Images of Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual 2014

   

The Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual images by Carolina Cruz Guimarey are also available in 
30 x 50cm, editions of 7, at 320€/image.

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual with Radio City

 photo: Carolina Cruz Guimarey

This morning Äkkigalleria PR Juho Jäppinen visited with Pertti Perämäki at Radio Jyväskylä for the interview in the following link:

http://www.radiojyvaskyla.fi/uutiset-ja-haastattelut/kirkkopuisto-photo-annual-aukeaa/41/2132

Äkkigalleria's interview with KpPA residency artist Carolina Cruz Guimarey

 photo: Carolina Cruz Guimarey

Äkkigalleria interview with Carolina Cruz Guimarey on Wednesday September 10^th, 2014.

Äkki: This is your first time to Jyväskylä, and to Finland. What are your first impressions of Jyväskylä (and Finland)?

CCG: I feel that Finland is a place to get lost in a forest. That is what I really have loved and after walking between the shadows of the trees find out a lake, quite and silence. Here, nature is everywhere but it is not overwhelmed it is kind. I have felt protected, lost in a forest, alone, trying to be part of the nature that surrounds me. Peaceful. Finland is peaceful. Taika is one of the first words I have already learnt in finish, guess why.

Äkki: Today you experienced the Finnish sauna for the first time. What kind of experience was this for you? What images from this experience have stuck to your mind?

CCG: It was so liberating! I was able to forget about my body and get completely relax, it is not only a physical relaxation but and mental stay of serenity. The most special moment was be alone, swimming, and naked in the lake’s cold water after the sauna. It was a moment of extremely beauty and calm. You can feel part of the nature that surrounds you.

Äkki: The theme of home, the environment created in and by the construction of a house is a re-occurring subject in your work. What is your first memory of Home? Or can you describe when you first grasped the concept of home?

CCG: I think this concept interests me because I don’t really know what it means. Personally, it is a space of emptiness, something I try to understand, and something I have always been looking for. From the point of view of our society the concept “home” involves a lot of complex realities, from people who have lost their houses in Spain because of the economical crisis to people who are looking for a new homeland beyond the borders of their countries, some of them risking their own lives, some because of war conflicts. So, is home a house, a city, a country, or just a feeling? I don’t know. But in some kind of way we assume  “home” as a part of our identity and our memory. Maybe it is just a dream, a state of mind.

Äkki: You are a multidisciplinary artist, which means that you work with many tools to create images and installations. Photography is only one of these tools. Could you replace photography in your work?

CCG:

When I choose photography to develop a project it is because this project works better this way, I am not looking for the value of the image itself. I’m not a photographer strictly thinking about what that means, I just use my camera when I need it to tell something, I don’t catch images around me, I create those images, I provoke them. Nowadays, It’s easier to improvise in front of the camera, to let you go, almost by instinct, mostly with digital technology.  My photo projects are often related to actions, usually in the form of portraits accompanied by same kind of performance where I play some role in a defined space. It’s like the result of a secret performance, some mystery that involves the space or some objects. I have some ideas, some feelings, then I chose the composition, I search for a kind of light or a special place and I let things happen. I only could do that with photography. I guess some people do that with drawings…I use photography to built my images.

Äkki: In an interview you made with Laatikkomo a few months ago you talked about photography being like a door into another dimension: “a door to a timeless space that gives you the freedom to build new identities”. Are you also building yourself a new identity? Or because you often use yourself in your images, are you building an alter ego?

CCG: Not, exactly. I use my own image because it is practical; I am always with myself so. And that let me improvise much more. But I don’t think I building myself a new identity or create and alter ego. When I appear in my images, it is not me, it is a woman who is there. Usually you cannot see my face, there is nothing that tells you about me, it is a woman, could be you. The images come from me, from my concerns, my feelings, my wonders, but then they become another thing, they are not about me anymore.

Äkki: Some of your series includes found images, or other people’s family portraits, what is your interest in other peoples’ photographs? What do they give to your series?

CCG: Found photographs have a great influence in my artwork. I have been collected this images since a long time. I like the mystery that they have, this is the “door to a timeless space”, they talk about others and at the same time they talk about us. This photos capture personal special moments but I could be our lives, ours grandmother’s life. That is fascinating, we are all the same. We are here for a short time and then we left and we all go throw similar experiences, love, joy, lost, fear, dead. Besides, I have use found photos in lot of my artworks, mostly to talk about women, women reality and history.

Äkki: You seem to go on a lot of artist residencies: just finished a residency in a small town outside of Paris and now you are in a smallish middle sized town in Finland. What importance does a residency have on an artist, and what is the importance of the artist to the community of residence?

CCG: Art residences are for me essential. The periods I have spent in art residencies has let me grow as a person and help me to expand my view as an artist. Also, art residencies give me the possibility of being absolutely focus in my artwork, far away from home, I have a clear goal, develop a concrete project, take as much as possible from this period of time, usually I went back home with some new projects in mind too. Besides, the new places, the new people, everything is positive. My periods in art residences are like oxygen for me, let me breath. Moreover, I have met the most wonderful people from around the world thanks to this opportunities and I have find out magic places, little towns like Guenalguacil (Malaga, Spain), Uncastillo (Zaragoza, Spain), Vilanova de Cerveira (Portugal), Marnay-sur-Seine (France) and now Jyvaskyla. The community also gets enrich with the artists in residency. Local artists get new international nets and people of the community, mostly in little towns, get really involve in the process of the contemporary art and it becomes part of their lives.

Äkki: What kind of photography (or art) is currently popular in your hometown?

CCG: I don’t really think that the kind of work that young photographers are doing in my hometown are really different from the work of other artist of the same generation that I met in Europe. I guess all of us we are living a similar moment so the things that concern us are similar too.  In Galicia, my region in Spain, there are several young photographers who really have a interesting work: Carla Andrade, Jesús Madriñan, David Catá, Ruth Montiel, Veronica Vicente, just to name some of them, the list could be much more longer. All of them are doing international exhibitions very successfully. Carla Andrade’s work is focus in landscape and nature and in some kind of way also Ruth Montiel’s work. I think this is an international tendency and it is logic. This is an issue that concerns specially our generation. We are re-building our relationship with nature.

Äkki: Where do you go to seek inspiration? (To a place or an image, a book, an action…?)Many projects probably have their own source of inspiration, but is there one source of inspiration that you continually return to?

CCG: Poems, words. Often inspiration comes from them. But also my life, the things that worried me, the things that happen around me. Fears. Wounds. Secrets.

Äkki: And now some one word/short answers:

Äkki: Colour

CCG: Here, green.

Äkki: Process

CCG: Painful.

Äkki: Explanation

CCG: ?

Äkki: Message

CCG: Art

Äkki: Object

CCG: Found objects

Äkki: Home

CCG: Home (less)

Äkki: Question

CCG: Life

Äkki: Light

CCG: Shadow

Äkki: Shadows

CCG: Photography

Äkki: Time

CCG: End, Fin(land).

Äkki: Movement

CCG: Travel

Äkki: Photography

CCG: Taika

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual

Carolina Cruz Guimarey is the 2014 Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual residency artist.

photo: Carolina Cruz Guimarey

Äkkigalleria announces the third Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual residency and exhibition in Jyväskylä. This year's residency artist is Carolina Cruz Guimarey (b. 1981) from Spain. During a two week residency she will photograph 8 new pieces which will be shown in the Kirkkopuisto cultural advertisement lightboxes along Kauppakatu Street. Äkkigalleria collaborates with the Finnish Centre for Creative Photography and the owners of the advertisement placements.

***

Äkkigalleria järjestää kolmannen Jyväskylä Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual -näyttelyn. Photo Annualen taiteilijaksi on valittu espanjalainen Carolina Cruz Guimarey (1981), joka kuvaa näyttelyn teokset Jyväskylässä. Valokuvat ovat esillä syyskuun lopulla Kauppakadun varrelle jyväskylän kulttuuritoimijoiden valomainoskaappeissa. Syyspimeillä valokuvat muuttavat korttelinpätkän valokuvanäyttelyksi. Äkkigallerian yhteistyötahoina näyttelyn toteutuksessa toimii Luovan valokuvauksen keskus ry sekä valomainospaikkojen omistajat.

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual 

Äkkigalleria 29.
Kirkkopuisto, Jyväskylä 24.9. –3.10.2014

http://www.carolinacruzguimarey.com/
www.akkigalleria.fi

Open Call for Video Art

 Part of Äkkigalleria is about networking, and our current artist in residency just put us in contact with a video-art project based in Spain "Inner Nature - Arte, naturaleza y contemplación"
We would encourage all video artists to submit to the current open call, the resulting project will be screened in Spain, France, Chile and Finland:

DEADLINE October 3rd, 2014
details about the project can be found through the link (read pdf) or images below:

http://www.upv.es/entidades/CIAE/noticia_890532i.html
(Inner Nature)

Photos from Materialized out of Finland (Äkki 28.)

 

 outside view of Äkkigalleria 28. at initial gallery

  

"Too Much Coffee" by Lasse Ursin.

 

multimedia installation by Janne Nabb & Maria Teeri

  

images from the opening

 

 images from the opening

 view of the gallery work by Emma Lappalainen in foreground, 

Leena Kangaskoski on wall and Antti Laitinen on the monitor

 view of the gallery. Work by Emma Lappalainen in foreground, 

projection by Jukka Silokunnas and sculpture by Leena Kangaskoski.

Äkkigalleria 28.– Materialized out of Finland

For its 5^th anniversary, the Finnish nomadic art gallery, Äkkigalleria, is venturing outside of its hometown Jyväskylä to present work by 7 Finnish artists in the exhibition Materialized out of Finland.

This exhibition shows recent work by artists from all over Finland. The selection of pieces is delicately balanced between the two strong roots of Finnish culture and economy: wilderness and technology.

Much of the work is process based, and involves various degrees of intense labour. Be it the physically demanding work of destroying a boat (Jukka Silokunnas), cutting up a frozen lake (Antti Laitinen) or chipping up a log (Emma Lappalainen). Or the more fine motor skills of wrapping wire around twigs (Leena Kangaskoski), the meticulously cut paper flowers (Nabb & Teeri) or building self-sufficient kinetic sculptures (Lassi Ursin). All demand a certain determination and sacrifice proudly known as “sisu” in the Finnish language. Even the small hand-printed, silver gelatine prints (Maija Holma) require careful technique.

Each piece has an intimate story as well, reflecting the solitary nature of Finns. The lone, physical and technical involvement in each creation is reflective of the Finnish relationship to nature.

Finland, meet Vancouver.

Vancouver, this is Finland.

The artists of Materialized out of Finland are:

Maija Holma b. 1971, (photography) processes and prints her images on repurposed materials. Her work often juxtaposes material and image; using found (rejected) objects such as broken plastic or chunks of cement, combined with imagery from her environment. For subject matter, Maija Holma is drawn to architecture, in nature as well as in cities. Maija Holma is also a photographer for the Alvar Aalto museum of Finland for which she has documented the architect’s work all over the globe. Her most recent exhibition was in Teheran, Iran. 

Maija Holma’s work in this exhibition, Ballad of a Standard, 2012, is a series of silver gelatine photographs on repurposed “A4” paper.

naulasaari.net

Leena Kangaskoski b. 1982, (sculpture) has worked with a variety of materials and practices including sculpture, performance and video, but her most recent work appropriates natural objects, such as sticks or pinecones, and transforms them into new entities. For this exhibition Leena Kangaskoski is showing work from her new series Mind Token 2014, which visualizes a concept of neurons through the manipulation of natural found objects.

lineofpractice.com

Antti Laitinen b.1975, is known for his projects of endurance. His physically demanding processes, immersed in nature, are documented and shown as photographs and/or videos in the gallery setting. For this exhibition Äkkigalleria shows his video work Lake Deconstruction, 2011, which documents his process of removing ice from a frozen lake, cube by cube, and building a large ice block on land. Through diverse projects, Laitinen considers human relationship with and in nature along with concepts of time and work.

Laitinen was the Finnish Pavilion representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

anttilaitinen.com

Emma Lappalainen b. 1976, (sculpture) is best known for her black and white, pinhole photographs and prints depicting mysterious landscapes. Upon recently inheriting a forest she began working in a more sculptural form: Her forest had been infested with a beetle known in Finnish as the “typographic printer” (Ips typographus) – a similar name to her own profession as a fine arts printer, this was also the profession of her late father. It was this connection with the beetle that inspired her to work with wood more physically as a material and not just a means to print.

Emma Lappalainen’s Trip 2013, is an installation/sculpture made from a spruce tree log.

Janne Nabb & Maria Teeri b. 1984 & 1985, (installation). Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri are an artist couple who have been working together since 2009. Their collaborative work is propelled by their efforts to avoid painting. This may seem a bit contradictory seeing as both artists began as painters, however their motivation for “not painting” is rooted in their desire to go beyond paint: to continue painting without the use of paint. Currently their non-paintings are made with found materials (in this case calendars from the 1980s) videos, and manipulated photographs. Their installations are always site-specific creations, although at times certain elements might be re-used in a new context.  In this exhibition they are showing a new version of their piece Sonar 2010, 2011, 2014.

Nabb and Teeri were chosen as the 2014 Young Artist of Finland award. This award is an annual cash prize and exhibition given to a Finnish artist under 35 as a reward of merit in the arts.

nabbteeri.com

Jukka Silokunnas b. 1982, (video). Intrigued by disruption of order, the stop-motion videos and photographs by Jukka Silokunnas often represent the dismantling of objects, emphasizing the absurd, or reversing common expectations. His video Disemboat 2013, shows a typical Finnish row boat crumbling, in stop motion, seemingly without human intervention. Jukka Silokunnas is also known as a specialist of Finnish Street Art. He is currently working at the Finnish Arts Promotion Centre – Central Finland Branch (formerly known as the Arts Council of Finland), for the promotion of Public/Street Art.

silokunnas.blogspot.com

Lasse Ursin b. 1983, (media art) experiments with found objects and motors to produce his kinetic sculptures. He considers existential questions about art and challenges the authority of the artist by creating self propelling objects that can produce their own drawings and/or paintings. For this exhibition Lasse Ursin’s Too Much Coffee 2014, is a new work created for this Äkkigalleria exhibition. The object is a scalp massage device attached with small cam motor equipped with pens which draws random, agitated lines in an uncontrolled composition. 

Lasse Ursin is an active member of his community, involved in bringing creative activities to isolated groups on people, particularily those in governmental housing.

lasseursin.wix.com

For this exhibition, Äkkigalleria will occupy the initial gallery space for four days in between programmed exhibitions. This new collaboration with an established gallery space is an exciting expansion for the Äkkigaleria concept which, up until now, has primarily appropriated vacant commercial spaces.

Äkkigalleria takes over the initial gallery space

2339 Granville Street

Vancouver, Canada

604.428.4248

initialgallery.com