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The selection for Platform Residencies 2023 ” The relevance of Artworks an Art Work” has been made.

The selected artists have been contacted.

We want to thank all  artists who applied and hope to see your applications again for next Open Call!

Love

Platform Team

[pilɷŋg] is a collection of minizines with an Ostrobothnian connection. In Ostrobothnian, “pilung” means pollywog, which is the tiny offspring of frogs – just like the minizines . The first edition is a collection of five minizines created by five different artists. The collection is a pilot project with a focus on creative playfulness and creating a space where Ostrobothnian creators can test the genre.

Editor – Sara Östman

Other artists:

Roosa Ruotsalainen

Petra Zajácz-Dvorák

Frida Hinders

Nils Qvis

Sara Östman

Pilung is an independent project. The release was arranged in collaboration with Platform.

RESIDENCY OPEN CALL
NEW DEADLINE 12th of JULY

OUR EMAIL IS NOT WORKING AT THE MOMENT

THIS MEANS THAT ANY EMAILS SENT AFTER

17:45 FINNISH TIME TODAY (9th of July)

HAS NOT BEEN RECEIVED

BECAUSE OF THIS WE ARE EXTENDING THE
OPEN CALL DEADLINE TO THE 12th OF JULY

AND WE WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN THE EMAILIS UP AND RUNNING AGAIN

WE ARE VERY SORRY FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE!

Culture soup on 7 July.

Artist-talks and presentations by Constanza Carvajal, Alan Rios & Stephanie Quirola.

From the beginning of June Platform is hosting 3 artists for a groupresidency.

One of the goals with the residency is that the artists would produce something that can be presented during Night of the Arts on 11 August.

On 7 July Platform arranged a Culture Soup for the public to enjoy a free bowl of soup and be introduced to the new artists- in – residence.

Platform is an art organization based in Vasa, a relatively peripheral Finnish town. We run an art space and a residency to offer live experiences of different perspectives in a location where this would otherwise be limited. The last few years this has been a challenge.

We usually work with an annual theme that we also encourage our guest artists to examine. In 2022 we tried to stay positive, be cheerful, start over and start fresh. We thought that “New beginnings” would be a good theme for the year. But it turns out things didn’t really start anew, mostly everything just kept on grinding or gathering dust.

So for 2023/24 we want to try something different. Instead of giving you a theme to respond to we would like to ask a question and reflect on the artist’s role, the practice of the artist and the relevance of art work/art works. What is the relevance of your work and artworks and how does your practice relate to the Platform residency question?

There are no wrong answers and we definitely don’t want you to feel that you have to justify anything to us. We (Platform Board) are trying to figure it out and are struggling:

Sara: “To me, it’s difficult to answer without jumping into more of an existential discussion. It comes down to finding purpose, both on a personal level and on a common human level. We can survive without art, but what value does that existence ultimately have? To evolve we need to reflect and art (work/works) functions as that pause for thoughts. It’s in a common human interest to form societies where there is room and a strive for pausing and reflecting. In a crisis we don’t have time to think – only act, so for me the possibility to be able to work with art is a sign of a healthy society. The relevance of art works is perhaps how well this reflection on society resonates with the rest of us. The relevance and value of art work and art works are not the same thing. Every piece of art is an individual piece of documentation on societal evolution and a personal piece of our shared story. How we value art work and individual art works reflects us as a society.”

Johan: “The relevance of art works and art work.  It’s way more relevant than a lot of other work or at least less bad than a lot of other stuff done in the name of work. Oh, I made the assumption that relevancy = good. Maybe this isn’t correct?”

Geir: “I think that one of the strengths in art work is the fact that you deal with uncertainties, to handle the nonsensical and create a space for it is necessary. With the nonsensical and the uncertain I’m not referring to being absurd for the sake of it nor the creative buzzwords of the day, but more generally to the mode of thinking and criticality that comes with art work. The revelations that might come with being comfortable in delving into the uncertain. Though I think it’s hard to write and think about art and art work with all the realities surrounding being an artist as the mind wants to go on to ramble about tangents.”

Jenni: “We picked such a complex question this year and it’s hard to articulate an answer in just a few sentences. Therefore I look forward to discussing the theme with you when you arrive for your residency! But let’s say that the relevance of artworks and art work changes by time, context, audience and artist. What’s the relevance of your art work(s)? “

For the year 2023 we have 3-4 slots in our residency and we are particularly looking for:

– Artists who react to and are interested in working with local issues

– Artists who work with place-specific projects.

– Artists who are comfortable working independently in a small town.

We offer

 Accommodation, travel expenses (one return trip, cheapest possible) and a working grant (approx. 300 € per week). We also offer a small production budget of 1000 €, which the artist may reimburse by presenting original receipts of purchases, specifically connected to the project produced during the residency. The apartment is located near the city center in Vaasa. There is a bike, a set of tools and equipment available for the artist. There is wireless broadband access in the apartment. Platform does not at the moment house a studio, however a project space in the city center is available. The planned projects have to take this into account, space can be rented or borrowed if needed for the realization of the project and has to be negotiated in advance. The artist is given a contact person who is in charge of necessary arrangements, if any additional assistance is needed it has to be agreed upon well in advance.

We ask the artist to realize a project, which can be presented either during the residency or at a later stage. The artist is expected to give a public talk, performance or workshop about his/her/their work or an introduction to themselves at the beginning of the residency. We expect the artist to be able to communicate in English, Swedish or Finnish. We require the artist to spend at least 80% of the residency’s duration in Vaasa and the working grant is proportional to days spent in Vaasa. The artists are required to submit documentation of the produced project to Platform, as well as press release / information text / informal report or equivalent.

Application procedure

Please follow these instructions closely. Applications not following these requirements will not be considered. We require the artist to send a digital application to info@platform.fi with the subject ‘Residency Application 2023’ by the 10th of July 2022. The application should be one PDF document with your full name as the title of the document. Don’t paste any relevant information in the email that is not part of the PDF.

Please include the following in the PDF:

-An informal project plan OR motivation letter, max one page. The aim of the letter should be describing the kind of project you imagine doing in Vaasa, your motivation to apply for this residency and your expectations, how you see that your artistic work connects to the question of “The relevance of artworks and art work?” The project plan should also include your preferred period of time, and state if the time period is relevant for the project as well as clearly state what time/ times that aren’t suitable.

-Descriptions and images of 5 projects or art works. For videos, please add direct links to websites in the PDF.

-A CV of max two pages, including: name, date and place of birth, current location as well as email and phone number.

The application shall occupy no more than 12 pages and 5 mb. The board of Platform will make the selection. Only chosen artists will receive a notification about the selection during end of July 2022. The board is under no obligation to justify the selection. If you have questions about the residency please ask them well before the deadline.

Key information:  

Deadline:

 10th of July 

Answer:

 By the end of July

Application:

-1x pdf

-5 previous works, pictures and text

-CV

WHAT?
-Artist-Talk with Marco Salaris, artist-in-residence at Malakta
-After-Work
-Dj-set by our in-house dj Michele Uccheddu

WHEN?
Thursday 9th of June
18.00-

WHERE?
Platform art space
Kyrkoesplanaden 20 D, 65100 Vasa

WELCOME!

About the artist:

SANĀTANA aka Marco Salaris is a musician born in Sardinia in 1988.
Noise multi-instrumentalist since young, he soon dedicated himself to Electroacoustic music and radical improvisation with the project Terminale_3, with which in 2014 he published the album I-Son (TiConZero).

His music is rooted in noise and drone music, developing and finding new trajectories more akin to Electroacoustic and Avant-garde music. His creative process is based on improvisational practices, listening and sound processing, typical of electronic music.
From the 30th of May he is participating in the residency program “Exploring sounds” at Malakta. A project by Michele Uccheddu , Supranu Records and Malakta . In collaboration with Platform , Vasa stad  and Sardegna Sonora

“EXPLORING SOUNDS is a journey through the different possibilities of sound – from nature sounds to sound art.”

Paesaggio (Vaasa)

2022, Vaasa (Finland)

Environmental installation, two channel audio
Variable dimensions

Snow, piezo microphones, glass, zoom H5 recorder, two channel mixer, speakers, plastic sheet

photos, collages
20x30cm

April in Vaasa is a month of transition, during which the hard winter ends and gives way to spring. To capture this change, I observed with interest the melting of the ice that has defined the landscape in previous months. This observation in turn led to the archiving and manipulation of visual and sound materials. A series of landscape photographs, collages, and a sound installation summarize the research.

During this month I photographed the landscape and recorded the sounds of the ice. The collected material was partly manipulated with the databending technique and partly fused into a sound environment.

These works are part of the Paesaggi series, began in 2020. The projects that compose the series, concern the study and interpretation of the landscape, through a dialectical game between “specific” elements of the environment and multimedia technologies.

Paesaggio (Vaasa) is the result of a one-month artistic residency curated by Platform and the Ottovolante Sulcis association in collaboration, done in Platform’s studio in Vaasa (Finland) in April 2022.

Platform as a temporary community
-Shared multimedia storytelling.

WHAT?
Participatory multimedia storytelling. For the first occasion bring an everyday object ( It can be a physical object, sound, text, photo or video.)

●Wednesday 13 th April 17.00-19.00
-Bring an object, introduction, photographic cataloguing of the objects.

●Wednesday 20th April
– Creative process/production

●Wednesady 27th April
-Setting up and sharing works
This workshop is FREE and open to EVERYONE!
Teacher Dario Sanna (ITA)

“The community was activated from the moment we
arrived at this place carrying our objects.”

Welcome!

Join us on our first Platform After Work of 2022!

WHERE? Platform projectroom.
Kyrkoesplanaden 20D

WHEN? Thursday 7th of April
at 19.30-22.00

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN FOR EVERYONE!

During this evening:
• You will have the possibility to meet our
new Artist-in- Residence, Dario Sanna
• You can watch the new muralpainting by Mattias Löfqvist
• You can have a snack and drink in good company
• You will listen to a usic selection by our in-house dj Michele Uccheddu

•• This is also a perfect oportunity to sign up as a member of Platform since our new year of operation starts in April ••

Bring a friend!
Welcome!