Yurie Ido at SUMU residency 3.1. – 5.2.2012

photo: Yasue Nagatomo

Yurie Ido (Japan, 1980) studied oil painting and animation at Tama Art University in Tokyo. She moved to Berlin in 2003, where she graduated with an MFA from Udk – Berlin’s University of the Arts – in 2007. While studying at UdK, Ido began making video performances in galleries and theaters around Berlin. In her performances she combines animation, actions and music. Recently she has been performing her work throughout Germany.

The scope of my work is painting and performance. I studied oil painting and animation in Japan. Since the end of 2003 I have been living and working as an artist in Berlin. My performances combine actions, sound and video. I use projected video images as a graphic backdrop for the performances. The video projection also provides a special illumination of the performer. During the performance, I time my actions in order to rhythmically match certain sounds and images in the video projection. The visual material I use in the projections consists of my drawings.

One of my strong points is line drawing. Often, I combine my calligraphy ink drawings with a colourful animation in my video. My videos do not follow a conventional narrative and are without words. The projected two dimensional image in the background is influenced by traditional Japanese art. Its influence can clearly be seen in my pictures,  but also at the same time, I take inspiration from European artists into my work as well.

Egoistic, violent or childlike emotional behaviour is commonly hidden or suppressed when people communicate with each other socially. I try to look squarely to these hidden sentiments in the process of their creation and sudden eruptions. Often, the theme of my work is ”death” and what death means in life. I think that in real life, death is the ultimate fiction and  I try to reflect this in my art.

Yurie Ido will perform outside Titanik Gallery in January 29th. Ido’s performance is part of the finissage of Minna Haukka’s exhibition On Movement. Welcome at 19 p.m. Don’t forget a warm hat!

View Yurie Ido’s performance Inside here:

http://yurieido.com/?page_id=607
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RXqLU5xKPc&list=UUW16yRcyT23fnp2Ohx3UkeA&index=1&feature=plcp

Sabine Popp: Remote Sensing 13-18.12.2011

Welcome to the journey to darkness where nothing is predictable.

What is the everyday life like in the eternal night of north pole? Sabine Popp’s exhibition Remote Sensing examines northern darkness and the effects of geographical environment on human body.

The installation consists of moving images, sound and photograph. Popp asks whether it is possible to translate the bodily experience of extreme isolation and darkness by technology.

Like arctic life itself also the exhibition is under constant change. Sabine Popp transfers Titanik Gallery into a stage, where the setting will alter and audience will see, hear and experience today something different than tomorrow.

The installation is based on Popp’s journey to the village of Ny-Ålesund in the Norwegian archipelago by boat and plane. These elements will merge with elements of scientific research.

Opening of Remote Sensing: December 13th at 6-8pm.

Maja Spasova & Per Svensson: 2 in 1

The previour artists-in-residence of SUMU A.i.R., Maja Spasova and Per Svensson, are returning to Turku and Gallery Titanik with their joint exhibition 2 in 1 on November 17th December 11th.

Maja Spasova

Bulgarian born Maja Spasova has been working on varied areas of contemporary art, experimenting video, performance art and public space. Spasova’s recent work explores the ambiguity of language, the dynamic between polarities in meaning and searches for alternative ways of expressing meaning.

“How much do we understand each other, when communication is loaded with continuous misreading, misunderstandings and misinterpretations? Words – thought, written, pronounced – draw the boundaries of the Possible. What the Word had once created expands, blows up the limits and becomes a creative force on its own. Our roots are at the very center of the universe and our branches and leaves do speak countless languages.”

Per Svensson

Since the 1980′s Swedish born sculptor, painter and soundartist Per Svensson has created his own landmarks with his specific alchemic art expression and soundart dealing with the forces of nature, alchemy, social and environmental issues, the architectural and geometrical structures of nature and its relation to sound, image and space.

The works of Per Svensson investigates the issues of social, political and environmental effects on the planet and our lives. The works of Per Svensson show the connections between the micro-physics, like the bodily functions and quantum-physics such as geometrical structures of Nature to larger structures such as Transmissions into Space and the Evolution of Life in Space. His work is erasing the micro and macro dimensions into one Alchemical platform.

Per Svensson’s Art is a form of research that is investigating the interplay between the sences and the envionment, building new structures with sculpture, film and sound. In his performance pieces he is using his body as a tool for interactions with the forces of nature and the elements, also as actions against environmental pollution. His performance art also include human rights issues.

Sabine Popp: Remote Sensing

To interfere with everyday life, I employ the method of research, and (temporary) installation and performative, interactive elements as mode of expression. The ephemeral and timebased element is essential, and terms like context, site, dialogue and process are crucial in my work.

The focus on context stems from the desire to create – or point out – connectedness in a society in which fragmentation is significant. In this way I regard as interesting to interweave different places by help of common or contrasting aspects. Beside of work on site (what I mainly did the recent years), I develop concepts for gallery space to tell about these places.

The development of my art work might be seen as research into living conditions, looking for the respective site’s daily life and narratives. Questions arise about identity of place (which by definition might be urban or natural space inhabited by or with traces behind human beings) and people, their shifting relationships in a changing world, and the relation between mental and physical space. The main focus is on exploring geographically isolated communities, where nature has strong impact on daily life and human beings.

In my choice of materials and media, I find a field of tension in contrasting the physical with the world of modern technologies. The physical material links us to the ”real” (present) world, meanwhile technologies like video, photography or sound refer to another, rather transient reality by representation and abstraction. The latter one is the way how we relate to most places – by means of tv, internet, cell phones and webcameras. Distances become abstract due to the same technology and our own ways of mobility.

My current project is related to the International Scientific Research Center in Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard (a norwegian Archipelago in the high arctic) , looking at daily life in the period of polarnight, with complete darkness all day round: Scenic Spaces of Isolation. Where sight is lacking, all the other senses get activated.

The resulting photographs – which never show anything else then artificially lit and thereby limited outdoor spaces, never giving an outlook onto the surrounding magnificent landscape – don’t reveal the lack of difference of light conditions at noon or midnight for the beholder without any additional information about time and place.

And even though there is given more information than imagery (explanations, numbers of latitude and longitude, distance from the norwegian mainland) – is there any way to translate the bodily experience of distance, darkness and isolation by media and technology?

I use photography, video and sound as much as physical space itself to investigate  into these issues, by a combination of material from the stay in Svalbard and the journey to get there, and real time data transferred from one of the research stations in Ny-Ålesund.

Sabine Popp, 1.november 2011

Mateusz Pozar at SUMU A.i.R. 1.9.-9.10.2011

RepRap Prusa: Leveling printbed & first print from Mateusz Pozar on Vimeo.

Artist talk and Presentation Thursday 6th October at 18.00.

Mateusz Pozar is an artist based in Sweden, and the current artist in residency at SUMU / Arte, located in a studio of gallery Titanik, Turku.

He has a BA in photography and an MFA from the University of Gothenburg, where he graduated in 2007 and remains today. In Gothenburg he has been working with solo works as well as a founding member of SKUP PALET.

He’s interested in the definition and usage of art, and many of his projects walk the line between art projects and mundane work. With a background in activist journalism and media production, he wants to explore how the power of narrative affects us, and who has the power to narrate what.

Previous projects involve making lock-picks and teaching people how to bypass mechanical locks, doing undercover performances as a doorman, as well as plenty of video and photographical work online and internationally.

During his residency he has been building a RepRap 3D printer, which is an open source project which started in 2004 in the UK and which now involves thousands of people globally. Once the printer is functioning he’ll experiment with the possibilities of making actual art objects with it, and conclude with a presentation at Titanik Gallery Thursday 8 October 6 pm.

The appropriation of knowledge from outside of the artistic field can be expanded to include the ambitions of non-artists, and by submerging himself in such works the line between art and non-art is blurred.

Mateusz Pozar: http://monocultured.com/

Sigbjørn Bratlie’s performance “Theosis”

Sigbjørn Bratlie: Theosis

Performance at Titanik Gallery, Thursday 18 August 18:00 – 20:00

and at Hansa Shopping Center, Saturday 20 August 13:00 – 14:30

Norwegian artist-in-residence Sigbjørn Bratlie will on two occasions be presenting a performance based around the fictitious software company Apocalypti Technologies, and their groundbreaking software product: Theosis. This computer programme is initially inspired by the Jorge Luís Borges short story “The Library of Babel”, in which the Universe is metaphorically described as a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format, i.e. every imaginable text in every imaginable (and unimaginable) language.

The programme, which is fully operational, transfers this idea to the computer screen. It is designed to run through and configure all possible combinations of all possible pixels in all possible colours, thus revealing every possible picture representable on a computer screen. Wherever you look, whatever you remember from your past, whatever you imagine in your head – Theosis will be able to configure its exact visual representation in full colour on your computer screen. It goes without saying that there is a humoristic aspect to Theosis and its astronomical uselessness: The total number of pictures configurable through this programme is a number containing 5681750 digits. (As a comparison, the total number of elementary particles in the Universe, according to scientists, is a number with 77 digits. One million, 1000000, contains 7 digits.)

www.sigbjornbratlie.com
www.apocalypti.com

PROMETHEUS – A Mobile Audio/Visual Performance at Titanik Gallery

Dennis Tan (Sumu Artist-in-Residence) and Sebastian Ziegler (AKU/ visual acupuncture) will take you on a journey through the myth ‘PROMETHEUS’ on a mobile audio/visual system.

The interpretation of the myth ‘PROMETHEUS’ will be broken down in 5 parts at 5 different locations around the River Aura.

The mobile audio/visual system are battery-powered bicycles equipped with video projectors and speakers, bringing mobility and portability to their performance. Images projected and sounds heard intend to create a different sense of sensibility to the place and
in retelling the myth.

* * *
The performance ‘Prometheus’ is part of the Dennis Tan’s exhibition “Split of Light”

Dennis Tan at Sumu A.i.R. 1.7. – 12.8.2011

Splits of Light

Presentation on 11th of August 17 – 18
Opening on 11th of August 18 – 20
Welcome!

Being a sound artist, I move between the fields of experimental music to sound art. For me, sound is both material and form. It is ready to be deformed and to be reform. I am very interested in the materiality of sound and giving my pieces a physical voicing. For the exhibition Splits of Light, I will present sound sculptures associated to the somatic senses and the human body.

Prior to the exhibition opening, I invite you cordially to a presentation of my soundworks and music in Titanik Gallery.

***

Dennis Tan is a sound artist and musician living and working in Germany. He was born in Singapore and moved to Bremen, Germany to study fine arts. As an artist, he works with sound sculptures, installations and creates strategies for performances. As a musician one would describe his music as sine waves mediation, noises and abstract.

tandennis.net
soundcloud.com/squarewhite

Sigbjørn Bratlie at Sumu A.i.R. 1.7. – 31.8.2011

I work with painting, photography, installation, performance and video. My art practice has a conceptual and analytical undertone, and humour is an important part of it. The concept of language is also central to my work. I am influenced by popular culture, and I try to reflect upon contemporary visual culture in terms of confusion or bewilderment. On the other hand, there is a humoristic lightness or irreverence in my work that is mainly influenced by comics and slapstick movies. In essence, my artwork tries to both represent and make linguistic sense of the continuous flow of mass media imagery that surrounds us today

A key ingredient in my way of working is what I like to call «the artist as anti-hero» – i.e. – the artist who desperately tries to create profound, deep-felt and groundbreaking work, but who usually fails miserably.

My residency in Turku focuses on a fictitious software company I have set up, ‘Apocalypti Technologies’, and their groundbreaking software product: ‘Theosis’. This computer programme is initially inspired by the Jorge Luís Borges short story “The Library of Babel”, in which the Universe is metaphorically described as a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format, i.e. every imaginable text in every imaginable (and unimaginable) language. The programme, which is fully operational, transfers this idea to the computer screen. It is designed to run through and configure all possible combinations of all possible pixels in all possible colours, thus revealing every possible picture representable on a computer screen. Wherever you look, whatever you remember from your past, whatever you imagine in your head – ‘Theosis’ will be able to configure its exact visual representation in full colour on your computer screen. It goes without saying that there is a humoristic aspect to ‘Theosis’ and its astronomical uselessness: The total number of pictures configurable through this programme is a number containing 5681750 digits. (As a comparison, the total number of elementary particles in the Universe, according to scientists, is a number with 77 digits. One million, 1000000, contains 7 digits.)

www.apocalypti.com