Artspace and residency
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+ DJ Arvid van der Rijt
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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More info: http://www.nongrata.ee/
Address: Kasern 14, Korsholmsesplanaden 6-8
Free entrance. Welcome!
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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/
“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
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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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
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Helga Steppan is a Swedish artist who’s at the Platform residency during February and March. She’s working mainly with photographic media in combination with installation and elements of performance. One of her main interests lies in the meeting-point — or space — between the two- and three dimensional, like the way everyday objects, people and situations interact with each other. Steppan constructs environments dealing with issues of identification, storytelling, ownership and consumption. In her multi-pronged experiments in documenting and archiving, she aims to demonstrate that the process of reconstruction highlights the powers of apparently mundane objects to summon memories and evoke experiences.
More info: www.helgasteppan.com
Florian Tuercke is a German artist, currently Artist in Residence in Nykarleby. He says:
“My main interest in my artistic work is public space. Sculpture, performance, sound- and mediaart merge together to project orientated artworks. My current long-term project is a musical research within the sound of traffic. Therefore I examined the street sounds of a number of Cities in America, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany (and soon Finland).”
More info: www.urban-audio.org, www.stadt-akustik.de, www.bassbediener.com
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Pernilla Ljungkvist is a Swedish artist based in Gothenberg.
Sometimes she’s living someone else’s life, acts like them, think their thoughts and takes over their identity.
Sometimes she writes letters to them, plants herself in their subconsciousness and controls even their tiniest movements.
Sometimes she only watch them from a distance.
Sometimes she takes part at religious meetings and takes over the place of the leader, sometimes she watches reality TV and wishes that she never again would have to meet any living person.
She likes animals, and wonders sometime, if life without them is worth living.
She’s made performances in Europe, China, USA and Japan, and will finish her MA studies at Konsthögskolan Valand this year.
More info: Pernilla Ljungkvist
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This year’s last Platform Live offers a wide selection of international performance art: Willem Wilhelmus (Finland/Netherlands), Nathalie Mba Bikoro (Gabon/UK), Myk Henry (Ireland/USA) and Martin Renteria (Mexico) will do performances on this week’s Friday at the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art.
Address: Sisäsatama, Vaasa / Inre hamnen, Vasa
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Stefan Constantinescu, artist and film director, will present two film projects, Troleibuzul 92(8’00) and My Beautiful Dacia (72’00). He will also talk about an ongoing group project, The Iron Curtain, a box of memory, which is done in collaboration with Xandra Popescu, who will be present as well.
Stefan Constantinescu is a visual artist and a film director. In 2010 he participated at the Bucharest Biennale 4 where he presented the installation “An Infinite Blue”. In 2009, he represented Romania at The Venice Biennale, with the films “Passagen” and “Troleibuzul 92″.”My Beautiful Dacia” that is co-directed with Julio Soto, is a portrayal of Romania’s transition from Communism to Capitalism through the story of the Dacia automobile, an emblem of Communist Romania. The film’s premiere was at the Montréal World Film Festival and in 2010 the film was awarded the second prize at the Documenta Madrid Festival. In 2008 he conceived “The Golden Age for Children”, a pop-up book about the last 20 years of the communist regime in Romania. He is currently working on a series of fiction films “7 Nuances of Gray” and the group project “The Iron Curtain, a box of memory”. Stefan Constatinescu lives and works in Stockholm and Bucharest.
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Performance art and live experimental electronic music!
Address: Sisäsatama, Vaasa / Inre hamnen, Vasa
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