CONFRONTING ELEMENTS – A moving image exhibition in Rådhusparken
January 31-February 2, 2014, 2-8pm daily Installed in a large-scale, cubic installation in direct contact with the snow in City Hall Park in central Umeå, built in 1896.
Superflex, “Burning Car” (2008)
Presented by Streaming Museum and Umeå2014 nordicoutbreak.streamingmuseum.org
Nordic Outbreak is a traveling exhibition of moving image artworks by contemporary Nordic artists, presented by Streaming Museum and curated for public space. The exhibition program launched in New York City in March 2013 and travels throughout the Nordic region and internationally through the fall 2013, accompanied by public programs. Nordic Outbreak explores contemporary dynamics in Nordic moving image and new modes of exhibition in the digital age. The open exhibition structure reflects the museum without walls and plays with audience experience in alternative exhibition formats. It reflects the changing stances of spectatorship as a symptom of our time, the new ways of viewing and experiencing visual content in urban society on various types of information screens in temporary situations. Nordic Outbreak in Umeå is curated by Dan Lestander and Tanya Toft.
Nordic Outbreak: Confronting Elements
The Nordic Outbreak exhibition in Umeå, Sweden explores the theme Confronting Elements. In the Greek notion of the classical elements fire, air, water and earth, each element has a property, always in transformation from one state to the other – hot then dry; wet then hot; cold then wet; dry then cold. Nature’s elements have been romanticized in Nordic visual aesthetics in a tradition emerging from landscape paintings with nature’s core elements as properties for human spirit and vitality. While questioning the reality and materiality of nature elements, Nordic Outbreak: Confronting Elements also questions the myth of them. Installed in a large-scale, cubic installation in direct contact with the snow, the installation establishes both coherency and confrontation between abstracted elements in the artworks that simultaneously enhance and resolute each other.
The artists presented in Umeå include: Ken Are Bongo (NO), Sigurdur Gudjónsson (IS), Antti Laitinen (FI), Dan Lestander (SE), Pernille With Madsen (DK), Dodda Maggý (IS), Miia Rinne (FI), Superflex (DK)
Nordic Outbreak is produced by Streaming Museum, which presents contemporary-themed exhibitions of international multi-media arts, innovative ideas and related programs to a global audience via Internet, mobile devices, a network of big screens worldwide, and at cultural and public centers. StreamingMuseum.org
On its tour across the Nordic region, Nordic Outbreak has visited Museum for Contemporary Art Kiasma and Media Facades Festival Helsinki, Danish Architecture Center, Reykjavik Art Museum, Screen City Festival in Stavanger, and Katuaq the Cultural Centre of Greenland in Nuuk.
Nordic Outbreak in Umeå is supported by Umeå2014
Umeå has been appointed European Capital of Culture 2014. Each year EU appoints two cultural capitals of Europe, with the aim of highlighting our shared cultural heritage and stimulate interest in the cultural riches of the countries in the EU. In Umeå this award is an important part of the municipality’s long-term growth strategy. This will create a greater interest in the city and its stakeholders, and contribute to culture-driven growth.
ARTWORKS
Pernille With Madsen, Transition (2008-2009) 1 min, no sound The video is part of a series of three film projections. An apparently tight black and white universe becomes coupled with a low-tech aesthetic lending the minimalist expression something a little distorted. The work mimics the transitions of video editing – going from one scene to the next. Whereas these are normally done digitally, With Madsen creates her transitions in analogue using paper cuts, handheld models and live extras. Transition is a hopelessly backwards project, where high-tech becomes low-tech and digital is transformed into something analogue. Through this metamorphosis, new dimensions and perspectives are created.
Miia Rinne, SEA (2012) 5:43 min, 35 mm film transferred to HD, stereo sound The film painting Sea (2012) by Miia Rinne has been painted on a 100 m long 35 mm film. The dark sceneries resembling a sea view at night are created from repeatedly painting new layers of paint on top of older ones. Like an onion, the work keeps the bygone images underneath its many layers, creating a reservoir of hidden images resembling human memory.
Dodda Maggý, There, there (2013) 4:30 min, with sound In this still-camera work, Dodda Maggy creates a visual portrait of a non-spectacular, ordinary place in nature, which becomes a magically colorful setting for reflecting the internal dimensions of dreams, memories and imagination.
Dan Lestander, Dreams and Wishes (2010) 4:19 min “For me the ice is beautiful, where it lies as a membrane between the sky and the sea. The ice reminds me, with its clear involvement in metamorphosis, about life and the constant change that everything is going through. The opening, that a hole in the ice constitutes, provides an opportunity to enter into, or up, to another element. My idea is to utilize the source of this specific space and challenge the experience of being human.” With support from the Norrbotten County Council, co-produced by Kilen Art Group and Filmpool Nord.
Sigurdur Gudjónsson, Veil (2012) 7:07 min, with sound Veil is a single shot camera work taken on the windy, black sands in Skeiðarársandur Iceland. The invisible wind creates a veil of sand grains covering the earth. The soothing movement and sound create a meditative experience – a mental space for the audience to zone out of their own consciousness.
Ken Are Bongo, The wind whispers there is someone behind the tundra (2006) 4 min, sound The poem Biegga savkala duoddarid duohken lea soames by award winning Sami poet Synnove Persen reveals a belief in the powers of nature and a connection to their Sami ancestors. The choreography in this dance-on-film symbolizes their evolution as they dance through time and space enjoying the wonders of the sky, passing objects and people that connect them to their Sami ancestors. Choreographers: Elle Sofe Henriksen / Johtti kompani.
Antti Laitinen, Snowman (2006) 7 min, no sound In this performative work of absurdity and physical endurance, the artist affixes a large carrot as his nose, as his body is covered in a snow of falling white powder. Antti Laitinen’s works combine performance with video and photography, while he smoothly mixes a sense of absurd seriousness and angular humor.
Superflex, Burning Car (2008) 11 min, with sound Burning Car is a film work by Superflex in which a car is being set on fire. The empty car starts to burn, the cabin is filled with smoke and fire, car-paint is bobbling, tires explode. Towards the end the car is burned out completely.