video feature
Turku
Videoart Festival VAFT
Simo Saarikoski
Turku
Today is jumping Wilfried to Finland, where in Turku – Videoart Festival Turku – VAFT is opening its 2018 edition including the guest screening program “WOW maps” which Wilfried is curating for W:OW Art Film And Video Festival. Finland is one of the few European countries which Wilfried did not visit as a physical person so far, although there were good reasons now and then which this date is demonstrating as well, as the coming article some days ahead. Neverthess, Wilfried is happy to include in his curated program a video by the Finnish video artist Eija Temisevä who is representing W:OW on behalf of Wilfried today. At the same time, the article is honouring two curatorial contributions from Finland, the first one as the exchange contribution to W:OW by VAFT, and the second one by Simo Saarikoski acting on behalf a Finnish initiative by name Videokanava. Simo Saarikoski, himself also video artist is also part of VAFT curated program.
the entire screening program as PDF
WOW.16 / Finland
@ VAFT – Videoart Festival Turku/Finland – 23 – 27 May 2018
http://wow.engad.org/wow-16-finland/
VAFT 2018 – Video Art Festival – WOW screening @ Kino Diana – interview with Eija Temisevä
WOW.16 / Finland
a collaboration with VAFT – Video Art Festival Turku
http://videoartfestivalturku.com
23-27 May 2018
featuring the screening program
curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne
list of videos
Bill Hill (USA), Tabula Rasa, 2016, 4:00
claRa apaRicio yoldi (Spain) – RAM_city (1000 screens), 2014, 06’20’’
Katya Yakubov (Usbekistan/USA) – Maps to the In-Between, 2015, 07:23
Coalfather Industries (USA) – User History, 2016, 6:02
Pablo-Martín Córdoba (France) – L’inter-code, 2017, 10:00
Eija Temisevä (Finland) – An Attempt to be Earth, 2016, 5:15
Details
Bill Hill (USA), Tabula Rasa, 2016, 4:00
Tabula Rasa, 360-degree immersive augmented reality installation, engages the audience into a transformative, spherical-space that peels away time and space to show the metaphorical impact of technology on human evolution and the history of indigenous people of Northeast Florida.
Using Google Cardboard as an interface, this performative installation utilizes the initial encounter between the indigenous peoples of North America with European explorers and builds a narrative around the use of a chair as a metaphor to underscore the generic contradiction of expansion that evolution serves over its subject, and the specific of electronic technology over nature.
claRa apaRicio yoldi (Spain) – RAM_city (1000 screens), 2014, 06’20’’
In this new city there are no monuments or heroes to commemorate. The history of this city is not made up of individual moments despotically imposed, ensuring their presence into the present. Here, nothing crystallizes as a fixed memory. It is a continuous exchange, a permanent awakening. Culture is not marked by tradition and inheritance rules, nor by the need to follow the same canon.
In RAM_city everything is disagreement, there is nothing to be concluded as real. The formation of the imaginary is a continuous and open negotiation. Not between individuals and the state, but among the units of work, performance and exchange.
Katya Yakubov (Usbekistan/USA) – Maps to the In-Between, 2015, 07:23
A mining of a digital space finds characters and forms in dialogue, and a playful hint of narrative begins to emerge in this twice-appropriated landscape. Eventually, the great Apparition lets it all fall down.
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Coalfather Industries (USA) – User History, 2016, 6:02
User History is an absurd ethnographic survey of the lives of contemporary humans as seen from the perspective of post-human machines.
The piece questions where we are headed as a species given our current rate of apathy and consumption. It imagines what will happen to the planet if we all continue to use up all the resources.
This video consists of animation and site-specific performances, filmed on location in New York (Governors Island and Rockaway beach), Route 66 in Illinois and in central Finland.
Pablo-Martín Córdoba (France) – L’inter-code, 2017, 10:00
Strengthened by the soundtrack, L’inter-code opposes images and texts in line with the ideas of Vilém Flusser: texts and images confront one another in the representation of the real world. This dialectical relationship, whose synthesis is yet to be discovered, is matched in the video by another opposition: tribal men living in equilibrium with nature, contrasting with the divergences of technical progress. L’inter-code questions the possibilities and limits of science and its materialization in technology.
Eija Temisevä (Finland) – An Attempt to be Earth, 2016, 5:15
Comforting Nature, comforting Earth. Soft grass, flowers, forest, rocks, stones, trees. The mold of garden, the field of sand. The babbling streamlet, the water. The dance of the spirit of the forest. The horns are left like old rock paintings.
A symbolic performance about the comforting things in the Earth. Quite near I live.
Video Art Festival Turku (VAFT)
Video Art Festival Turku (VAFT) is an annual video art festival taking place in Turku, Finland. The first two festivals were held in the old warehouses of the Old Great Square in May 2016 and
2017 and the VAFT 2018 will take place all over the city of Turku this May. The festival itself is curated by an artist juror, but team VAFT curates video art content to all kinds of events. One
of VAFT’s missions is to bring video art to new and unexpected places and contexts, outside of the white cubes of museums and galleries.
WOW.14 / Ukraine
@ National University Kharkiv/Ukraine 10-12 April 2018
National House of Cinema/Say By Body Art Festival – Kiev/Ukraine 13-14 April 2018
WOW.19. Bulgaria – Varna
Curatorial statement
Afar alike
This combination of 3 videoworks brings us to questions of society, class, human emotions and everyday life. All the works are from Finland, but they reflect what is happening all around
Europe. There is a strong ethos of “winners versus losers” going on in the world today. These works can all be seen as comments to this discourse. A cleaner is seen as a loser in the eyes
of the upper class for not pursuing a “better” career, but choosing small salary and hard physical work instead. Someone whose home is messy, is seen and can also see themself as a
loser for not being in enough control of their life to keep the house tidy. Villages, emptied by mass migration to big cities, are seen as losers in a municipal level. All these experiences are
common to human life everywhere and “losing” is hardly a term we like to use of our own lives. Our physical and political geography might vary, but are our lives after all that different?
WOW Finland – Afar Alike
Curated by VAFT
1. Simo Saarikoski: Abandoned land, 2017, 12:15
2. Milja-Liina Moilanen: The Cleaner (Siivooja), 2017, 8:00
3. Heta Jäälinoja: Penelope, 2016, 4:08
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Artists:
Simo Saarikoski
Simo Saarikoski (b.1980 in Finland) is multidisciplinary artist who works extensively in different fields of visual art. In his work he explores time and it’s phenomena, as well as human
impact on the environment and how to find mercy for yourself in the era of social media. Saarikoski uses video, sound and watercolor painting separately or in the form of installations.
He has performed with the group – Messianic Research Centre for Visual Ethics (MRCVE, funded in 2002) around Europe and US. The group’s modus operandi is to openly incorporate both scientific and artistic methods in its works. With the Finland’s state art price winner, art collective – T.E.H.D.A.S. he has realized several projects and exhibitions (e.g. “Live and Dead Art” in Pori Art Museum, 2014) and worked as a performance art event organizer and curator in Pori, Finland.
Title
Abandoned Land / 2017 / 12:15 min
Directed, Screenplay, Camera, Edit, Music, Sound Design: Simo Saarikoski / Subtitles: Lora Dimova
Abandoned Land is an experimental video that documents abandoned places, infrastructure and phenomenon in Finland. The video uses Finland as an allegory to approach recent changes of the European infrastructure and society with haunting images, prosaic narration and music. Before the depicted environment was abandoned it had grown to meet the demands of its society. Now useless, the video observes and documents the changes in our time from the reconstruction after world war II to present time. The material for the video was shot from 2015 until the late 2016.
Milja-Liina Moilanen
Milja-Liina Moilanen works with text, video and installations. She studies at the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts. Current political topics, social phenomena and
everyday life fuel her work. Power relations are often displayed in her work through common situations and ordinary objects.
Title
Siivooja/ The Cleaner, 2017, 8 min
Director and producer: Milja-Liina Moilanen / Camera: Jirka Silander / The cleaner: Sinikka Moilanen / Editor: Eveliina Pasanen / – Sound design: Heikki Kareranta
The Cleaner is a series of artworks that is based on artists experiences as a cleaner. It concentrates in everyday life of a low-income worker in a form of autobiographical story.
Between years 2015-2017 Moilanen worked as a cleaner to help her poor financial situation as well as to collect material for Cleaner-series. She uses immersive working methods when she
writes fictive characters and situations. All the characters, situations, places and conflicts are based on a real life happenings.
Heta Jäälinoja
Heta Jäälinoja (b. 1989, Finland) studied animation in Turku Arts Academy and Estonian Academy of Arts. She has made animation for museums and theatre, and worked as animator in films. She likes drawings made by children, and dreams of having a dog and a piano.
Filmography: Penelope (2016), Love Hurts (2015), Omelette (2013), My Baby Don’t Love Me (2012), Title of work/year/duration/credits/short synopsis (max 300 words in English)
Title: Penelope, 2016, 4 min 8 sec
Credits: Director: Heta Jäälinoja / Screenplay: Heta Jäälinoja / Animation: Heta Jäälinoja / Editing: Heta Jäälinoja / Music: Jukka Herva / Piano: Kaspar Jancis / Voices of Toes: Karin Paumer, Vesse Veering / Sound: Horret Kuus / B6 Studios / Production: Estonian Academy Of Arts
Synopsis:
Doorbell rings. Someone is at the door. But everything’s a mess.
Awards: Grand Prix in National Competition, Tampere Film Festival 2017, Anca Student Award, Fest Anca 2017
WOW Finland
curated by Simo Saarikoski (for Videokanava Tampere)
http://wow.engad.org/simo-saarikoski-curator/
Curatorial statement
“The six videos forms a selection that deals with humanity from different perspectives. Timely reflection on the dignity of life and the inefficiency of global justice is present. There is also concern about the politicians´ methods of creating confrontation, as well as the frustration of how difficult for an individual can be to get help for his or her problems even in an organized society. At the same time, the selection tells about the continual search of man to find their own place in this world. Life can be full of adversity, but ultimately a simple insight can lead to inner peace. The viewers are able to identify with these themes, no matter which part of the world they come from.
WOW Finland
list of videos
Liisa Ahola & Veera Salmio (Finland) – ”Dictator”, 2017, 3:10
Anna Knappe(Finland) – ”Camp Europe”, 2017, 6:45
Taina Valkonen (Finland)- ”Forest Poem”, 2017, 1:13
Veera Nelimarkka (Finland) – ”Medical Record”, 2017, 3:55
Sabotanic Garden (Finland) – ”Uuno Turhabuto/King of Dance vol.2”, 2007, 8:16
Video details
Linda Jasmin Mayer (Finland) – ”Dove Fermarsi? (Where to Stop?)”, 2017, 6:45
Video Installation Linda Jasmin Mayer & Sebastian Kulbaka
Costume Design Andrea Ferri
Synopsis
“Dove fermarsi?” (Where to Stop?) Is the first part of a video work on the difficulty of finding your home in the world.
The aim of this journey is not a static place but a mental space that unfolds through personal relationships and is constantly changing.
Short bio
Linda Jasmin Mayer (b. 1986 in Meran, Italy) is a visual artist based in Bolzano. Mayer’s artistic practice covers a broad spectrum of strategies and forms of expression, from participatory art, to moving image, sound works and sculptural explorations, creating immersive installations that aim to offer space for contemplation. She makes use of moving images and sound in order to transform spaces into “alternative” rooms, where to expand the space of imagination and propose a different perspective. Her work develops through shared reflection and interdisciplinary collaborations, to incite the development of cross-disciplinary dialogues and new forms of expression. She received a MFA from the Time and Space Arts study programme of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2014, and studied at the Media School of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2015. In 2010 she graduated with a BFA in Sculpture Studies from the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan, Italy. She has participated in a variety of workshops focusing on artistic research: Granada (Spain), Reykjavik (Iceland) and an advanced seminar in Methods of Research at M.I.T in Boston (USA). In 2008 she worked within the department of Art Mediation for Manifesta7 in Trentino – South Tyrol and in 2012 within the Maybe Education Program of dOCUMENTA(13). Her works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Italy, Spain, Finland, Denmark, Austria and Germany. Her graduation work, How to Break the Ice, received the Kuvataideakatemian Ystävät prize in 2013. Her video work Snowcats has been screened on several occasions, including at the Trento Film Festival in 2014 in a screening curated by MART/Italy. In 2016 she participated (in collaboration with Finnish artist Sara Pathirane) at the Colombo Art Biennale in Sri Lanka.
Liisa Ahola & Veera Salmio (Finland) – ”Dictator”, 2017, 3:10
The themes of the video are patriotism, masculinity and dictatorship. The topic examines traditional patriarchal symbols; playing with them and giving them new meanings. The footage of the work is collected from Youtube channels news-, propaganda- and documentary videos.
Short bio (max. 300 words in English)
Visual artists Liisa Ahola (1979) and Veera Salmio (1982) have worked together with video, sound and light installations since 2013. Their work has covered topics such as modern people’s preconceptions and the need to be special.
Liisa Ahola lives and works in Turku, Finland. She works mainly with video and installations. Themes of her works considers about social phenomenon with sense of humor. She is interested in topics such as fear of living and houses with mold problems.
Veera Salmio is a sculptor and visual artist from Finland. Themes of her works reflects surrounding situation of the world; human rights, women’s position in society and patriotism. “One should examine the world like a sculpture: different depending on the viewing angle; yet complete from the 360° view”.
Anna Knappe(Finland) – ”Camp Europe”, 2017, 6:45
Welcome to Camp Europe. Camp Europe welcomes refugees and expects them to be grateful and happy, providing food and shelter but not dignity. Camp Europe knows better than the refugees what is good for them and deports them back to where they came from. Camp Europe continues.
Short bio (max. 300 words in English)
Anna Knappe (b. 1982, Helsinki, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki. The backbone of her artistic practice are camera-based works, consisting of documentary style or found video footage and installations combining video projections or screens with handmade and found objects, exploring words and language as elements of building identity and the perception of reality for herself and for those seen as others, the identities of migrants as ‘mohajers’, endless migration, living in camps, and the narrative of a homeland for those who don’t have one. Anna Knappe holds a Master in Fine Art from The Academy of Fine Art in Oslo (2016) and received a Bachelor in Fine Art from TAMK, Finland, in 2012. She has shown her works in exhibitions and screenings in Norway, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Bangladesh, and India.
Taina Valkonen (Finland)- ”Forest Poem”, 2017, 1:13
Video synopsis
Trees are disappearing into paper
paper burns into ash and is flown with wind
into non existing
A view to disappearing forests in Finland
Short bio
Visual artist Taina Valkonen has done performance art in various forms for 16 years. She is living and working in Tampere. Her ways of working come from space. At the moment she is concentrating in writing and combining video performance to poetry collaborating with Markku Korsu and Leena Lehti and sound arts.
Veera Nelimarkka (Finland) – ”Medical Record”, 2017, 3:55
Medical Record handles the difficulties of getting help to mental illnesses. While it tells a story of an individual, it widens the problem into a national one.
Short bio
I am an artist using many different medias: video, painting, drawing, installation.
Sabotanic Garden (Finland) – ”Uuno Turhabuto/King of Dance vol.2”, 2007, 8:16
Synopsis
Sunbathing on frozen lake. Getting lost in the woods. Setting home on fire.
Visual research and study of finnish solitude, isolation and loneliness – presented in the form of alcoholic man, wandering endlessly from one catastrophe to another.
Short bio
Sabotanic Garden is experimental finnish performance and music group working internationally since 1996.
Credits – Dance: Pasi Mäkelä – Video: Jussi Saivo – Music: Pasi Mäkelä, Kusti Vuorinen, Janne Tuomi and Jussi Saivo
About
Simo Saarikoski (b.1980 in Finland) is multidisciplinary artist who works extensively in different fields of visual art. In his work he explores time and it’s phenomena, as well as human impact on the environment and how to find mercy for yourself in the era of social media. Saarikoski uses video, sound and watercolor painting separately or in the form of installations. He has performed with the group – Messianic Research Centre for Visual Ethics (MRCVE, funded in 2002) around Europe and US. The group’s modus operandi is to openly incorporate both scientific and artistic methods in its works. With the Finland’s state art price winner, art collective – T.E.H.D.A.S. he has realized several projects and exhibitions (e.g. “Live and Dead Art” in Pori Art Museum, 2014) and worked as a performance art event organizer and curator in Pori, Finland.
Videokanava Online Gallery focuses on presenting videos mainly from emerging video artists and filmmakers. The organisation was founded in Finland in 2014 and formed by a group of Tampere based contemporary artists. Every year a different curator selects video works for a themed exhibition from videos submitted. Every month Videokanava highlights one of the curated works by presenting it at an artist’s solo exhibition in the online gallery. In addition, the live screenings are held in art galleries and other interesting spaces in Finland and abroad.
http://www.videokanava.com
Turku Art Museum
