Nordic-Baltic A-i-R | Tromsø

Photo: Merike Estna (EST), Nordic-Baltic A-i-R 2014

Troms fylkeskultursenter's The Nordic-Baltic A-i-R program has since its start in 2010 hosted 31 artists from Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The program aims to strengthen the network between Tromsø’s growing art scene and artists from the Nordic and the Baltic countries. A-i-R program is rooted in the collaboration with the important local art organizations - Tromsø kunstforening, RadArt (Tromsø Performing Arts Network), Insomnia festival, and artist-run initiatives Kurant, Small Projects and MONDO Books, which provides a good framework for the program. In the program period 2017-2018 we have also collaborated with an artist run space Gallery Syster in Luleå, that selected an artist from Norrbotten county for a one-month residency in Tromsø. In the autumn 2017 Gallery Syster hosted Tromsø-based artist collective IMA READ in their own Nordic-Baltic residency program.

The program have received kind support from Nordic Culture Point‘s module Support for Artist Residencies in 2010-2011, 2013-2014, 2015-2017 and 2017-2018.

 

 

Nordic-Baltic A-i-R  2017-2018

 

Maarit Utriainen (FIN), in collaboration with RadArt

From the performance «Hella» by Maarit Utriainen. Photo: RadArt

RadArt invited Maarit Utriainen (FIN) to take part in Nordic-Baltic AiR in January 2018. Maarit stayed at the guest studio at Troms fylkeskultursenter and used this time to develop a new performance piece called "Hella". The piece is inspired by a kind of night frost that mainly appears in the fields and on the swamps. Maarit is an artist associated with Silence festival in Kaukonen, in northern Finland, that RadArt has established collaboration with. Maarit is developing a new kind of experimental circus and RadArt has been very excited to  connect her with its members. In the last week of her stay in Tromsø, Maarit used the project room at Troms fylkeskultursenter to present her new work, a combination of physical installation and performance, both to artists at fylkeskultursenter as well as an external audience.

 

 

Freyja Eilif Helgudottir (IS), in collaboration with Kurant visningsrom

Exhibition «Computer Spirit» February 23-25, 2018 in Skippergata 1C, Tromsø

COMPUTER SPIRIT welcomes you into a world of unseen bonds between computer and man - with gateways into virtual realities, bringing forth the electric breath of the spirit and embodying the flesh of internal softwares.

Kurant Visningsrom presented an exhibition with Icelandic artists Freyja Eilif Helgudottir, Andrea Ágústa Aðalsteinsdóttir & Sigríður Þóra Óðinsdóttir. Freyja Eilíf was invited by Kurant to participate in the Nordic-Baltic AiR program at Troms fylkeskultursenter in February 2018. This exhibition was an extension of the residency program. The fluid collective behind Computer Spirit was born in 2016 when four artists from Iceland collaborated on a project named „Stream in a puddle“ for the Tallinn Art Week in Estonia. Computer Spirit in Tromsø, Norway was their second joint project.

 

Paul Paper (LIT), in collaboration with MONDO Books

Mondo organized a talk with artist and curator Paul Paper (Lithuania) on June 16, 2018 as part of their Nordic-Baltic artist-in-residence program. He presented his current project 'A man with dark hair and a sunset in the background' and research on visual recognition technologies. Tracing the historical context of 19th century facial recognition discourse, several political aspects of machine seeing will be outlined. Today the technology of computer vision is in a critical stage of inception, allowing revealing inaccuracies. 'A man with dark hair and a sunset in the background' presents works that highlight a gap between human and machine seeing, resulting in combinations that are in turn poetic and humorous. These are not mistakes per se, but rather a differentiated perspective – a possibility to see and recognize things differently.

 

BIO: Paul Paper is an artist and curator working with photography (after photography). He is the editor of Too Good to be Photographed (Lugemik, 2017), a book exploring intricate relationship between photography and failure through the work of 47 artists. Paper’s publications are held in various collections including the MoMA and Met Museum libraries, Design Museum Denmark, Clark Art Institute, Oslo National Academy of the Arts and others

During his residency we organized a two-day trip to Harstad for Paul during the Artic Arts Festival in June 2018, where he got the oportunity to meet artists from other parts of the region and get to know the North-Norwegian contemporary art scene.

 

 

Tuija Asta Järvenpää (FIN), in collaboration with Small Projects Gallery

 

During her stay in Tromsø Tuija Asta Järvenpää worked on 3 pieces presented in her presentation in Small Projects Space, Tromsø. She has also worked in Prima ink (graphic arts) workshop at fylkeskultursenter.

 

Women´s Parliament has invited Kirsten Sand, the first female  architect of Norway to give a lecture. When Kirsten hears Buchi Emechceta  is coming, she  accepted the invitation. They decided to write  the lecture together.

 

Women’s Parliament is an international artwork by  Saddie Choua and  Tuija Asta Järvenpää, who takes part in Nordic-Baltic A-i-R at Troms fylkeskultursenter. During the evening artist-in-residence Tuija Asta Järvenpää  presented some  themes she hd been working on during her residency month in Kysten. The work consists of multiple parts: "a documentary film”, a “lecture series", "salons" and the final multimedia event; the "wmns parliament". The goal using cross-media is a method to address more different kind of people. Women’s Parliament is an appeal to think, dream, question, about a new start of humanity where women fully participate. Public interactivity is an integral part of Järvenpää ́s works. Her site and time specific interventions in public space often get a form of an installation, performance or happening. She uses design as a statement or spatial, kinesthetic sensation as starting point to create situations, encounters with public life. e.g ”Light Gym”, ”Boudoir de Paris”, ”Marry Me?” ”Finnish Sushi Bar Fish” or ”Rose Garden of the Baroness”. Her work draws from the traditions of Conceptual Art and Situationism. The underlying themes often communicate ecological and social issues, consumerism and equality.

 

Järvenpää studied industrial design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She did public happenings and site specific installations as independent artist and for the Cities of Paris, Reykjavik and Tallinn, The Los Angeles A+D Museum, Helsinki Kunsthalle, Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain and Kiasma Contemporary art Museum. Tuija was born in Saudi-Arabia, educated in

Holland and lives and works in Finland.

 

 

Jaanus Samma (EST), in collaboration with Tromsø kunstforening

Tallinn based artist Jaanus Samma (b. 1982) was invited by Tromsø Kunstforening to take part in the Nordic-Baltic A-i-R artist in residency program at Troms fylkeskultursenter in Tromsø.

Samma is known for his queer themes, such as his 2015 project “Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale”, a research based project into gay history in Estonia during the Soviet era. This work was presented at the Estonian Pavilion in the Venice Biennale, 2015. Samma works in a variation of media such as video, knitted sweaters (Sweaters), making a fictional opera (Chairman. The Opera, 2013). For the latter Samma was awarded the Köler Prize, Estonia’s most prestigious art prize, in 2013. The invitation by TKF is part of the institution’s continuing interest in the Northern European art scenes and is a continuation of Tallinn based artist and publisher Anu Vahtra’s residency in Tromsø in January 2017.

 

Conversation between Leif Magne Tangen, director of Tromsø kunstforening, and Jaanus Samma (published on Tromsø kunstforening’s website: http://tromsokunstforening.no/default.asp?ID=258 )

How would you describe your artistic practice for a wider audience, e.g. is it studio based, how important is research for your practice?

I usually start every project by doing research and mostly it’s a study on the historical background and context of the topic I am working on. But I like to collaborate or consult with people from different fields, because this enriches the project and the research behind it. This also makes it more interesting for myself, because I learn so many new things. I often collaborate with different craftsmen, because I don’t choose the medium for my projects on what I am able to do myself, but what I think would be best for that particular work.

Your project Sweaters, can you tell us more about your working process and details of the work, for example why sweaters, were the sweaters hand knitted or machine knitted, and why?

Sweaters is an ongoing project of hand-knitted sweaters the patterns of which are based on graffiti, mostly random drawings and scribblings referencing sexuality or gender, found in urban space. I had been photographing them for a while and wanted to do something with wool, so these two interests combined lead me to this project. The sweaters play with the notions of public and private space. Anonymous and often obscene images obtain different connotations when actually worn as sweaters. It becomes a personal statement and helps ridicule derogative messages like “Kaspar is a fag”. This is the essence of queering – embracing labels cast on you by others and turning it into something positive. Wearing a dick on your back is definitely a political statement, even just of non-conformism.

The sweaters are handknitted and they are all done with natural materials. I decided to make them by hand, because I love the idea that someone will put a lot of energy into something that was written or drawn in just a few seconds, it kind of turns all it into absurdity.

 

From your point of view, what is the need for queer perspective in contemporary art?

I feel strongly that it is important to have different voices and diversity in the field of contemporary art. But in the end, it comes down to working with passion: everyone should deal with topics that they find interesting and relevant. And for me, at this moment, these topics are connected to the  history, experience and expression of gay sexuality, masculinity, homosociality, etc. Sexuality and gender constructs are such huge parts of our experience as human beings, and it’s fascinating to explore this diversity and not shy away from it.

 

What are you working on while here in Tromsø?

I have been preparing my next exhibitions. Next year I’m having two solo shows and several group shows where I plan to show new works, so the timing for this residency is perfect.

 

What are your next solo exhibitions?

My next solo exhibition is titled „Messages” and it will open in January at the Aine Art Museum in Tornio, Finland, and afterwards, in September, I will open a solo show curated by Eugenio Viola at the Nomas Foundation in Rome.

 

BIO:

Jaanus Samma is a visual artist from Estonia. His body of work includes photos, installations and videos with topics that have been grounded in the study of urban space and the subjective experiences of it. Over the years his interests have moved towards gender studies investigating into the representation of male sexuality and ways of portraying this by artistic means. Samma practice combines fieldwork – interviews and archive research, but also more subjective and artistic output based on the findings.

Linnea Henriksson (SE), in collaboration with Galleri Syster (Luleå)

more info coming

 

 

Nordic-Baltic A-i-R  2015-2017

 

Anu Vahtra (EST), in collaboration with Tromsø kunstforening
Jurga Daubaraitė and Jonas Žukauskas (LT), in collaboration with Small Projects Gallery
Stina Kajaso (SE), in collaboration with Kurant visningsrom
Maria Oiva (FIN), in collaboration with RadArt
Ott Metusala (LAT), in collaboration with Insomniafestivalen

 

 

Nordic-Baltic A-i-R  2013-2014
Merike Estna (EST), in collaboration with Small Projects
Kaja Kann (EST), in collaboration with RadArt
Kirsten Astrup (DK), in collaboration with Kurant visningsrom
Sara Riel (IS), in collaboration with Tromsø kunstforening
Magnus Monfeldt (SE), in collaboration with Kurant visningsrom
Helena Jónsdóttir (IS), in collaboration with RadArt
Minna Rainio og Mark Roberts (FIN), in collaboration with Tromsø kunstforening
Krõõt Juurak (EST), in collaboration with Small Projects Gallery

2012
Jonas Liveröd (SE), in collaboration with Tromsø kunstforening
Pilvi Porkola (FIN), in collaboration with RadArt
Sasha Huber (CHE/FIN) og Petri Saarikko (FIN), in collaboration with Small Projects
Thomas Bo Østergård (DK), in collaboration with Kurant visningsrom

 

2010-2011
Anna Åstrand (SE)
Henrik Ekesiöö (SE)
Gustav Samrelius (SE)
Rut Karin Zettergren (SE)
Sara Wallgren (SE)