Late Summer - Fall 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:


* Maria Bustnes, Oslo, Norway (September)
* Heman Chong / NoSleepRequired, Singapore/Berlin, Germany (26 July-22 August)
* Carina Gunnars and Anna Kindgren, Stockholm, Sweden (11 August-10 September)
* La Loko – Olof Olsson & Daniel Salomon, Copenhagen, Denmark/London, UK (August-September)
* Melissa Lim, Singapore (26 July-22 August)
* Eva Linder, Gothenburg, Sweden (August-October)
* Randa Mirza, Beirut, Lebanon (10 June-September)
* Kami Petersen, Malmö, Sweden (1-21 August + 1-7 November)
* Bisi Silva, Lagos, Nigeria (11 August-7 September)



Maria Bustnes (Oslo, Norway)
Nordic AiR residency at NIFCA in September.

Maria Bustnes works with audiovisual productions, text and other related forms of organization. Her work is looking at contemporary phenomena and its narration, and could be described as a way to inquire ideas inspired from a variety of fields such as popular culture and political philosophy. Inherent are an interest for productive collaborations, interactive processes and the possibilities for radical forms of cultural exchange. Her plans for her stay in Helsinki is to work on an idea about exercising the so-called case study in the development of a project about imagined communities. Maria Bustnes (b. 1976) is educated at the Malmö Art Academy and is currently living in Oslo.

Studio Emanuel, tel. +358 (0)9 668 433
email: mariabustnes ( ) gmail.com


Heman Chong (Singapore/Berlin, Germany)
Research Residency at NIFCA (26 July-22 August)

Heman Chong is an observer, gatherer and presenter of ideas and images. With a keen interest in the processes of visual culture, he is often able to toss his works into different configurations to suit the particular conditions of each exhibition/presentation. He received his M.A. in Communication Art & Design at The Royal College of Art, London.

Born in 1977 and currently lives and works in Singapore and Berlin, Germany. He has exhibited in many international contexts, including at PHotoEspana, Madrid, Spain (2000); 10th India Triennale, New Delhi, India (2001); Singapore Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2003); Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (2003); Transmediale 04, Berlin, Germany (2004); Busan Biennale, Busan, Korea (2004); a solo show at Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2005) and is currently working on a project for SCAPE Biennale in Christchurch, New Zealand (2006) and a solo show at Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, China (2007).

www.hemanchong.com

Guest Room Heikki
E-mail: heman66 ( ) gmx.de


Carina Gunnars and Anna Kindgren (Stockholm, Sweden)
In residence through NIFCA’s residency program Social Perspectives on Architecture and Design (11 August-10 September)

We want to apply the qualifications and experiences we have as artists to what may come our way and in situations where this feels relevant. The last decade’s mutual interest between different disciplines like art, architecture and design is something we consider as an opening, a challenge and a necessity. With retained respect for each others knowledge and professional identity, we believe that we can feint strictly capitalistic interests and instead talk, investigate and put focus on how, and to what, our knowledge should be used. We hope that art, among other things, can contribute with a content based and deepened investigation of these interdisciplinary meetings. We have worked with projects like streetwise, love and devotion and solo projects – often in a spirit of trying to see new possibilities through small changes of existing situations. Often our projects have involved working with and within large institutions.

We will use our time as NIFCA residents to investigate what a social perspective is, or could be, and how it is comprehended. In this respect we ask ourselves questions around the importance of knowing the commissioner of a work and the purpose and possible demands that follow a commission, which agenda is on the table? We will look at social institutions in Finland, and how and to what degree the social perspectives manifest in its buildings. Also if and how such a perspective affect, influence or not, the people who use these buildings. We ask ourselves how this – a social perspective – can be applied and handled today, without ending up in ideological and utopian pretensions of power. And if there is a conscious mind behind every building concerning these questions.

Studio Carl August, tel. (+358 9) 668 356
E-mails: cargunna ( ) yahoo.se, anakimail ( ) yahoo.se


La Loko – Olof Olsson & Daniel Salomon (Copenhagen, Denmark/London, UK)
Artists-in-residence at NIFCA through the Nordic AiR program (August-September)

La Loko means ’The Place’ in Esperanto. La Loko produces twisted simulacra of media and corporate structures and inserts the idealist language of Esperanto, where one usually would expect English. La Loko aims to reflect upon the way language, images, and sites originate, work, and affect us.

La Loko has, for instance, produced the pilot episode for the world’s first sitcom in Esperanto. This year La Loko initiated a campaign to get FIFA to accept that an Esperanto team be allowed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which would give players and fans an opportunity to experience international football freed from national chauvinism.

During our residency we will work on the conceptual development of an Esperanto currency and prepare a performance that will take place at Beursschouwburg in Brussels 30 September. We will also focus on La Loko’s overall long-term strategy, refreshed by Suomenlinna’s favourable location, fresh air, and daily swimming.

www.laloko.org

Olof Olsson, Studio Johan Tobias, tel. (+358 9) 668 255
olof ( ) laloko.org

Daniel Salomon, Studio Elias, tel. (+358 9) 668 411
daniel ( ) laloko.org


Melissa Lim (Singapore)
Research Residency at NIFCA (26 July-22 August)

Melissa is the company manager of The Necessary Stage (www.necessary.org), one of the major non-profit theatre companies in Singapore focusing on original work incorporating intercultural collaborations with a strong social awareness. She is also festival manager and on the curatorial team of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (www.singaporefringe.com/abthefringe/2006fringe.asp), an annual multidisciplinary festival themed differently each year, with the aim of presenting contemporary, cutting-edge and socially engaged works from Singapore and abroad. During her residency at NIFCA, Melissa is keen on examining notions of mobility, migration and (real/fabricated) memory and history explored by Nordic artists in their works across all media. She is currently sourcing for works and artists dealing with these issues for possible presentations, commissions and collaborations in Singapore during the Fringe for 2008 and beyond.

Guest Room Heikki, tel: (+65) 9824 6257 (gsm)
melissa ( ) necessary.org


Eva Linder (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Artist-in-residence at NIFCA through the Nordic AiR program (August-October)

I work in a documentary video tradition, often including portraits of extraordinary people who have made a difference in their specific world. Personal storytelling is also a way to discuss current changes in society. During my residency I’ll be working on a project about the deep woods of Sweden that were populated by Finnish farmers in the 16th and 17th centuries. The king at the time wanted the whole country to be inhabited, and by moving thousands of farmers from Karelia (eastern part of Finland) to these areas (still referred to as Finnmarken, the Finnish area), he managed to do so. It was also a way to get more tax money out of the farmers. When arriving to Sweden the Finns were given Swedish names and told to stay in the woods far from the Swedish villages. Today there is a vivid movement concerned with finding information about these Finns. Some say one fifth of the Swedish population originates from these Finns. In Norway the Forest Finns are considered an official national minority (together with the Sámis, Romanis and Kväns). For the last four years I've been running Yeans Artspace, a non-profit gallery/microcinema in Gothenburg, together with Lars Nilsson: www.yeans.org

www.evalinder.com

Studio Augustin, tel. +358 (0)9 668 355
evalinder ( ) mail.com


Randa Mirza (Beirut, Lebanon)
In residence at NIFCA through the Global Perspectives residency exchange program in collaboration with Espace SD, Beirut, Lebanon (10 June-September)

Born in Beirut (Lebanon) 28 years ago - this is 2006. I work with digital photography and live video editing.
My latest line of work is about postwar; what remains, transforms or changes, gets forgotten, or disappears after a war situation. Also, I am questioning the relation between war and tourism, developed and third world countries, in a capitalistic economic system.

www.randamirza.com

Guest Room Augusta B 28
randamirza () yahoo.com


Kami Petersen (Malmö, Sweden)
In residence through NIFCA’s residency program Social Perspectives on Architecture and Design (1-21 August + 1-7 November)

Kami Petersen is a freelance jack-of-all-trades within a broader creative field, including professional design, artistic conceptualism and interdisciplinary education. Recent interests and practice are in the ethics of the design profession and the organization of creative networks. Design is a power tool for planning and social change, and by integrating design practices into a strategic framework its potential can no longer be limited by its preconception. In-between professional commissions, he teaches at Malmö University in Sweden and actively participate in the efforts of Muungano, a design group.

During the residency he will explore the social and organisational foundations of creative networks in terms of idealism and profitability, and try to apply the conclusions to a test case project for Muungano, The Suburban Cook Book.

Guest Room Sergei
kami ( ) muungano.com


Bisi Silva (Lagos, Nigeria)
Research Residency at NIFCA (11 August-7 September)

Bisi Silva is a independent curator and critic based in Lagos, Nigeria. She is currently working on the forthcoming inaugural exhibition on contemporary African Art for the National Museum of Mali in Bamako in 2007. She was a co-curator for the Dakar Biennale (May/June 2006). Among her exhibitions are HairDaze:The Cultural Politics of Black (1999), Heads of State:Faisal Abdu’Allah(1997/98), 4 degrees in the Open(1996).

She writes for ThisDay Newspaper in Lagos and has written extensively for international art magazines and journals such as Art Monthly, Creative Camera, Third Text, Nka, Journal of Contemporary African Art. She is on the editorial board of N Paradoxa, an international feminist art journal. She has an MA in Curating and Commissioning of Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art London.

Guest Room Nina, tel. +358 (0)45 6577 422 (gsm)
E-mail: labisi ( ) gmail.com



Address for studios and guest rooms: Suomenlinna B 44, 00190 Helsinki, Finland
Address for Studio Flat B 28: Suomenlinna B 28, 00190 Helsinki, Finland

For further information please contact the art workers directly or project coordinator Mitro Kaurinkoski at NIFCA.