Winter 2006

Art Workers in Residence at NIFCA in Helsinki

NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art is honored to host in residence at Suomenlinna in Helsinki:

Luigi Fassi, Turin, Italy (January–March)
Elin Høyland, Oslo, Norway (February–mid-May)
Conny Karlsson, Gothenburg, Sweden (February–March)
Mari Kartau, Pärnu, Estonia (mid-January–mid-March)
Kristina Lindström and Åsa Ståhl, Malmö, Sweden (February–March)
Lars Mathisen, Copenhagen, DK & New York, USA (February–March)
Lina Selander, Hägersten, Sweden (March-April)


Luigi Fassi (Torino, IT)
Research Residency at NIFCA through collaboration with FRAME – Finnish Fund for Art Exchange (January–March)

Luigi Fassi is an Italian freelance curator and writer based in Turin. He comes from a philosophical background and the focus of his curatorial activity is concerned with the possibility to rethink the classical aspects of the European philosophy within the contemporary art praxis. He is in Helsinki to undertake a research on the youngest artistic scene in the Nordic and Baltic countries and is currently developing a project titled “Metaphysics of Youth”, an international exhibition exploring the metaphysical attitudes related to the idea of youth.

Guest Room Heikki, tel. (+358 9) 686 43 230
luigifassi()yahoo.it


Elin Høyland (Oslo, NO)
Nordic Resort residency through collaboration with Nordscen, Nordic Centre for the Performing Arts (February–mid-May)

Performance and new realism(s)
I can make you sing (scream silent dream) – is a working title for my Nordic Resort performance/research project. My starting point lies in the idea of combining a performative mode of audience-confrontational monologue with more theatrical/illusionary elements, aesthetically leaning towards an idea of the baroque (meets postrealism). The vehicle for this process is a persona-figure that I develop through text/drawing/sound/video work, first stage, then gradually moving her out in live space, giving performances of varying production scales/spaces. The general backdrop for this project is a wish to explore the various modes of communication made possible through live (i.e corporeal co-presence w/audience) performance, and how this may intertwine with the use and criticism of new media, within the wide thematic frame of human nature and communication-technologies. (In search of the Western World (W)ind(ow)ividual)

Guest Room Sergei, tel. (+358 9) 686 43 231
elinhoyland()yahoo.no


Conny Karlsson (Gothenburg, SE)
Artist-in-residence at NIFCA through the Nordic AiR program (February–March)

In my recent projects I’ve been dealing with both documentary and fictional materials, with a special focus on the subtle border in-between. I’ve started out with simple interviews, in the search for “basic” stories. And by mixing an obvious narrative structure with an attempt to distance the main characters from their own experiences and actual events by letting them act as themselves. I try to create something new, something different. An insecurity around the “true” story, the representation, identity and the conflict in-between. The main themes are often the “love affair”, the “betrayal”, questions surrounding sexual identity, desire, the rights for one’s true nature and your own body. At NIFCA I am working with a project named “I am very happy, so please hit me”

www.iostudio.se

Guest Studio Carl August, tel. (+358 9) 668 356
conny()iostudio.se


Mari Kartau (Pärnu, EE)
Research Residency at NIFCA (Mid-January–mid-March)

I am an artist, curator and writer from Estonia. Currently I live in Pärnu and work with performance group Non Grata. During my NIFCA residency until mid-March, I am researching the contemporary Finnish performance art scene by means of interviewing artists and organizers, as well as by attending performance events. I am also interested in published or unpublished texts on relevant topic, better in English but Finnish is OK, too. The outcome of the research will appear in my curatorial work and as an article in Estonian art quarterly kunst.ee (also, why not in some Finnish magazine).

www.hot.ee/siramsiram/

Guest Room Nina, tel. (+358 9) 686 43 233
siramsiram()hot.ee


Kristina Lindström and Åsa Ståhl (Malmö, SE)
Research Residency at NIFCA (February–March)

The aim of this stay is to write and disseminate our reflections on our joint research and art projects –[visklek], [ljudstråk] and [glasrörd].
In our projects we work with participation, collaborative storytelling and playful communication on different platforms. We are also planning a seminar series on the combination of art and research, so we want to benefit from taking part in the dynamic scene in Helsinki.

http://aok.el-ljud.se

Studio Flat B 28, (+358 9) 686 43 228


Lars Mathisen (Copenhagen, DK/NY, USA)
Artist-in-residence at NIFCA through the Nordic AiR program (February–March)

As a visual artist working in the field of video, installation, digital photography Lars Mathisen’s strategies often articulate and mediate themselves in pairs on or around platforms of architecture and design – cinema and television – theatre and performance. Thematically the strategies articulate conflicts and conditions of identity, both individual as well as collective identities. Lars Mathisen’s installations often emerge as non-linear multilayered constructions, where identity is being displayed as a psycho social, but also political phenomenon, related to reflections and questions to ideas in public and private space. In the NIFCA residence he will script on a new video installation with the working title 'Flat Roof'.

Selected Links:http://www.e-flux.com/displayshow.php?file=message_1096135279.txt
www.porksaladpress.org/117-62.aspx
www.frieze.co.uk/review_single.asp?r=1446
www.porksaladpress.org/72-51.aspx
www.momentum.no/cgi-bin/momentum/imaker?id=424
http://the.sound.of.video.komponent.dk/view.php?id=18
www.sparwasserhq.de/Index/HTMLjan4/HTMLDeuA.htm
www.hum.ku.dk/nnfc/anthro_abstracts_info.htm

Guest Studio Emanuel, tel. (+358 9) 668 433
lmathisen2000()yahoo.com


Lina Selander (Hägersten, SE)
Artist-in-residence at NIFCA through the Nordic AiR program (March–April)

I work with film, photography, text and sound. Recurrent topics in my works are the dialogue between narration and abstraction, the metamorphosis of time and memory, their dissolving, compulsiveness and intensity. In my work, I want to show the self-reference of images, both still and moving, from different angles. My video works are about structure. I want the works to stage their own theoretic essence and being, and in doing so, to unveil a field where new meaning can emerge. The project for my recidency is a sound project. I will collaborate with a choir and/or singer to link and connect the abstract and electronically transformed to the material of the undistorted human voice.

www.linaselander.com

Guest Studio Elias, tel. (+358 9) 668 411
linaselander()hotmail.com



Address for all the studios and guest rooms: Palmstierna Studio House, Suomenlinna B 44, 00190 Helsinki, Finland

For further information please contact the art workers directly or project coordinator Ellen Wettmark at NIFCA.