Artspace and residency
DJ’s & LIVE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC:
Tuomo Väänänen
Arvid van der Rijt
Captain Heroin
A sound installation by Girilal Baars
Tritonia Academic Library
Yliopistonranta 7, Vaasa
Part of LittFest 2012 festival
Straddling the fence between Swedish and Finnish i Ostrabothnia, the installation attempts a rapprochement between the languages. Pikku pikku liten is an audible exploration of the linguistic cloud of Ostrabothnia: how over time words have drifted from one language to the other and back again, how the consonants and vowels have crowded in on each other.
Pikku pikku liten was conceived during a Platform residency in Vaasa in the winter of 2012. 25 individuals were recorded, each speaking in the range of a hundred words and phrases, spanning the gap between Finnish and Swedish. All the words that were collected and recorded have migrated from one language to the other, and sometimes back. In fact, some words have clearly been borrowed back and forth between the languages several times. Pikku pikku liten is piece that investigates the similarities of the languages, which, after all, have largely co-existed in the same region for centuries and so will undoubtedly have rubbed and soaked in each others’ essence in many subtle ways.
Many thanks to Platform and to all the folks who dug into their linguistic repository, sometimes reluctantly. And of course special thanks to those who kindly lent their voices to this project: Panu Sivonen, Ulrika Ferm, Seppo Lemponen, Peppe Rosvik, Eeva Lemponen, Marcus Lerviks, Eija Leinonen, Jimmy Pulli, Tuomo Väänänen, Mia Damberg, Maaria Niemi, Mikael Niemi, Ingela Johansson, Mariia Niemi, William Johansson, Marius Niemi, Ben Johansson, Pieta Turkka, Felix Eskola, Jimmy Pulli, Anna Slotte-Lüttge, Rasmus Hedlund, Alma Lüttge and Sami Jansson.
Girilal Baars is a composer, singer and musician working with contemporary experimental music and with traditional vocal ethnic/folk music. He is based in Uppsala, Sweden, but was born in Moscow, U.S.S.R., by Dutch and Indian parents. Many of his latest projects and compositions have featured voice, live electronics and sensors and attempt to explore old vocal traditions (ballads, folk songs, ethnic extended techniques, e.g. Tuvan throat singing) through contemporary experimental music techniques and aesthetics.
As a member of the male vocal quartet “Äijä”, with the “Girilal Baars Trio” and as a solo artist he has repeatedly toured Sweden, Finland and Russia, and also performed in the USA, UK, Germany, Tuva and several other countries. In 2009 “Äijä” released the CD “Jet-Black”, which was nominated for a Finnish Grammy in the ethnic music category.
Welcome to participate ALL!
14.–28.10.2012 at Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa.
Participation is free from the entrance fee to the museum.
The Audio Linguistic Laboratory is a cross-disciplinary project that deals with the investigation of the harmonic content in the two local languages Finish and Swedish.
The laboratory itself consists of a setup for video recording and a string-based instrument that instantaneously translates any sound to musical harmonics. The citizens of Vaasa are invited to come by to collaborate on creating abstract audio-video-portraits of the finish and the swedish language.
ALL is a project by the German sound- and media artist Florian Tuercke who is currently artist in residence at Platform.
In his artistic work, Tuercke investigates the musical and compositional structure of public space. Amongst others, his projects took place in Mexico City (2012), the European Capital of Culture Turku (2011) and 26 US-American Cities (2008/9).
More information on: www.urban-audio.org
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‘An object of desire already lost’ is an ongoing work presenting objects within an immersive environment that suggests questioning, possibility and radical otherness during a time of profound cultural uncertainty. Through continuing research a collection of textual, audio and visual objects that relate to mythologies of club culture have been generated. These objects take the form of an installed work evoking a repository of strange knowledge (engaging aesthetically with archival practices and museum display).
The various objects (texts, transcriptions of conversations, photographic images, printed matter, techno music and ephemera) aim to question the ownership of culture, history, ideology and action as well as the limitations of culture as a means of individual, social and political transformation. Utilizing the language of recorded cultural histories the objects are rendered both recognizable and strange, raising issues of memory, imagination, desire, possibility and the function of cities in relation to human bodies.
An object of desire already lost – Part 1 will be installed in the project space at Platform Kasern. Visual artist and techno producer Rasmus Hedlund will install audio as part of the event and an artist’s book produced by Emma Haugh during the residency will be shown alongside other new works.
About the artist
Emma Haugh is an Irish artist based in Dublin. Her background comprises Forum Theatre facilitation, club promotion, Dj-ing, photography and an ongoing involvement in the collaborative realization of queer/ alternate cultural spaces. Emma’s visual art practice finds points of departure that both resist and utilize knowledge and skills garnered from these activities.
Starting points for active research are often built out of spoken language and the language of the body. Conversation and improvised exchange have become important processes for developing ideas, often documented through audio and textual transcription that moves back and forth.
Subjectivity/objectivity, the imagination as a relational space, the physical/psychological boundaries that manifest in relation to architecture and the social/cultural hierarchies of our cities are ongoing themes.
Emma has taken part in several residencies in Ireland and has co-organized an international residential project ‘engage 2012’ in Bucharest, Romania earlier this year. She recently produced a commissioned work with Commonplace projects in Dublin, curated by Sally Timmons, the work ‘Berghain’ will travel to Berlin for exhibition in early 2013. Emma has shown her work in several solo and group exhibitions in Dublin. This will be her first solo exhibition abroad.
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Open Air Movies
outside Platform’s studio at Kasern 14, Korsholmsesplanaden 6–8, Vasa
Saturday 28.8.2012 at 21.30
Come and enjoy some good indie movies! Bring something to sit on, and some mosquito repellent too.
In case of bad weather, the event is indoors. Welcome!
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Gyz La Rivière: 12
a film about the Fret Click
Juvenile malice! Inventiveness on the skateboard! Preambles of many trends in current skate culture! These are the qualifications that founded the reputation of a tight group of twelve friends that called themselves the Fret Click – a name which origins are still covered in fog… or smoke?!
In a fast, humorous and also moving way, debuting director Gyz La Rivière documented the ‘Frets’ in their prime and current activities. Although persistent in staying young, adult life gets a hold on almost all of them… but heck… growing up is not a crime.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W31Xuk3OMXY
See also: http://www.gyzlariviere.nl/
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Oscar Hagen: Dysterbotten
A very personal portrait of Österbotten, through the eyes of Oscar Hagen.
‘Dysterbotten is a fictional work based on my own experiences and stories which I’ve heard, from smaller communities in Österbotten in Finland, also know as the ‘Bible belt’.
With Dysterbotten, I’d like to put some aspects of small town life into spotlight, which otherwise would remain in the shadows. Not the extreme cases, but those who manage to live undisturbed. They are people who most often are misunderstood because others do not have a clue what their life is about. Media often gets it totally wrong, because of journalists who don’t have any idea about the subject they are writing about. I want to show a neutral and accurate picture of how I see the situation is among those who are branded as criminals in a small community. They often live in their own world, and try to stay outside the society as much as possible. I’m not trying to show their way of living as cool and exciting, but I’m not moralizing their choices either. I want to show events and situations that are born out of the passive and sometimes absurd life which they are forced to live.’ Oscar Hagen
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Lorenzo Casali & Micol Roubini: Green Gold
A movie shot in Österbotten, while the artists were in residency in Nykarleby.
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.
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FB
www.facebook.com/diverseuniverse
Homepage:
performants.tumblr.com/
diversefestival.tumblr.com/
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Wed 20.6.2012, 20.00 at Platform Studio
Kasern 14, Korsholmsesplanaden 6-8, Vasa, Finland
Artists
Non Grata (Estonia): Anonymous Boh, Devilgirl, Miss Korea, BJ Dealer, Ken Zero, Bloody Drunker, MR. Lee, Kapuki, Techno Animal
Around the name NON GRATA there have been different hushes and shushes for a long time. Already from the point of view of death of conventionalization of art it has embodied the horrible and unwanted disembodiment of human person, from which the meaninglessness of nowadays art, is pouring out. For those, whose world of arts starts from the point, where the art world ends, NON GRATA has been a liberator, the orphic gap in the seemingly unalterable course, which however betrays us, it is a cure from incest. The main point of the group is ethical – it is the image of primitivism, impersonality and experimental creativity. The performances of the group take place according to the logic of avoiding codes. The presentations are physical texts, whose ways of orthography and reading are kept within limits of real actions by the groupmembers. Aesthetical and provocative challenges are represented in places, where the Art World doesn’t work.
lonestarexplosion.org/2012/03/20/non-grata-2/www.nongrata.ee
Anonymous Boh (Estonia)
Estonian Anonymous Boh has been active from 1992 on a frameless territory where an art object has seized to exist as a physical piece. The space has many dimensions upon which the activity has been built. Curating the performance group Non Grata actually means creating a certain kind of school which can be characterized by features as structured chaos, performances in arbitrary environments and interiors.
By obtaining its reputation as an alternative, Boh has swooped onto the global art landscape without looking back. Performances, art tours organized in tens of cities across Europe, Asia and America have turned the notoriously alternative Non Graters into a creative collective who are much better known elsewhere than in Estonia. Their experience is not a subject much talked about, although artistic activity transcending boundaries of art and countries is today’s artist’s most desirable self-realization.
Devilgirl (Estonia)
Devilgirl is Estonian performance, installation and new media artist, educated in alternative art institution Academia Non Grata in Estonia, Academy of Fine Arts of Helsinki and Tallinn and Universität der Künste in Berlin. She is one of the main engines of International Non Grata Performance Group since 1998. As Devilgirl, this femme fatale has been seen on over continental underground scene worldwide, wild and anonymous. MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
tajetross.performance.ee
Ken Siebert (California, USA)
Ken Siebert in American performer, sound artist, also painter and sculptor. Graduated from San Fransisco Art Institute. Living and working in Sacramento, California.
Jung Hoon (KOR)
Jung Hoon Lee is South-Korean performer and dancer. Director of Theater Dumi. Performed all over Europe and Asia. Living and working in Seoul.
Myk Henry (Ireland/NY)
“Provocation when used intelligently can be a powerful means of jolting the spectator out of their normal comfort zone. Once this happens the mind is open to suggestion and people begin to think outside of the box.”
Born in Dublin Ireland; moved to New York 1984. Henry became a pioneer of the Williamsburg bohemian “immersionist” movement. His art investigates the audience’s sense of self awareness, engages them in a transformative process. His work is provocative, edgy and slams the viewer into the center of political issues, social conditioning and human taboos.
1 KA (France)
1 KA is an experimental industrial tekno project from Toulouse, France, Terre Blanque Commune. Individualists of Terre Blanque, Zone Autonomie, are Situationists, Performators-Reformers. Instead of the word Artist, 1 KA uses terms as Cyber Poet or Psychedelic Activist. A community with no laws. No Rules. Psychological Consensus. Evolution Deep in the Brains. Form is to be destroyed!
Realisations since 1995 industrial many liveset/performances/installations. Actually the metal dance will storm your mind!
www.jamendo.com/en/artist/1KA
A public art work on a balcony in Vaasa
A cloud of bubbles made out of wire grid is emerging out of a private balcony on the back of the apartment building on Koulukatu 62 in Vaasa.
German visual artist Susken Rosenthal is currently the artist in residence at Plaform in Vaasa. The work she has produced during her stay is called ‘Finnish Dream’.
The intstallation or cloud could be seen as the ideas, hopes and dreams that every individual person has about his or her life, normally invisible, anonymous, now pouring out of the balcony the cloud is opposed to the flat sliding windows of the facade.
The installation can be seen from 7th to 30th June.
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Là-bas->
Concept of Performance
Wen Yau (China)
Jószef R. Juhász (Slovakia)
Nastja Säde Rönkkö (UK/Finland)
Three artists from the La-Bàs-> Concept of Performance biennale (in Helsinki, 25.–29.4.2012) visit Vaasa on Sunday, 22.4.2012. Welcome to Kuntsi, 14.00–17.00.
More info about the artists on the La-Bàs-> website: www.labas.fi
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15.–31.3.2012, Vaasa Railway Station
Thursday–Saturday, 1–4 pm.
Opening 15.3.2012, 2–8 pm.
In association to the IHME Contemporary art festival in Finland the interactive sound installation I can hear your heart beat by Mari Kretz, Platform’s current artist in residence, is shown in Vaasa.
I can hear your heart beat is an interactive sound installation which registers, visualizes and makes the inaudible audible. Two chairs are placed facing each other, next to each chair is a loudspeaker. Two participants sit on the chairs facing each other. Electrodes are placed on the participant’s chests. Their heartbeats are transmitted through the loudspeakers. After a while, both hearts are synchronized, then they return to their own rhythm. An intimate meeting takes place.
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The site for The IHME Contemporary art festival’s production, Christian Boltanskis’ The Heart Archive and the recordings in Vaasa is Vaasa City Library. You can participate during the opening hours of the library.
Comments closedGirilal Baars Artist Talk
+ Guided Tour to the “To Have/To Own” Exhibition
Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, 19.00–22.00
Platform’s current artist-in-residence Girilal Baars will present his work.
He will also perform “Two Timing”, a piece inspired by and based on James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”. “Two Timing” is a piece for voice and electronics and during this performance Girilal will be accompanied by Panu Sivonen on oboe and Arvid van der Rijt on electronics.
After the performance there’s a guided tour to the “To Have/To Own” exhibition by curator Ulrika Ferm.
Also some DJing in the Cafe Simo.
Welcome!
More info:
www.girilal.com
www.platform.fi/2011/to-haveto-own/
