CrossSections_notes

Opening: October 24, 5–8pm

curated by Basak Senova

Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki hosts CrossSections_notes exhibition with 19 participating artists at Exhibition Laboratory.

Developed and curated by Basak Senova, CrossSections is designed as an interdisciplinary platform for explorations into artistic research and education through dialogue and production. The project employs an open format to reflect upon “process” with the intent to articulate critical reactions to the political, economic, and social disturbances facing us today. Over the course of three years (2017–19), the artists, together with other scholars and cultural workers, have organized various meetings, accompanied with residencies, workshops, exhibitions, performances and book launches in Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm.

Participating artists include Heba Y. Amin, Nisrine Boukhari, Benji Boyadgian, Yane Calovski, Ramesch Daha, Ricarda Denzer, Nikolaus Gansterer, Inma Herrera, Barbara Holub, Otto Karvonen, Ebru Kurbak, Bronwyn Lace, Marcus Neustetter, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Egle Oddo, Isa Rosenberger, Lina Selander, Tamsin Snow and Timo Tuhkanen.

Since 2017, as one of the partners of the project, Academy of Fine Arts of University of the Arts Helsinki hosted artists’ and curator’s talks, a public meeting, speaker guests for Prognostic-series, and studio visits. This time lecture-performances, performances and talks by Nisrine Boukhari, Marcus Neustetter, Inma Herrera, Bronwyn Lace, Otto Karvonen and Timo Tuhkanen along with a special educational session by Basak Senova for the Praxis Master’s Programme students will be the accompanying events of the CrossSections_notes exhibition.

CrossSections aims at discussing and sharing diverse realities, conditions and strategies in different geographies. By placing artistic production at the center of its research and mission, The project is shaped by the cumulative, interdisciplinary input and data through meetings, residencies, performative presentations and publications. Its research process involves different focus groups, institutions and educational bodies that engage with re-positioning perspectives by giving priority to production. CrossSections provides various types of research and production-based residencies for project participants, which are affiliated with the partner institutions. Currently, the project has been a discursive act by accommodating the range of activities that support the on-going research of the artists with the aim to observe and record their methodologies. The project takes one step further to activate the research discussions and exhibitions highlighting how these diverse methodologies come to the surface.

The exhibition at Exhibition Laboratory, once again, will be focusing on the communicating paths of artistic research and knowledge. The integration of research material, documentation and the art works are critical to the performative values of the overall design and is supported by the exhibition format. The exhibition design is intended to give an insight into the working methodologies of the artists and their different media. Hence, the design suggests diverse and overlapping experiments and perceptions to be experienced by generating a flow and connection amongst the works. In this respect, a model of the previous exhibition at Konstfack, CrossSections_perspectives will be presented at Exhibition Laboratory. Then, after the completion of the exhibition, the same model as the travelling exhibition will be transported to Gallery Augusta at HIAP in Suomenlinna.

The project partners include Kunsthalle Exnergasse – WUK in Vienna; IASPIS – the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists; Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design; and NFK – The Nordic Art Association in Stockholm; Nya Småland with different locations in Sweden; HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme and Academy of Fine Arts – University of the Arts Helsinki in Helsinki; Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia in Tallinn; and Press to Exit Project Space in Skopje.

CrossSections is primarily supported by its partners. The project, part of this exhibition, and associated book are generously supported by the Saastamoinen Foundation. CrossSections has received support from the Consulate General of Sweden and TECHIZART in Istanbul; Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (The University of Applied Arts) in Vienna; and Culture Ireland in Dublin. The project was also hosted by Kamel Lazaar Foundation at B7L9 in Tunis as well as by Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (The University of Applied Arts) in Vienna.

crosssections.kex.wuk.at

The CrossSections_notes Exhibition at ExLab is accompanied by performances, talks, and lecture-performances during the exhibition period

Wed 23.10. 2019 // 18:00 Nisrine Boukhari Prognostics Lecture at ExClub Thu 24.10. 2019 // 17:00 Opening: Performance by Marcus Neustetter Thu 31.10.2019 // 17:00 Lecture-Performance by Bronwyn Lace Wed 6.11.2019 // 17:00 Artist Talk by Inma Herrera Wed 13.11.2019 // 17:00 Artist Talk by Otto Karvonen Thu 14.11.2019 // 18:00 Finnissage: Sound Performance by Timo Tuhkanen

Barbara Holub's video-work "Blue Frog Society | A Habitat Without Territory // Speech to the Blue Frog Society in Romanes by Nancy Black" is presented at the PUBLICS [Sturenkatu 37-41 4b 00550 Helsinki] within the framework of the CrossSections project.