"Passage"
Irene Suosalo
Finland
West Torggatan
Irene Suosalo is a video artist and VJ (Visual Jockey) in the Helsinki club scene. Her artistic practice intuitively experiments with old and new animation methods, both analogue and digital. During this process, a scanned image goes through a variety of animation phases. She plays with different interventions to mould the original composition into something surprising. ‘Passage’ visualises the evolution of ten fictional landscapes, inspired by old children's animations from Russia and the Czech Republic, and Walt Disney.
The immersive landscape she created for the old Snow White clothing store moves with the viewer, appearing and disappearing as the viewer passes, by car or on foot.
www.irenesuosalo.com
"Skuggspel med Konversationsfigurer"
Ekstedt/Andersson
Sweden
Ekstedt/Andersson is testing both ideas and objects. ‘We have big ideas. We add and subtract. We relate to the contemporary discussion with restraint. Sometimes bombastic, sometimes modestly moving. We take up the whole room and listen to everything. The poetic emerges by chance when the chaos takes shape as sound and image fill both head and body to the brim. One is warmed by the feeling of seeing something. Not the truth but the warmth, everything is complex, everything is empty. Starting over, we try out ideas and objects. The magnificent lurks in the reeds.’
"Stadens Hjärta"
Lin de Mol
Netherlands/Sweden
Hamngatan 11
For Arvika Ljus! 2020, Lin de Mol projects one of his drawings on the back of a building bordering a car park. A dark corner of the city becomes a drive-in cinema for a 9-metre high still image: the heart of the city.
‘Drawing for me is a way of carefully observing and getting to know a thing or an object. To understand it and to never forget it. As for the heart: I think it's a good idea to never forget your heart; where it is placed, the size of it and what it does. Especially in these times.
I build a drawing with endless fine lines until shape and volume emerge: it’s like a meditation. Most of my drawings no longer exist. They were drawn with Bic pens, using ink that isn’t light-resistant. It’s interesting to think that what destroyed this drawing is now what gives it life.
www.lindemol.com
"den Andre, den Samme"
Translated: the Other, the Self
Tina Nykvist
Sweden
Tina Nykvist's work comes from a project titled "The Other, the Self," which references icon painting. "They say you should look at an icon for so long that the roles have time to switch. It’s not you who looks at the icon, the icon looks at you. I have chosen animals instead of people to avoid it being, for example, a man with round glasses and a floral shirt that you meet in the mirror. An animal becomes more neutral, universal, human. It becomes an encounter that doesn’t stop at the objectification of the other."
"To see the spirit, one must bend down, and the perspective of the spirit’s feet becomes the same as yours through the mirror. You merge into the same event through your bodies in the same room."
www.tinanykvist.se
"Many Mirrors Mirroring Multiple Memories"
Oona Libens
Belgium
Kyrkogatan
In ”Many Mirrors Mirroring Multiple Memories," fragments of an image are reflected like shards of memories, elusive as dreams. The image is projected onto several mirror fragments and glass panes hanging from threads from the ceiling, which then reflect it back onto the wall.
"In this work, I have chosen to project 'The Peasant Wedding' from 1568, a painting by the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He often painted scenes of everyday life, depicting poor peasants in both work and misery, but also in more joyful festive scenes like this one. His paintings remind us that we must enjoy life despite harsh times — something we might need to embrace today as well."
Oona Liebens works extensively on disrupting the rectangular 'screen experience' that is so prevalent in our lives today. By breaking the image into fragments and projecting them onto various surfaces, she aims to create a more spatial visual experience.
www.oonalibens.com
"The Gathering"
Jenny Soep
Scotland
Kolonin, Kyrkogatan 42
The artist Jenny Soep uses drawing as a way to explore the relationship between the observer and who or what is being observed, often simultaneously.
For Arvika Ljus!, she has created a "collection"—a series of drawings inspired by other festival artworks and artists, installed in nearby locations. Her work is part treasure map, part visual diary, drawn and projected directly onto Kolonin's Window Gallery.
Instagram: @jennysoep
Facebook: JennySoepDrawingTheExperience
www.jennysoep.com
