Interview with Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual Artist Naser Bayat 2018

Naser Bayat visited and observed Jyväskylä for two weeks at the beginning of September. A selection of his photographs were shown in the 7th Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual. Here (below) we share the short unedited interview (conversation) we had with Naser during his stay.  Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/kkigalleria/naser-bayat

Äkkigalleria 50 – Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual : Naser Bayat

(suomeksi alla)

The 7th annual Kirkkopuisto Photography exhibition will open on Thursday September 27th at 8pm in Jyväskylä.

This year's artist is the street photographer Naser Bayat.

Jyväskadul

Naser Bayat is a Kabul born, Helsinki based, young street photographer. He was invited by Äkkigalleria to participate in the sixth Annual Kirkkopuisto Photography residency for one international photographer in the city of Jyväskylä, Finland in September 2018.

The exhibition "Jyväskadul", street photographs by Naser Bayat, is the result of 2 weeks of photographing the streets of the city center of Jyväskylä. A key aspect in the process of making these pictures is that all the people portrayed in these photographs were unaware of the presence of the photographer. All pictures were taken in a candid, unstaged, unposed way. This kind of approach, which is very much the core of the street photography practice, was a big challenge here, considering the center of Jyväskylä is very small and everybody notices everybody.

Imagine you are foreigner, wandering around with your camera, observing your surroundings but not like tourists usually do. You are a street photographer, sort of visual artist and anthropologist, so you are firstly worried about the light, deeply curious about people, and most recently concerned about how to capture the most diverse life situations in public space without being noticed. How to keep invisibility when you are the center of attention?

In this sense, Naser Bayat's photographs of people in Jyväskylä are visual poetry. Like wordless metaphors, they show another city inside this city. The invisibility he captures is an invisible city made of ephemeral gestures, intriguing silhouettes and shadows of people passing by, standing and waiting. Naser Bayat's eye is so attuned with the mystery that happens within the ordinary: a hand pointing to the infinite, a balloon floating horizontally. 

Naser Bayat started developing his creativity during his childhood, drawing stories that were told by his family about his ancestors. That very powerful act of artistic imagination still inspires his street photography practice. 

This exhibition is a document of the daily life moments of Jyväskylä, but not the kind of photos you can find in a promotional touristic guide book of the city, nor in the local newspaper. This is another level of register: it's an artistic view of the life that happens while you are walking to or from work, everything that escapes your attention and constitutes the fabric of our reality.

– Ignacio Pérez Pérez, 20.09.2018

***

Vuoden 2018 Kirkkopuisto Photo Annualen taiteilijaksi on valittu afganistanilaislähtöinen, nykyisin Espoossa asuva nuori katukuvaaja Naser Bayat. Naser kuvaa jyväskylän kaduilla syyskuun kahdeksanteen päivään saakka ja kuvat ovat esillä Kirkkopuistossa kaksi viikkoa alkaen 27.9.2018. Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual on vuosittain toistuva katsaus kansainväliseen nykyvalokuvaan. Edellisinä vuosina Photo Annualen residenssitaiteilijoina ovat olleet eteläafrikkainen Patricia Driscoll, nepalilainen Prasiit Sthapit, espanjalainen Carolina Cruz Guimarey, ruotsalainen Patrik Qvist, ranskalainen Laurent Chéhère ja bulgarialainen Marica Kolcheva. Kirkkopuisto Photo Annualen tarkoituksena on tuoda kansainvälistä nykyvalokuvaa helposti lähestyttäväksi osaksi kaupunkitilaa, ja esitellä kansainvälisiä taiteilijoita Jyväskylässä. Samalla kaupunkilaiset pääsevät tarkastelemaan, millaisena Jyväskylä esittäytyy täällä ensimmäistä kertaa vieraileville ammattivalokuvaajille. Annualen näyttelypaikkana toimii Jyväskylän Kirkkopuistossa Kauppakadun varrella sijaitsevat kaupungin kulttuuritoimijoiden valomainostaulut. Näin näyttely tulee osaksi jyväskyläläistä katukuvaa ja kaupunkilaisten arkea. Kirkkopuisto Photo Annualen järjestää Äkkigalleria yhteistyössä Luovan valokuvauksen keskuksen, Jyväskylän kaupungin sekä valomainospaikkojen omistajien kanssa. Näyttely on esillä Kirkkopuistossa 27.09.–07.10.2018 Näyttelyn avajaiset ovat torstaina 27.9. klo 20. Taiteilija on läsnä avajaisissa.

Lisätietoja: Juho Jäppinen akkigalleria@gmail.com www.akkigalleria.fi http://www.naserbayat.com/

Äkkigalleria 49 – Suzanna Rokita

AVAJAISET ke 25.7. klo 18:30–20
avoinna ke 25. – 28.7. klo 11–18
Kauppakatu 19, Jyväskylä

Zuzanna Rokita on puolalainen, Ranskassa valmistunut kuvataiteilija. Hän oli residenssissä Luovan valokuvauksen keskuksen tiloissa Ratamolla Jyväskylässä vuonna 2016. 

Äkkigallerian näyttelyssä esillä olevat syanotypiat pohjautuvat Jyväskylässä tehtyihin teoksiin. Lisäksi näyttelyssä on esillä valoinstallaatio. 

Avajaisia vietetään keskiviikkona 25.7. klo 18:30–20. Taiteilija on paikalla avajaisissa. Näyttelyyn on vapaa pääsy. Tervetuloa!

Äkkigalleria 48 – Katustipendi 2018 Isaac Cordal Jyväskylässä

Vuoden 2018 Äkkigallerian Katustipenditaiteilijaksi on valittu espanjalainen Isaac Cordal, s. 1974. Cordal tunnetaan muun muassa kaupunkitilaan ilmestyvistä sementistä tehdyistä pienistä ihmisfiguureista, jotka tuntuvat elävän omaa elämäänsä muiden kaupungin asukkaiden rinnalla. He tekevät arkisia askareitaan kaupunkitilassa kuten kuka tahansa meistä. He odottelevat linja-autoa, viettävät vapaa-aikaansa, ovat matkalla töihin, osallistuvat sukulaisensa hautajaisiin tai hautovat itsemurhaa. Laajasti maailmalla kiertänyt Cordal on nyt ensimmäistä kertaa Suomessa ja Jyväskylässä. Hänen kaupunkitilaan sijoitellut teoksensa julkaistaan Yläkaupungin Yössä Jyväskylässä 19.5. Pienet ihmishahmot sijoittuvat Isaacin Jyväskylässä saatujen kokemusten ja inspiraation mukaan, lopulliset teosten sijoituspaikat selviävät vasta Yläkaupungin yössä. Hahmot tulevat kaupungilla vastaan ympäristöään tarkkaileville, mutta teosten sijaintia voi etsiskellä myös Äkkigallerian ja Yläkaupungin yön nettisivujen ja sosiaalisen median avustuksella tapahtumapäivänä. Äkkigallerian katustipendi myönnetään vuosittain kekseliäästi ja omaperäisesti kaupunkitilassa toimiville taiteilijoille. Äkkigallerian stipendin tarkoituksena on tuoda taidetta kaupunkitilaan sekä elävöittää keskustelua julkisen tilan käytöstä. Ensimmäinen Äkkigallerian katustipendi myönnettiin vuonna 2011. Edelliset Katustipenditaiteilijat ovat Re-Clip, Jukka Silokunnas, Jussi Riihelä, Jim Bachor, A.L.I. sekä Radikaalit pistot JKL. Isaac Cordal – Cement Eclipses Julkistus jossain päin yläkaupunkia lauantaina 19.5. Klo 17:00.

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual 2017

This Wednesday, September 27th at 8pm we officially open the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual exhibition.

Marica Kolcheva produced the project City of Light during a residency in Jyväskylä in August 2017.

The exhibition takes place in the cultural advertisement placements on Kauppakatu at the edge of the central Church Park in Jvyäskylä. The exhibition will be in place for 10 days and is visible 24 hours a day until the 8th of October. 

Äkki 46 Interlude Exhibition!

Announcing a 2-day exhibition by Jose Gamboa "Mi Ultimo Adios" at Kauppakatu 5, Jyväskylä.

The opening will be held on Monday the 11th of September at 6–7pm.

This exhibition takes place in the same locale as the 100 Finnish Photographers project (Äkki45) which will be ongoing before, after and throughout this interlude exhibition. The 100 Finnish Photographers projections will be visible during the dark hours of the evening, night and morning, and the exhibition by Jose Gamboa will be open during the bright hours of the day from 10am –5pm, on Tuesday the 12th and Wednesday the 13th of September.

Opening: September 11th 6–7pm
Open hours : September  12th & 13th 10am-5pm

The exhibition is free of charge and open to the public.
Welcome.

***

Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines. He was sentenced to death by firing squad by the Spanish empire for exposing the injustices of the Spanish in the Philippines during their colonization of the archipelago for nearly four hundred years. He wrote “Mi Ultimo Adios” (My Final Farewell) the night before his execution by firing squad. It was his farewell to his family, friends, his country, his life. The poem had to be smuggled out of prison in a lamp.

Nearly three years ago I said farewell to my loved ones and my country to try to make a life for myself in Barcelona, Spain. During that time I have experienced a little of what it is like to be an OFW (overseas foreign worker, who make up nearly 40% of the Philippines' GDP, and Barcelona has 30,000 registered Filipino immigrants), a tourist (Barcelona is full of them), and at times, as an undocumented immigrant, without any security or address, without any chance of becoming part of the Europe that I had traveled so far, invested and given up so much for.

The exhibition consists of the lines from the poem "Mi Ultimo Adios" printed on posters I've collected from the streets of Barcelona over the course of 24 months. These were created at Ratamo during a 3-week artist residency."

***

Jose Gamboa is a visual artist, comic & storybook illustrator, writer and teacher from Manila, Philippines. He is currently artist in residency at the Ratamo Centre for Printmaking.
pinoyartista.com

#pinoyartista, #akkigalleria #ratamo

100 Finnish Photographers – Äkki45

100 FINNISH PHOTOGRAPHERS – 100 DAYS

First-class Finnish photographers from the fields of fine art, commercial, fashion, journalism, documentary and nature photography.

Starting on August 25th, 2017, one photographer will be presented every day for one hundred days at: www.100finnishphotographers.fi and Kauppakatu 5 in Jyväskylä, Finland.

A Celebration of Finnish photography will be held on the hundredth day, December 2nd, 2017 in Jyväskylä.

***

The first Finnish photograph was taken in Turku exactly 175 years ago. This year also being the centennial of Finnish independence, added up to be an opportune moment to celebrate the history and future of Finnish photography in the project 100 Finnish Photographers. The curators selected a broad range of photographers and photographs to represent Finnish contemporary photography in this project. Their selection includes fashion, documentary, photojournalist, portrait, fine art, nature and commercial photographers. Diversity is also found in the ages of the chosen photographers which extends from twenty to almost ninety years old. After one hundred days the website will remain as an information bank and business card for contemporary Finnish photography.

The 100 Finnish Photographers project can also be experienced for one hundred days on the streets of Jyväskylä. Stemming from an idea initiated by the nomadic art gallery, Äkkigalleria, the work of one hundred Finnish photographers will be projected onto the storefront window of Kauppakatu 5 in Jyväskylä. The window screening will be synchronized with the website and will introduce one contemporary Finnish photographer everyday until December 2nd. After one hundred days, the work by all one hundred photographers will be visible in a screening, at the same address, until Finnish Independence Day on the 6th of December.

A Celebration of Finnish Photography 

SAVE THE DATE!

The Celebration of Finnish Photography will be held at the Aalto-Sali in Jyväskylä on Saturday, December 2nd, 2017. The event will primarily be held in Finnish.

Speakers will discuss Finnish photography today, looking towards the future. Today the genres of photography have been broken and the rules are being stretched. What kinds of new ideas and challenges can be taken on, in the field of photography? How can we make Finnish photography more international? What might the future of Finnish photography look like?