultural fields have gone through big social, cultural, economic and ecologic changes. The selection of the theme is based on the assumption that different artists’ and individuals’ reactions on, and understandings of, “to have” and “to own” arouses questions and generates discussion on cultural heritage, nomadic patterns, communication, independence and sustainability.

Symposium “TO HAVE / TO OWN”, 23rd–25th September 2011, Vaasa City Hall, Chamber Music Room, Vaasa, Finland.

The symposium allows for discussion and collaboration on issues related to three given topics; activism and democracy in contemporary art, artist identity and localness in a global context, and dealing with different forms of collectives and the engagement of the community.

Friday September 23rd
15-15.30 Ulrika Ferm (FIN/DE), artist, curator, Berlin; Introduction
15.30-16.15 Rolf Büchi (CH/GB), writer, London; Activating Democracy.
www.iri-europe.org/en/publications/guidebooks
www.activatingdemocracy.com
16.15-17 Jaana Kokko(FIN), artist, Helsinki, Thoughts on anarchism
www.jaanakokko.com
30 min. break
17.30-18.15 Shelly Silver (USA), artist, New York; Response – Responsibility.
www.shellysilver.com
18.15-19 Per Huttner (SE), artist; Can art change the world?
www.perhuttner.com
19-20 attending opening City Art Hall, Vaasa
20- “Vaasa in Luck”- closing ceremony at the Platform studio
http://luck.random-people.net
Saturday September 24th
11-11.45 Mika Hannula (FIN/DE), writer and curator, Berlin; Modernity Retired – Outline of a Project.
11.45-12.30 Esther Pilkington (GB), artist and curator, Wales; Collaborations – The Things We Do Together.
http://geheimagentur.net
http://random-people.net
90 mins for lunch
14.00 – 14.45 Nina Czegledy (HU), artist, curator and writer; Paradigm Shifts in Contemporary Media Art  Practice.
www.ninaczegledy.net
14.45-15.30 Kennedy Browne (IE), collaborative practice of Gareth Kennedy and Sarah Browne, Ireland; How Capital Moves.
www.kennedybrowne.com
coffee 30 mins
16.00-16.45 Helga Steppan (SE), artist; “Lost and Found” site-specific project.
www.helgasteppan.com
Sunday September 25th
11-11.45 Stine Hebert (DK), acting director, BAC, Visby; Institutionalization of the Self-Organised.
11.45-12.30 Maureen Connor (USA), artist, New York; How to be an Artist in Residence for the US Government – a project of the Institute for Wishful Thinking.
www.theiwt.com
30 min break
13-13.45 Sophie Hope, practitioner, London; Censorship, compromise and cancellation? The culture of commissioning socially engaged art in the UK.
www.welcomebb.org.uk
13.45-14.30 Minna Heikinaho (FIN), artist, Helsinki. Experiences in the urban space – the incompleteness of community art. www.saasanoa.com

 

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Forgo

Published 21/09/2011 by Platform

The project “Forgo” focuses on people who, for one reason or another, have chosen to or been forced to forgo something.

The project is a collaboration between artists Brynhild Bye (NO), current artist-in-residence at Platform and Maria Nordbäck (FI). Together they will arrange several sewing and embroidery workshops in cooperation with local women’s groups in Vaasa, Finland and Trondheim, Norway. The collaboration will lead to two exhibition works; a tapestry of embroideries assembled into one blanket and a documentary photographic work of selected individuals.

The project is based on social engagement and art’s ability to help in identifying opinions and attitudes. The work will be exhibited in the exhibition “To have – To own” at KUNTSI Museum of Modern Art in Vaasa December 2011.

The first open sewing circle will start monday 12.09.2011 at 7 pm at Platform Studio, Korsholmsesplanaden 6–8, Kasern 14

We are also looking for individuals or already existing sewing circles to participate in our project.

If you are Interested contact us. Send an email to: maria.nordback@netikka.fi

More information on www.brynhildbye.no/english

Brynhild&Maria

 

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Vaasa in Luck

Published 14/09/2011 by Platform

Vaasa in Luck is a project by Esther Pilkington (GB/AT/DE), current artist-in-residence at Platform, which will be conducted during her stay in Vaasa; Esther has a piece of gold, which she offers to trade for something of lesser value. The object she gets in return she will again offer for exchange, and again, and again – until she is left with nothing. If you have anything at home that you do not need or want anymore – now is the time to give it away for something you might need or want. If you swap objects with Esther, you can only win!

Vaasa in Luck is a meditation on a well-known fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, entitled “Hans im Glück” (Hans in Luck). In this fairy tale, Hans, after 7 years of servitude, is set free by his master and rewarded with “a piece of gold as big as his head”. On his journey home, Hans first trades the piece of gold for a horse, then the horse for a cow, the cow for a pig, the pig for a goose, the goose for a grindstone that eventually falls into a well. Left with nothing, Hans is happy: “No one under the sun is as fortunate as I am”.

The exchanges of objects will create encounters and while, on a material level, Esther will aim to loose, what will be gained from the exchanges is an archive of stories attached to the traded objects. The objects, exchanges and stories will be documented on-line, as well as in a lecture performance that marks the end of the project – it is there that Esther will give away the final object in her possession.

The project will open with a short lecture performance on 27.8.2011, 7:30 pm, at Platform’s studio, Korsholmsesplanaden 6-8, Kasernen 14. After this, until 23.9.2011, Esther will be at the studio Wed-Sun from 4pm to 7pm, in order to exchange objects. Appointments can also be made outside these times. More information on the project and on the objects will be made available on-line at luck.random-people.net. You can contact Esther on luck@random-people.net for further questions, comments and, most importantly, for suggestions about what you would like to trade with her.

 

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Platform Live 2.9.2011

Published 14/08/2011 by Platform

SQUID project is an online, ever-expanding archive of texts, written by professionals from the cultural field from all over the world. It is also a framework for offline activities such as public readings, artists’ presentations and discussions. SQUID was started in 2005 and is run by the artists Katja Aglert [SE], Martijn van Berkum [NL], Janna Holmstedt [SE].

During the event, the text archive will be on display and you are welcome to sit down and read texts, browse the website, print your favourites and listen to sound files.

The invited guests for the evening are visual artist Anna Lundh and composer/sound artist Johan Landgren. They will both individually conduct live performances that are thematically and conceptually connected to their text contributions, which will be released the same day.

Johan Landgren will perform one of his experimental voice acts, which he describes with the words: The voice is false. False like a bad copy, a hybrid, an impostor. Lend me your ear and I will tell you why. And show you how.

Anna Lundh’s starting point is her investigation into composer Karl-Birger Blomdahl’s unfinished opera project ‘Sagan om den stora Datamaskinen’ and, specifically, one of the remaining documents (dating 1967) – a list of concrete sounds to be used in the opera. Through Lundh’s performance she problematizes the relationships between concepts such as time, history, ‘the now’, technology, sound and text.

 

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Platform Live 11.8.2011

Published 01/08/2011 by Platform

Non Grata – Force Majeure

More info: http://www.nongrata.ee/

 

Tomasz Szrama – Dress Rehearsal

Also DJs Ufo-Matti, Arvid & Ljudverket DJs.

Address: Kasern 14, Korsholmsesplanaden 6-8

Free entrance. Welcome!

 

 

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Platform Live 22.6.2011

Published 20/06/2011 by Platform

Kane Do

Kane Do (US/DE) is in Vaasa during June-July to carry out a project, which will be presented in a group exhibition arranged by Platform at Kuntsi in December 2011. This evening he will talk about his practice.

“As his predominant means of artistic expression, the artist Kane Do employs industrially pre-fabricated materials. His works are created often by means of minimalist alterations to everyday objects or to already existing spatial ensembles. In a playful and subversive manner, he re-forms or de-forms the original condition of the objects or surroundings in question, so giving them a new significance. Thus his works oscillate between the aesthetics of the day-to-day world and social criticism with a humorous and ironic undertone…” Keumhwa Kim

Kane Do was born 1974 in Qui-Nhon, Vietnam. He received a BA from Reed Collage in Portland, Oregon, USA in 1996 and an MFA from UdK, Berlin in 2006. In 2000 he carried out independent research at CCA (Center for Contemporary Art) in Kitakyushu, Japan. He has exhibited in Japan, USA, France and Germany. Currently he’s based in Berlin.

More Info: http://www.kanedo.de/

Olof Olsson

“I’m a product of the emerging charter tourism industry of the 1960s: my Dutch mother and Swedish father met in Mallorca. When I was seven I wanted to be a rock star, when I was nine I wanted to be a journalist, when I was ten a radio disc jockey, and when I was a teenager I was confused. I went to university, and studied English, philosophy and translation theory. But that made me no less confused. Then I started to do documentary photography Initially enthusiastic, I soon started to doubt what truth the camera could deliver. Eventually I started to do art. Since 2007 my work has focused on performance. I use performance as a vehicle to ask questions: the eternal Why? (Like, why has there been twice as many heads of state wearing beards in England, than in the US?). I’m specifically interested in the contract between audience and performer, and the way we connect the character of a voice to an idea of a person or a god or a ghost.”

Olsson (DK/SE) will speak about words. Why he likes some and doesn’t like others. And how he as a child was very confused before he realized that a word can mean more than one thing. He might also play the ukulele and sing a song, but promises it won’t be for long.

More info: http://www.laloko.org/olsson

 

Lorenzo Casali & Micol Roubini

Green Gold is a Finnish expression that refers to forestry; to that treasure considered fundamental for the economic system of the country, constituted by lumber of firs, pines and birches. Finland is the most extensively forested country in Europe: forests cover approx. 86% of the land and the larger part of this, belonging to private owners and to the state, is exploited. Following rotation periods of about five years, new forests are planted or sown artificially, in other cases natural regeneration is induced. Very few portions of the original woods are still intact even if, at first sight, the apparent chaotic structure of the plantations and the prosperous vegetation may mislead the observer. More accurate surveys reveal traces of human intervention and manipulation of the natural element on different levels. The project focuses on this intricate relation between the leftovers of untouched nature and the modified environment taking over. The main devices used have been video, sound and photography. A related artist’s book will soon be released in limited edition with the support of SVK-AIR program of Novia Nykarleby.

Lorenzo Casali (born 1980) graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milano, in 2004, followed by studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Lisbon. Micol Roubini (born in 1982) graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, following studies at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. In 2008 she got a degree in audio technology at Irmus, Institute for Musical Research, Milan. In 2010 Casali and Roubini began working together during their residency at the Guesthouse in Cork, Ireland. They live and work between Rotterdam and Milano.

More info: http://lorenzocasali.wordpress.com/ http://casaliroubini.wordpress.com/

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Platform Live 25.5.2011

Published 01/05/2011 by Platform

Audun Eriksen – Adopt a Bird

The next Platform Live will include an artist talk and sound performance by Platform’s current artist-in-residence Audun Eriksen, as well as a presentation of a new project developed in Vaasa, Adopt a Bird. Live electronic music will be performed by Arvid van der Rijt, Rasmus Hedlund and Tuomo Väänänen.

The aim of Adopt a Bird is to establish a connection between people and nature through the use of computers, a medium generally considered a barrier between us and nature. It is also a commentary on “owning/having” since it addresses our responsibility to preserve nature for future generations. “Adopting” implies that we have some responsibility for the bird and the environment, and things that are not part of our immediate surroundings.

Adopt a Bird will assign a bird from an already existing database of ringed birds to individual people signing up as adoptive parents. The birds in the project are all ringed with “read rings”, identification codes which can be read using binoculars. This gives a much higher chance of spotting the birds and getting data on each individual. With server access to databases, and the kind cooperation of some devoted scientists, the artist is able to give the “adoptive parents” feedback if “their” bird is seen somewhere and what shape it is in. The species currently in the project are the Lesser Black-backed Gull and the Bean Goose. Other species may become available as the project progresses. To adopt a bird from the project or to read more, visit: http://adoptabird.net

Norwegian Audun Eriksen has a Master’s degree in marine biology from the University of Trondheim. He has worked as a freelance musician and artist since 1993. He works with acoustic, electronic and digital musical instruments built from recycled materials or open source software. He makes experimental musical/theatrical performances and installations using these instruments and various open source technology, often with nature sounds and field recordings.

More info: http://auduneriksen.com

Address: Kauppapuistikko 12, Vaasa

Free entrance. Welcome!

 

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