Pressrelease

More information about the participants in Hydro Active City

Little Ice Age, Olga Warabida & Mariusz Samól (Poland)

Little Ice Age is a sound installation that serves as a surreal intervention into the fabric of the city. Artists drew inspiration for their work from historical records according to which the past, winters in our climate were so severe that it was possible to travel between Sweden and Poland across the frozen Baltic sea. Therefore, at the height of a spring time in Gdansk pedestrians walking on the footbridge over the Radunia canal, connecting Rybaki Dolne and Górne Streets, will have the opportunity to experience a truly winter-like situation and revive feelings accompanying the act of crossing the frozen Baltic Sea. Participants’ bodies will serve as interfaces, which bring installation into life, and the triggered sound will change the perception of reality.

Sound: Anna Suda.

Vimeo video

Message in a bottle.

Message in a bottle, Maciej Wojnicki (Poland)

“Message in a bottle is a project based on a custom designed social interaction tool combined of a dedicated mobile app and a website. User is given virtual bottle where one can drop messages (sentences, questions, short stories, images). Message is instantly and virtually packed into a bottle and dropped into the river. Bottle floats down the river (Radunia canal) until it gets stranded somewhere by the shore populating the riverside. Visitors walk along, discover messages of unknown authors, answer them, put back into bottles and send further, throwing back down to the river. Soon the bottle gets stranded again, another visitor finds it in a different place with original message and it`s replies, if he joins the conversation the bottle flows further.“


Water Memory, Piotr Wyrzykowski (Poland)

”Water memory” is an interactive art project that uses a specially designed app for tablets through which the viewer is transferred into a virtual world – ”augmented reality”. The inspiration for this art piece was a pseudoscientific hypothesis stating  that water has an ability to collect and store information. ”Water memory” offers viewers a sentimental journey into the history, which will be rediscovered, when wandering streets of Oslek. By using the programmed application, the real image captured by the tablet camera layers with an imaginary underwater world, full of memorabilia and signs of the past. Water becomes a perceptual filter through which the wiever is visually and audibly ”immersed” in a non-linear narrative created by the artist.

Water Memory.

Application for Android: Toucan Systems / Audio: Krzysztof Topolski – Arszyn / Narrative path: Mieczyslaw Abramowicz.
Post-Fishing Post, Justinas Gaigalas and Rytis Urbanskas (Lithuania)

More information

Mozemorze

Mozemorze is an installation based on the analysis of language and its onomatopoetic aspect, on the image of the sound of the sea. The project moves and emphasises conventionality and delusion of a created situation, and, at the same time, the power of imagination, suggestibility of human voices that carry us into the world of individual’s imagination. It is meant to bring relief from the hustle and bustle of the city, focus attention on the voice of other people, but also to move to an imaginary world. Abstract rush, an attempt to appeal to the real sound of the sea, deepens the conventionality of an event. However, it is to stir up the imagination, enter into the realm of dreams of a blue vastness, close to your eyes and believe that it is the sound of the sea.

May 31 – June 2 20.00 Baltic sea cultural centre, Korzenna 33/35 street, Gdansk.

Dowody – Honorata Martin

An installation for voyeurs. A video trapped in a darkroom like a photograph. A fleeting moment. A moment of ecstasy. A moment of terror. Emotions in a box. Water has cleansing properties, gives peace, tranquility. Water, dark water, arouses fear, hides secrets. ”I can soak for hours in a lake but I never swim out too far where I cannot see a lakebed.”

May 31 – June 2 20.00 (8 p.m)/BSCC Parking lot, Bielanska street, Gdansk.

OKNA – WINDOWS  Kamila Chomicz, Krzysztof Topolski

The theme of the audio-visual projection is water, its structure and presence in nature. The film is accompanied by a soundtrack, composed in the sounds of water. Projection, both on a visual and sound layer remains for a period of time invisible and inaudible. As it gets darker, there slowly emerge shapes and sounds.

May 31 – June 2 20.00 (8 pm) at theBSCC Parking lot, Bielanska street, Gdansk.

More Kamila Chomicz information

More Krzysztof Topolski information

Hertzschmertz & Ebola Ape – the tresures and shipwrecks – marine audio-visual stories

Treasures and shipwrecks is an audio-visual tandem comprising of Agata Krolak (Hertzschmertz) and Ebola Ape. In the course of a performance the artists will submerge us deep  in the dense images and sounds to show a sea full of anxieties, dark secrets, broken hearts and promises. There will be a lot of contrasts, contradictions and idiosyncrasies, because the sea is variable and treacherous, and its bottom await treasures and shipwrecks.

May 31 21.30 (9.30 pm) BSCC Parking lot, Bielanska street, Gdansk

More information

Link to sound from Ebola Ape

Shipyard on air – the famous (now demolished) mural.

Shipyard On Air, Iwona Zając
www.stoczniaweterze.com
1-2 June 2013, 4.00-8.00 pm / corner of Jana z Kolna street, Gdansk

On the 18th of January 2013 a wall with the „Shipyard” mural (2004-2012) on it was demolished. As a result of that I felt an urge to revisit this project.
I searched out 8-year old tapes with testimonies of shipyard workers. Recorded in the halls of the shipyard using the most basic dictaphone, their audio quality wasn’t the best.
Restored, but not completely stripped of distortions and shipyard noises, they will be broadcasted as a recorded voice of the people that have by and large left the shipyard.
Thanks to co-operation with Radio Gdansk we will be able to listen to these recordings on the grounds of the non-existent shipyard wall.
I would like the transmitter artwork to remain in the city space permanently.
The „Shipyard” mural is a work of art that became strongly associated with Gdansk city scape. I’ve been approached by people who asked for the mural-related materials to be publicly accessible. The result was a www.stoczniaweterze.com website in both Polish and English. It contains transcripts, recorded testimonies of the workers as well as a photographic documentation of the „Shipyard” mural and a free digital „Shipyard”catalogue. This way I’d like to preserve a part of history of our city and of the people that live in it.

June 1-2 2013, 16.00-20.00 (4.00-8.00 pm) / corner of Jana and Kolna street, Gdansk

Hydro Laboratory

”Hydro laboratory” is an opportunity to discover and explore the fascinating world of nature and technology. The artistic duo wtih a scientific flair will demonstrate dry ice and warm ice, how a cloud is formulatied, what shape and colour water has, why some objects sink while others float on the surface. We encourage adults and children to participate in the experiments.

June 1, 17.00-19.00, on the square behind NOT, Wodopoj street, Gdansk.

Youtube video

Liquid video session by the one minutes

In BSCC gallery a unique relaxation space will be created, where soothing images will roll spectators in the rhythm of waves. In this space visitors will be invited to have a spirit purifying audio-visual bathe, relax, take a break and collect thoughts. The Liquid video session thematic compilation is a journey through one-minute stories with ”liquid” element, selected specially for Digital Forms Festival.

June 1 20.00 (8 pm) BSCC Gallery, Korzenna 33/35, Gdansk.

More information

MAZZOLL – FLUIDACJE

Evening, outdoor audio-visual show will submerge in the harmony of clarinet and analogue visualizations. The performance of Jerzy Mazzoll and Ebert brothers will be connected by a water theme, which will exist both in music and visualizations. Spectacular methodology used in the artists’ work makes not only sound and image fascinating, but also the creative process itself. Fluidations is an analog visualization arising from liquids created to live music. In their performance, Egbert brothers extracts beauty arising on the borderline between fluid and light. Using a variety of substances, the take advantage of their chemical and physical properties. In this way, the analogue limitations become a mean to achieve unique animation.

June 1 21.30 (9.30 pm) BSCC parking lot, Bielanska street, Gdansk.

More information

EMITER_FRANCZAK

The audio-visual project Total Sound Space is all about creative converting, ”recycled” reality in the visual and audio space, using commonly available objects. The project is inspired by the city space and water motif, whose presence in the structure of the city fills the limited space with a discrete sound. It pulses, vibrates, interferes. We’ll look it and listen. The Radunia channel will become a point of reference for our actions. We will attempt to incorporate in educational activity to creatively transform the image of sound.

June 2, 21.30 (9.30 pm) cape by a Small Mill Wielke Mlyny Gdansk.

More information

Coloroscopes Alina Zemojdzin & Artur Trzcinski

Coloroscopes is the easiest way to put an analogue visuals created live to music. Artists use techniques of mixing colorful liquids and oily substances giving unique visual effects. This time they will take us on a journey to distant an unknown corners of the universe in search of water and life. Images will be accompanied by intriguing sounds of nature: from gurgle from the bottom of the earth to vibrations from interstellar space.

June 2 21.30 (9.30 pm) 17 Rybaki Gorne street 17, Gdansk.

Youtube video

Pressrelease

Realized this weekend in Gdansk: Hydro Active City

The Radunia canal in Gdansk, where it all will happen 31st of May – 2nd of June.
Photo 2012 by magro_kr

“Hydro Active City” is an innovative exhibition in public space, using the latest tools and mobile technologies (tablets, smartphones, wi-fi), which will be held in Gdansk, Poland on 31st May – 2nd June.

Water is an element that both connects and divides all partners of ART LINE project, in which frames the contest was conducted. This motif has become a natural source of inspiration for artistic exploration of hydroactive art works, understood as inspired by water in the broadest sense of the term – geographical, chemical, hydrological, literary or symbolic. An ”active” element requires the artists to create works that engage the viewer and not just put them in the passive situation of a viewer. The artworks in a natural way will weave into the urban fabric and will revitalise the passage, running along the Radunia river canal, between Heveliusza and Krosna street.

The competition was organised by the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre within the international art project, ART LINE. Out of 50 proposals from Poland, Sweden, Germany, Lithuania, Russia and Denmark, an international jury panel chose 4 projects that have been completed and will be presented at the exhibition:
the Little Ice Age, Olga Warabida & Mariusz Samól (Poland)
Message in a bottle, Maciej Wojnicki (Poland)
Water Memory, Piotr Wyrzykowski (Poland)
Post-Fishing Post, Justinas Gaigalas and Rytis Urbanskas (Lithuania)-honorable mention.

Preparing for the festival connected to the HAC, Iwona Zajac, Piotr Jagielski and Marek Iwanowski.
Photo Magda Małyjasiak.

The post-contest exhibition “Hydro active city” will be accompanied by a Digital Forms Festival, presenting in public space interactive installations inspired by water. To participate in this event we have invited: Iwona Zając, Marcin Dymiter & Franczak Ludomir Franczak, Honorata Martin, Alina Zemojdzin & Artur Trzcinski, Kamila Chomicz & Krzysztof Topolski, Hertzsmertz & Ebola Ape. Mazzoll and Fluidations, C4030.

The exhibition opens in the afternoon on 31st May, 2013 and lasts until 2nd June, 2013 . The work will be presented to viewers in the afternoon, and each day will end the evening surprise. We encourage participants to bring their own tablets and Smartphones (prepared applications will work on Android). For viewers who do not have such equipment, the organiser will provide to enable them participation.

Read the programme here.

Art Line presented to Euroregion Baltic

Project leader Torun Ekstrand presenting Art Line for representatives from Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and Russia.

Some 30 representatives from Euroregion Baltic Executive Board gave project leader Torun Ekstrand their full attention as she presented the Art Line project to them, Monday afternoon the 27th of May. The meeting took place in Karlskrona.
Euroregion Baltic (ERB) was established in February 1998 and is a cooperation in the south-east of the Baltic Sea region, consisting of eight regions of Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. It was the first Euroregion to have formally included a partner from the Russian Federation. ERB works for improving life conditions for its inhabitants, promoting bonds and contacts among local communities, and providing measures for a more sustainable development within the region.
Torun Ekstrand told the board about the good cooperation within the Art Line project, and how much activity this has lead to, making the South Baltic region a more attractive place to live and work.
She also took the opportunity to invite the audience to take advantage of the Art Line exhibitions and the project network.

Report from the international mixed media festival

Full house in Blekinge museum when Art Line and BTH event #MIXITUPFEST started Friday 24th of May.

During three days – and one night – Swedish city Karlskrona was the arena for mixing art forms and realitites, May 24-26. The #MIXITUPFEST with performances, art installations, marathon reading, seminar and workshops, enhanced the knowledge of the possibilities AR (augmented reality) now gives museum people aswell as curators and artists. Guests from not only around the Baltic but also around the world participated during the event. This was an arena where both scholars and artists met the public, all in the spirit of the Art Line project.

Maria Engberg at BTH made the keynote speech at the seminar on Friday the 24th.

The first event was a daytime seminar and workshops, Friday the 24th at Blekinge tekniska högskola BTH in Karlskrona where the concept of Augmented reality (AR) was explained, first and foremost by Maria Engberg of BTH (and Georgia Tech). After that, several examples of this were presented from representatives from the BTH, Malmö högskola and Georgia Tech (Georgia Institute of Technology). Presenters included: Melissa Foulger & Rebecca Rouse (Digital Media and Performance, Georgia Tech), Matthew Rouser (AR and Urban Space, Malmö), Daniel Spikol (Computer Science, Malmö University), Trish Harris (Curator and Journal Editor, USA), Talan Memmott (Digital Artist and Researcher, BTH), Maria Engberg (AR/MR and Digital Culture Researcher, BTH), Lissa Holloway-Attaway (AR/MR and Digital Culture Researcher, BTH), Elektro Moon Vision: Elwira Wojtunik & Popesz Csaba Láng (Media Artists, Poland), Mateusz Pek (Media Artist, Poland), Jesper Norda (Media Artist, Sweden), Astrid Selling Sjöberg and Kristin Borgehed (Musicans and Culture Heritage Researchers, Folk Practice Academy). In the afternoon of the AR/MR day there was also a “poster session” presenting projects from students in Digital Culture and Computer Science at Blekinge Institute of Technology and Malmö University and other researchers. Among the projects are cultural heritage and tourist applications, games, and art and narrative projects. Due to unforseen circumstances the keynote speaker of the seminar, professor Jay David Bolter, was not able to attend, but could later during the #MIXITUPFEST take part in the different activities.

Friday evening, there was a series of performances and three installations were started – all at the Blekinge museum, Karlskrona. They all in one way or another could be said to be mixing realities – the digital and the physical. Music, dance and theatre were some of the traditional art forms that were in different ways ”augmented” by technical devices. The performances were part of educational programs about using digital technology in an art context.

The artist installations were made by Jesper Norda, Mateusz Pek, Elektro Moon Vision (Elwira Wojtunik, Popesz Csaba Láng with the assistance of Magdalena Pińczyńska), and the screening of the Re-Making Moby Dick Project with Project Curator and Director Trish Harris and Lissa Holloway-Attaway.

The Barbarum fretum installation(video)

From the marathon reading of Moby-Dick. The light was on the readers of Moby-Dick, though a lot of devices were used in order to broadcast and to connect the participants from overseas.

Saturday, the public in Karlskrona got the opportunity to experience the different installations, which many of them did. By noon it was time for a marathon reading of the Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick. This was done in real time on the internet, and with participation from all over the world via Skype. The marathon reading took place in the Blekinge museum auditiorium which was transformed into a broadcast central during the (as it all came down to) 25 hour reading.

Pressrelease

#MIXITUPFEST internationell kulturfestival med augmented reality i Karlskrona

Smarta telefoner, surfplattor och appar ger konstnärer nya möjligheter att skapa verkligheter vi inte har sett förut. Det som var science fiction i morse är verklighet till lunch. Framtidens kultur presenteras för allmänheten under tre dagar i Karlskrona när två olika verkligheter, den fysiska och den digitala möts.

Från fredag till söndag kommer Karlskronaborna och alla andra som besöker staden att få möjlighet att uppleva hur den digitala och den fysiska verkligheten håller på att smälta samman. I en tre dagars festival kallad #MIXITUPFEST med en mängd varierade inslag – både handfasta och drömska – är alla välkomna att beskåda eller delta i en mängd aktiviteter på olika platser i centrala Karlskrona och på högskolan.

Evenemanget har lockat deltagare från hela världen. Bland annat kommer teaterfolk från högskolan Georgia Tech i USA, likaså en av världens främsta experter inom området “augmented reality” professor Jay Bolter.

Det internationella konstprojektet Art Line, delfinansierat av EU och med samarbetsparter i fem länder runt Östersjön, ligger bakom denna digitala festival tillsammans med Blekinge tekniska högskola. Den som rör sig i centrala Karlskrona under helgen kommer att kunna ta del av olika installationer och performances, men också ta aktiv del i skapandet.

Exempel på detta är användning av digital teknik i nutida scenkonst, ett avancerat digitalt rum där man kan ta ett ”bad” utan vatten, dans, musik, video i olika konstellationer där de olika verkligheterna möts.

Program och mera information om den tre dagar långa festivalen finns på Art Lines webbplats:

http://artline-southbaltic.eu/sv/event/mixing-realities-digital-performance-festival/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/140299872829923/

Vi bifogar också ett ”kortprogram” med beskrivningar av festivalens innehåll.

Frågor om #MIXITUPFEST till Art Lines informatör Ingemar Lönnbom:

Mobil: 0708 310392

epost: ingemar.lonnbom@artline-southbaltic.eu

Ingemar Lönnbom
Information officer
Art Line

ingemar.lonnbom@artline-southbaltic.eu

telephone: +46 708 310392

Art Line
www.artline-southbaltic.eu

Lead partner Blekinge Museum
Borgmästaregatan 21
SE-371 35 Karlskrona, Sweden

South Baltic Cross-Border Programme
Part financed by the European Union (ERDF)

EU politician visited Art Line

Cecilia Wikström, Annika Thelin, Anna Ekström

Member of the EU parliament Cecilia Wikström (to the left in picture) visited international art project Art Line on May 17. Ms Wikström was greeted and informed by financial manager Annika Thelin (middle). Art, cooperation and regional development were some of the meetings topics. Ms Wikström says she will gladly advocate the Art Line concept and help the project expanding its network in Brussels. To the right Anna Ekström, chair of Folkpartiet Liberalerna in Karlskrona.

Trojmiasto Art Tours – happy participants

A number of art tours are made to the Tri-city area in Poland as a part of the Art Line project. This is a cooperation with project partner Stena Line and Swedish art associations. One of the art tours took place in mid May 2013. Participants Solgerd Bussenius, Mira Mathesdotter and Björn-Åke Zetterberg all went back to Sweden with a lot of impressions and expressed their contentment both with the arrangement and the art itself.

Art in a public space – summary of day 2

Day two of the conference Art in a public space – festival or not was just as full of impressions as the first. There was a enlighting mixture of concrete examples of art projects and more in depth analysis.

The speakers were Julia Draganović, Julita Wójcik, Agnieszka Wołodźko, Torun Ekstrand and Bettina Pelz. As day one there was a roundtable discussion as a conclusion. The arranging part got well deserved praise as did the interpreters and the technical staff at the Baltic Cultural Center in Gdansk, where the conference was held.

See pictures from the conference day 2 here:

Morning day 2

Afternoon day 2

(high definition pictures are avaliable, just get in contact with the Art Line information officer, Ingemar Lönnbom)

Exclusive interview with Michaela Crimmin from the Royal College of Art in London. She shares her thoughts on the conference and how to continue. Don’t miss!

Art in a public space – summary of day 1

The first day of Art Line conference Art in a public space – festival or not? presented five devoted and interesting speakers. Martin Schibli, Dominik Lejman, Michał Bieniek, Kuba Szreder and Michaela Crimmin, from different countries with a variety of thoughts on the concept of art and – not in the least – on the concept of public space!

The day ended with a Roundtable Discussion with all five participants.

Sound has been recorded from the speeches and will be published at a later time. As of now we have pictures - and an exclusive eight minute interview with artist Dominik Lejman, who among other things say that artists should be just as respected for their professionals skills as, say, a doctor or a lawyer.

Listen to the interview with Dominik Lejman!

Pressrelease

Konfererens om konst i det offentliga rummet, 17-18 maj

De blir vanligare och vanligare: konstprojekt som visas upp i det offentliga rummet. De engagerar – eller i vissa fall irriterar – en bred och ibland oförberedd publik.  En internationell konferens om konst i det offentliga rummet och digitala medieformer genomförs (konferensspråk engelska) den 17-18 maj 2013 vid Baltic Cultural Centre, Gdansk.

En sak som nyligen har väckt diskussion i Trestadsområdet (Gdynia-Sopot-Gdansk) är det växande antalet festival-liknande projekt med en mer eller mindre populistisk profil som tar plats i stadsrummet. Festivalerna har olika form och syfte, men de har alla det gemensamt att de endast är kortlivade.

Ett uttalat mål är ofta att göra den genomsnittliga betraktaren mera bekant med samtida konst.

Konferensen kommer att ta upp frågor som: Vem ska ta ansvaret när lokalsamhällen ofrivilligt utsätts för och deltar i sådan verksamhet? Vilka strategier skulle kunna användas för att inleda ett samarbete med alla dessa lokalbefolkningar som utsätts för ”invasioner” som kommer av olika konstnärliga projekt? Och sist men inte minst – vad är det offentliga rummet som sådant, eftersom det inte längre omfattar enbart stadsrummet?

De inbjudna curatorer och konstnärer kommer att dela sina erfarenheter av projekt i det offentliga rummet.

Men det är invånarna som inbjudits av arrangörerna som kommer att stå i centrum för diskussionen, både de som accepterar och de som är kritiska till sådana projekt.

Konferensen arrangeras av Gdansk City Gallery och Östersjön Cultural Centre. Det är en del av det internationella konstprojektet Art Line, som nyligen utsågs till ”flaggskeppsprojekt” inom EU och dessutom har förlängts till den 31 mars 2014.

Art in the public space – festival or not ?

A conference on art in the public domain and digital media will be a part of the international Art Line project.

17 – 18 May, 2013

Venue: the Baltic Sea Culture Centre, Korzenna Str. 33/35, Gdansk

The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

You can join the event on Facebook

More information:

Ingemar Lönnbom, information officer at Art Line:

ingemar.lonnbom@artline-southbaltic.eu

cell phone +46 708 310392

Within Sweden: 0708 310392

Links to more information:

Read what the speakers reveal on beforehand!

Information in Polish.

Newsletter 12

Art Line present when culture became a priority area

Art Line – förlängning beviljad till år 2014!

Det internationella konstprojektet Art Line fortsätter till den 31 mars 2014. Styrkommittén för programmet South Baltic Cross Border Co-operation har i dagarna godkänt en förlängning.

Beslutet baserades på slutsatserna från projektet bedömning: ”Projektet förbättrar spridningen av redan uppnådda resultat, och förbättrar deras hållbarhet. Det är ett värdefullt bidrag till södra Östersjöområdet och berikar den gränsöverskridande kulturella arenan”, skriver kommittén. ”De föreslagna verksamheterna är i de flesta fall innovativa och påverkar situationen positivt för målgruppen.”

”Projektet omfattar små institutioner med ett stort engagemang för utvecklingen av kulturen och konsten i regionerna.

Styrkommittén konstaterar också att engagemanget ”resulterade i utnämningen till flaggskeppsprojekt för EUSBSR.” Kommittén bedömer att förlängningen ger möjlighet att förstärka effekten av projektets aktiviteter och stärka nätverket.

Newsletter 11

Program och deltagare i Art Lines konferens 17-18 maj

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference

Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Friday, 17th May 2013

9:45 – 10:00

registration

Contexts, spaces and commissioning

10:00 – 10:50 Martin Schibli,

What is it with Public Art that Makes it so Hard to Love it?

10:50 – 11:40 Dominik Lejman,

The Right to Space

11:40 – 12:30 Michał Bieniek,

Curator-Orderer: from the Context and Medium to a Curatorial and

Organisational ‘Failure’

12:30 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK

Economy, funding and institutions

13:30 – 14:20 Kuba Szreder,

The political Economy of Public Art Projects

14:20 – 15:10 Michaela Crimmin,

Art for All? Observation, Participation, Collaboration and

Opposition in Contemporary Art Practice

15:10 – 16:00

Roundtable Discussion

Saturday, 18th May 2013

9:45 – 10:00

registration

Dialogue, conflict, site-specificity and the role of an artist

10:00 – 10:50 Julia Draganović,

Note on Time Based Public Art

10:50 – 11:40 Julita Wójcik

,

Daily Life of a Festival

11:40 – 12:30 Agnieszka Wołodźko,

Discuss, not Decorate!

12:30 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK

Festival, regionalisation and the public

13:30 – 14:00 Torun Ekstrand,

What and where is Art in the Public Domain?

14:00 – 14:50 Bettina Pelz,

Visual Seismographs

14:50 – 16:00

Roundtable Discussion

pdf:s for downloading and printing:

Art in the public domain – festival or not ART LINE conference 17-18.05.2013

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference

Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Michał Bieniek, studied at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in

Wrocław; head of the Managing Board of the Foundation for Contemporary Art ART TRANSPARENT,

creator and general curator of the SURVIVAL Art Review; originator and coordinator of the

contemporary art gallery Mieszkanie Gepperta (Geppert’s Apartment). Twice, in 2006 and 2010, he

was granted scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and in 2004 was awarded

the Marshal of Lower Silesia Prize. In 2009 and 2010, nominated for the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ WARTO

Award, which he received in 2010. Since 2010 he has been a Research Student by Project at the

Curating Contemporary Art Department of the Royal College of Art in London. In 2011, he was granted

‘Młoda Polska’ scholarship.

Michaela Crimmin, curator, co-founder and director of Culture+Conflict. Her ongoing research

explores the relationship between the arts and societal issues, particularly artists’ perspectives on

environmental and other contemporary challenges, and artists’ engagement with public space. She is

a course tutor on the Curating Contemporary Art masters programme at the Royal College of Art,

programming two courses in 2013: ‘Art in the Public Domain’ and ‘Art and Globalisation’.

Her current work with Culture+Conflict aims to build support and recognition for arts and cultural

activity specifically in conflict and post-conflict situations. She has also recently been working with the

artist Joanna Rajkowska on a commission for the UK city of Peterborough as part of a programme

exploring how ‘citizen power’ can shape civic and democratic renewal.

She was previously Head of Arts at the RSA (1997-2010), a role that included commissioning the first

phase of the Fourth Plinth series in London’s Trafalgar Square, directing the Art for Architecture award

scheme, and latterly initiating and directing the Arts & Ecology Centre on behalf of the RSA and Arts

Council England. This five-year programme supported, promoted and debated artists’ responses to

current environmental challenges through a range of activities including artist commissions, a book,

and a series of events and international residencies. Prior to this she worked with artists in the public

sphere for over fifteen years of commissioning art with the pioneering public art agency, The Public Art

Development Trust. She is a member of the Higher Education Academy and lectures frequently

nationally and internationally.

Julia Draganović, a curator for contemporary art whose interest is focused on new artistic strategies

including art in public spaces, socially engaged practices and new media. She has curated shows in

Germany, Italy, Spain, the USA and Taiwan, including the curatorial projects of Bologna Art First 2010

- 2012 and at Art Miami since 2009. Draganović is a member of the committees of the Outdoor Gallery

in Gdansk (Poland), a board member of No Longer Empty, New York and a member of the Scientific

Committee of Mudam, Luxembourg. As founding member of the curatorial collective and platform for

contemporary art LaRete Art Projects, she is in charge of the International Award for Participatory Art

launched by the Legislative Assembly of the Italian Region Emilia-Romagna.

Institutional positions covered by Julia Draganović include Artistic Director of the Chelsea Art Museum

New York (2005-2006) and of PAN Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (2007-2009).

Torun Ekstrand, project leader of Art Line which just received a Flagship status from the European

Commission. It is now part of the Action Plan for the Baltic Sea Strategy, the first Macro-regional

strategy in Europe. Culture is a part of the plan for development of the regions and Art Line is an

example of a South Baltic art cooperation network. Torun Ekstrand is a freelance since 2002, working

as curator and as project leader for public art projects in Artland. In 2011 she was awarded the

Honorary Award the Knight’s Cross of Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for promoting Polish art

in Scandinavia for many years. Torun Ekstrand has earlier worked at Art halls, museums and as

program manager of Crossmedia at the Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Dominik Lejman, visual artist, graduate of the State Higher School of Visual Arts in Gdańsk, Faculty

of Painting and Graphic Arts; and the Royal College of Art in London with the title of Master of Arts.

Lives and works in Poznań and Berlin. Awarded numerous Polish and international awards, including

the ‘Polityka’ Passport Award in 2001 for ‘art that innovatively combines traditional painting with

contemporary media technology’. Deals with painting, which he merges with video projections; carries

out video-frescoes and works in the form of large-scale photo-wallpapers. Besides individual and

group exhibitions, he also contributes with many works presented in public space at, including Burn

Festival, Cracow, (2012);

It hurts, I can’t feel anything, Grand Theatre – National Opera, Warsaw

(2011); 60sec. Cathedral, SkyWay Festival Toruń and Valgus Festival, Tallinn (2011); Lumiere,

Durham (2011); Light Move Festival, Łódź (2011); Double Layer. Fossils and Gardens, European

Parliament, Brussels (2011); Second City, video frescoes Śródka, (cooperation: Galeria Starter)

Poznań (2010); Panoptical Machines, SkyWay Festival, Toruń, (2010).

Bettina Pelz, since 2000 the curatorial work of Bettina Pelz has been dedicated to interdisciplinary

projects in urban space, postindustrial environments and world cultural heritage sites. Internationally

she has been involved in projects in the arts in Australia, China, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany,

Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, South-Africa and Switzerland, among others, since

2000 with focus on light as material and media in the arts. She is the founding curator of the awarded

festival formats ”Lichtrouten” (Germany, since 2002), ”Glow” (Netherlands, 2006 to 2009], ”Narracje”

(Poland, 2009 to 2011) and ”Lichtstroeme” (Germany, since 2011).

Martin Schibli, curator, critic and lecturer based in Sweden. Between 2006 and 2102, as a curator

and director of exhibitions, he transformed the Kalmar konstmuseum into one of the top institutions in

Sweden. During the last decade he curated about 80 exhibitions in eleven countries, including

Sweden, Russia, Germany, Lithuania and Poland, organised at museums, art galleries and biennials.

Last year Kalmar konstmuseum was also an official partner to the Berlin Biennale. His exhibitions

include individual displays of works by Artur Żmijewski, Marina Naprushkina and Georg Baselitz. He is

one of the main curators for the upcoming Shiryaevo Biennale in Russia, with other exhibition projects

planned in Russia, China and Chile. In Sweden he is also known for the book How to become a

contemporary artist in three days, a survival guide to the art world. Besides curating, he also lectures

regularly at universities and art schools.

Kuba Szreder, a graduate of the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University (Cracow). Curator of

the Free / Slow University of Warsaw. As part of his curatorial practice he organises public art and

research projects, convenes seminars and conferences, writes articles and edits publications. His

interdisciplinary projects actively engage in public the sphere, combine artistic practices with other

formats of cultural production, critical reflection upon the art world and thorough examination of

society. In the autumn of 2009 he started his PhD research at Loughborough University School of the

Arts, where he scrutinises the apparatus of project making and its relation to the independent

curatorial practice.

Agnieszka Wołodźko, studied at the Faculty of Painting and Graphic Arts of the State Higher School

of Visual Arts in Gdańsk between 1980-1986. Currently, her PhD Thesis is in preparation on

participation art in Scandinavia between 1990 and 2010 at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Adam

Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Works as an artist (dealing with painting, photography, installations,

sound, actions, artistic workshops for various social groups, and formulating ideas), curator and author

of texts on art, architecture and contemporary urban design, as well as topical problems faced by

modern cities. Participant in a plethora of exhibitions and artistic projects in Poland and abroad. Held

residencies in New York, Reykjavik, Helsinki, Graz, Bremen, Japan and Berlin. Published the

photographic album Japan 2002-2003. Photographic Diary (Ryszard Ziarkiewicz Publishing, 2005).

Since 2000, she has worked as an exhibition curator at the Centre for Contemporary Art Łaźnia in

Gdańsk.

Julita Wójcik, sculptor and initiator of artistic actions. Gained renown as a chronicler of provincial

domestic aesthetics. Addressing daily activities, her works blur the borders between reality and art.

Her vivid actions achieve effects through a minimum of involved means, such as peeling potatoes in a

gallery or reading Strzemiński’s Theory of Vision to grazing cows in the fields (Unistic Landscape,

2007), while her sculptures representing pre-fab housing appear as products of the allegedly feminine

activity of crocheting. Crocheting, sweeping the floor, gardening, building ponds in public spaces and

bird feeders, flowing kites – all this does not evoke immediate associations with art, but rather with the

experience of the everyday, as if from an already somewhat bygone era. Simple activities only gain

proper rank in their artistic context, which nobilitates them on the one hand, while deprives art of its

elitism on the other. Obfuscating the difference between the everyday and the artistic, Wójcik paints a

humoristic portrait of the human condition.

Graduate of the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk in 1997. In 2012, shw was

awarded the “Polityka” Passport Award and Storm of the Year Award. Multiple scholarship holder of

the Ministry of Culture in 2007, 2005, 2003, 2001, and in 1995/6. Scholarship of the Foundation for

Culture in 2001. Resident at, among other places, Art in General in New York in 2006, the Visegrad

Fund 2010. Works in public collections: Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Museum of Art in

Łódź, National Museum in Warsaw, Arsenał Gallery in Białystok, Society for the Encouragement of

Contemporary Art in Szczecin, HorseCross in Perth, Scotland, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Moderator:

Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, (born in 1987 in Wrocław), art historian and curator. Studied art history at

London’s Courtauld Institute of Art, where she graduated from the MA seminar run by Prof Sarah

Wilson and Prof Boris Groys with her thesis devoted to the early days of Polish mail-art and strategies

of breaking isolation in the face of a specific social-political realm. PhD student at the Courtauld

Institute of Art, where she explores alternative artistic exchange networks in Eastern Europe and

South America. Writes on contemporary art and neo-avantgarde movements in authoritarian states in

the context of the idea of solidarity, cooperation and dialogue. Editor of the catalogue Exhibitionism,

co-curator of the international show EastWingIX, and the project Active Poetry devoted to Polish art in

public space. Miśniakiewicz has collaborated with, among others, the White Cube Gallery in London,

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Santa Cruz in Bolivia, Contemporary Muzeum in Wrocław, and

Biennale de Santa Cruz dela Sierra.

Telling the Baltic har öppnat i Kaliningrad

Den 19 April 2013 kl 17:00 öppnade den internationella utställningen Telling the Baltic (Повествование о Балтике) på The Museum of the Ocean och i Kronprinz-tornet i Kaliningrad. Detta är den fjärde och näst sista platsen där utställningen kommer att visas.

Utställningen ”Telling the Baltic” – speglar gemensamma historiska rötter för människorna runt Östersjön. Fiskare, fyrvaktare, mekaniker, sjömän och öbor, hamnarbetare, räddningsarbetare och forskare, alla har de bidragit till den samling berättelser som är grunden för utställningen. En del av projektet var att samla berättelser vars innehåll var råmaterial för det fortsatta arbetet och inspirerade konstnärer.

Nämare 30 projektdeltagare från Litauen, Ryssland (Kaliningrad), Sverige, Tyskland och Polen har arbetat med foto, video och ljud, installationer och objekt, allt är sammanhållet av en gemensam faktor – Östersjön.

Delar av utställningen kommer i Kaliningrad att placeras i Museum of the Ocean, där de får ett nytt sammanhang tillsammans med de välbekanta ordinarie museiföremålen som skildrar fiske och skeppsbyggnad.

Deltagare: Dainius Dapkyavichyus, Gintaras Makaryavichyus, Jurgita Remake, Irma Stanaytite, Laura Stasyulite, Danil Akimov, Oleg Blyablyas, Anton Zabrodin, Vasilij Kolesnik, Viktor Guseinov, Alexander Lubin, Konstantin Traschenkov, Alex Trotsak Vadim Chaly, Alex Chebykin, Katerina Cherevko , Agnieszka Volodko Marek Zygmunt, Patricia Orzhekhovskaya, Catherine Reber, Michael Soltau, Anna Brag, Astrid Göransson, Henrik Lund Jørgensen, Johan Turfel.

Utställningen har öppet i World Ocean Museum 19 april – 3 juni 2013. Inom ramen för projektet kommer den audiovisuella installationen ”Skepp” av Irma Stanaytite och Jurgita Remake (Litauen).att visas 19-21 april (14:00 till 19:00) och den 17 maj 2013 (21:00 till 02:00) vid Kronprinz-tornet.

Utställningen åtföljs av ett utbildningsprogram på BF NCCA.

Projektet stöds av ministeriet för kultur i Ryska federationen, European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam / Nederländerna), EU (Europeiska utvecklingsfonden).

Partner: Museum of World Ocean (Kaliningrad / Ryssland)

Länder som deltar i projektet: Tyskland, Litauen, Polen, Kaliningrad / Ryssland, Sverige. Projekt webbplats: http://ttb.artline-southbaltic.eu/

Initiativtagare till projektet: Karlskrona / Sverige – Torun Ekstrand, Gdansk / Polen – Agnieszka Volodko.

Curatorer: Kaliningrad / Ryssland – Julia Bardun, Elena Tsvetaeva, samordnare Zinaida Shershun, Nida / Litauen – Race Antanavichute, Rostock / Tyskland – Ulrich Ptak.

Newsletter 10

  • Art Line – Flagship project in the EU!
  • Three projects wins Hydro Active City
  • Telling the Baltic opens in Kaliningrad

Read our newsletter no 10 here!

Pressrelease

Art Line utsett till Flaggskepps-projekt inom EU

Konstprojektet Art Line med partners från länderna runt Östersjön har nu officiellt utsetts till Flaggskepps-projekt inom EU. Detta är mycket sällsynt, inte minst eftersom Art Line är ett kulturprojekt. Det är också första gången som ett kulturprojekt får denna status inom EU.s South Baltic Cross-Border-program. Art Line är ett av sex projekt inom EU:s omfattande South Baltic-program som blivit Flaggskepp.

Art Line är nu dessutom en del av handlingsplanen för den nya Östersjöstrategin – “Action plan for the Baltic Region”. På grund av Art Line har kultur har skrivits in som en viktig del av utvecklingskraften i regionen.(EUSBSR The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, den första makroregionala strategin inom Europa)

- Utnämningen är ett bevis för att kulturen spelar en allt viktigare roll i de gemensamma ansträngningarna för att göra den södra Östersjöregionen till en attraktiv plats att bo, arbeta och turista i, säger projektledare Torun Ekstrand. Vi och våra partners runt Östersjön är mycket glada över detta, och vi har funnit ett bra sätt att arbeta tillsammans.

Art Line är ett internationellt konstprojekt. Inte mindre än 14 partners från 5 länder runt Östersjön har skapat en gemensam plattform för konst och akademi i Polen, Sverige, Tyskland, Ryssland och Litauen. Ett viktigt resultat är ett växande nätverk institutionerna emellan. Projektet har också lett till möjligheter för konstnärer, som har kunnat presentera och uttrycka sig i nya sammanhang, interagera med människor i det offentliga rummet, på Internet, i utställningar och på Stena Lines färjor mellan Gdynia och Karlskrona. Därmed har också allmänheten i de deltagande länderna fått nya möjligheter att uppleva samtida konst av hög kvalitet. Projektet pågår 2011-2013, men nätverket och plattformarna projektet har skapat kommer att leva mycket längre än så.

Art Line är förutom Flaggskepps-projekt i EU och även en del av Östersjöstrategin. Art Line ses som ett högkvalitativt projekt med fokus på samtida konst och kommer att fungera som en förebild för konst samarbete i Europa. Art Line etablerar en plattform för framtida samarbeten mellan konst och akademi och för konstnärer.

Kriterier som har beaktats i nomineringsprocessen är:

  • partnerskap som bygger på ömsesidigt lärande.
  • hur samarbetet har gjort resultaten starkare.
  • att de uppnådda resultaten är tillämpbara och har ett intresse utöver det specifikt lokala och nationella sammanhanget.
  • Projektet fokuserar på ”livet efter utgången av projektet”.

Regeringens sida om flaggskeppsprojekt.

Information in English, Flagship projects.

Action plan, word document.

Artline Partners

Associated partners

Hydro Active City – och vinnarna är…

Juryn har nu beslutat vilka tre bidrag som vann tävlingen Hydro Active City. Den sammanträdde 19-20 februari 2013 och juryn består av:

Anna Zalewska-Andruszkiewicz (PL), Jacob Lillemose (DEN), Ryszard W. Kluszczyński (PL) och Peter Hagdahl (SE). De valde tre vinnande projekt som nedan presenteras i slumpmässig ordning. De kommer att förverkligas och ställas ut i Gdansk i maj 2013:

• ”Message in a Bottle” av Maciej Wojnicki (Polen)

Juryns motivering:

“Message in a bottle is a project based on a custom designed social interaction tool combined of a dedicated mobile app and a website. User is given virtual bottle where one can drop messages (sentences, questions, short stories, images). Message is instantly and virtually packed into a bottle and dropped into the river. Bottle floats down the river (Radunia canal) until it gets stranded somewhere by the shore populating the riverside. Visitors walk along, discover messages of unknown authors, answer them, put back into bottles and send further, throwing back down to the river. Soon the bottle gets stranded again, another visitor finds it in a different place with original message and it`s replies, if he joins the conversation the bottle flows further.

• ”Water Memory” av Piotr Wyrzykowski (Polen)

Juryns motivering:

“The project is based on augmented reality system allowing to layer multimedia content on the live image from the camera mobile device. I would like to create a virtual (…) space located in a certain location of Gdansk next to the Radunia canal. The viewer entering the location with tablet or smartphone in his hands will virtually dive underwater. By walking and changing the position of the device he/she will explore the underwater world full of floating memories and stories. The underwater world – will be filled with photos, postcards, letters, everyday things floating in a water. All those items will build a narrative descriptions of important formative memories from local history experience, from the collective memory of Gdansk. “

• ”Little Ice Age” av Olga Zofia Warabida & Mariusz Samól (Polen)

Juryns motivering:

“Sound installation made of movement sensors which will activate hidden sound system by pedestrians crossing the path through Radunia river canal. Depending on people’s movement, sounds of walking on ice will overlap and become stronger until they leave the interactive pole and the sound fades away. Our inspiration were winters of the century (…) when it was  conceivably possible to cross the Baltic Sea on foot through ice. (…) Sound characteristic of this installation is meant to revive and stimulate audience’s imagination.”

Juryn beslutade också att ge ett hedersomnämnande till projektet ”Post-Fishing-Post” av Justinas Gaigalas och Rytis Urbanskas (Litauen) och rekommenderade att den också får förverkligas om budgeten så tillåter.

Juryns motiveringar som pdf.

Newsletter 9

Telling the Baltic opened in Rostock.
Art & New Technologies
– seminar in Elblag

Read Newsletter 9 here.

Newsletter 8

Telling the Baltic opens in Rostock on February 7 and in Kaliningrad on April 12.
Markus Sandekjer is new director at Blekinge County Museum.

Read Newsletter 8 here.

Flagship in EU!

We are proud to be nominated to become a Flagship-project in EU! Art Line is seen as a high quality project with a focus on contemporary art. Our project will be a role model for art co-operation. Congratulations to all hard-working and engaged people!

Pressrelease

Telling the Baltic in Gdansk

18 October – 2 December 2012

Venue of the exhibition: Gdansk Science&Technology Park

Organizer of the exhibition: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art

Curated by Torun Ekstrand, Agnieszka Wolodzko

Pressrelease Telling the Baltic Gdansk Eng

Telling the Baltic – the documentary

Telling the Baltic – the documentary

Take part of the story collecting, the work shops, the artists working and the setting up of the exhibition in Karlskrona.

Telling the Baltic in Gdansk

Telling the Baltic has moved on to Gdansk. Watch the movie and take part of the move, the setting up and the opening.

Newsletter 7

Art Line is nominated to be Flagship in EU!

Telling the Baltic opened at Gdansk Science and Technology Park.

Digital book of stories produced and published.

Read Newsletter 7 here.

Newsletter 6

Art connects the cities around the Baltic. Visit the exhibition Baltic Goes Digital at Gdansk City Gallery.
Hydro Active City-contest – call for entries!

Read Newsletter 6 here.

Pressrelease

Art & Apparatus konstnärsworkshop II

The Baltic Goes Digital − AudioElsewhere

Experience interaction across the Baltic!
AudioElsewhere by Marek Dybuść is one of the winning contributions to the contest Baltic Goes Digital. The robot will be installed at Blekinge Institute of Technology today. The headphones are placed in Gdansk City Gallery. Listen, see, interact!

MVI_6789_manekin_ubrany

Telling the Baltic – ta del av historierna

Klicka på länken och ta del av några av historierna från storytelling projektet Telling the Baltic.

Du kan också lämna din egen historia direkt på You Tubes hemsida.

Telling the Baltic på You Tube.