Room for Performance is a collaboration between Bildmuseet and Vita Kuben, Norrlandsoperan's exhibition space for contemporary art. With thanks to Iaspis and Umeå Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University.
Room for Performance. From Bildmuseet 2016.
Room for Performance. From Bildmuseet 2016.
Room for Performance. From Bildmuseet 2016.
In collaboration with Vita kuben, Bildmuseet invites you to a rich programme of performance art this autumn. Room for Performance is three weeks of performance art, featuring live performances, artist talks, lectures and film screenings. Internal and external rooms provide spaces for bodies, movement, conversations and thoughts.
Visitors can experience many different performances - playful improvisations, poetic readings, close examinations and physically challenging acts - by around twenty international and Swedish artists:
Jumana Emil Abboud (Jerusalem), John Court (Tornio), Essi Kausalainen (Helsinki), Hanne Lippard (Berlin), Edith Marie Pasquier (London), Moe Satt (Yangon), Zierle & Carter (Cornwall), Sofia Breimo (Uppsala), Cecilia Germain (Umeå), Ida Hansson (Umeå), Johanna Hästö (Säter), Karl Larsson (Malmö), Eskil Liepa (Umeå), Gunilla Samberg (Umeå), Martin Wallén (Umeå) and WOL (Stockholm).
Sofia Breimo (Uppsala) b. 1987
Sofia Breimo is an artist and ethnologist working with performance art, interactive art and sound walks. Her work is often site-specific with an idea of the audience as participants rather than spectators. In Breimos art there is a curiosity in hidden corners and forgotten stories that often act as starting points for her work. BURST (2014) was performed as part of the programme for the Umeå Culture Capital year 2014.
Apart from her own artistry, Sofia coordinates other public art events and has mainly coordinated projects for PAiN (Performance Art in the North) and SU-EN Butoh Company.
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John Court (Tornio) b. 1969
John Court is a duration performance artist for whom time is one of the most important elements in his work. His performances can last for over eight hours, during an event or the opening hours of the venue where he performs. In recent work, Court lets the objects and materials he uses in his performances determine the duration of the piece.
His performances always include collaborative elements from curators, organizers, artists, viewers, objects, spaces and time. Court's works are often site-specific. With an on-going repetitious action, they create a parallel rhythm within the rhythm of the site. His work is fundamentally concerned with drawing or writing, in that drawing connects the elements of line, movement, space and time.
John Court has exhibited extensively in Scandinavia, and participated in major events such as Viva! Art Action festival in Montreal Canada (2015), DigitaLive Guangzhou China (2014), Guangzhou Live Art Festival in China, and the Venice Biennale (2005).
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Jumana Emil Abboud, (Jerusalem) b. 1971
Jumana Emil Abboud uses drawing, video, performance, objects, and text to address themes of memory, loss, and resilience. She focuses on posing questions associated with memory in relation to the body, as well as through home and homeland, cultural ritual or practice, folklores, folktales, and storytelling practices.
She explores these subjects by looking especially at their association with icons and archetypes, geography and language. Her work consistently reflects a Palestinian cultural landscape in which the struggle for continuity amid the wider political context requires a constant process of metamorphosis and ingenuity.
Abboud has participated in numerous international group exhibitions and festivals during the last decade, for example Acción!MAD in Madrid (2010), Bodies that Matter, Galeri Mana, Istanbul (2013); the 53rd and 56th Biennale di Venezia (2009 + 2015), the 11th International Istanbul Biennial (2009) and the 10th Sharjah Biennial.
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Cecilia Germain (Umeå) b. 1974
Cecilia Germain's work often focuses on subjects concerning identity, history, ethnicity, gender, metaphysics, manipulation and the fragile border between fiction and facts. Her multiracial background experiences made her interested in the mechanisms behind power structures and the silent language of the physical body.
Germain uses photography, text, drawing installation and performance as tools to create art with the perspective that we are all under influence of collective myths and imaginations that are subconsciously regulating our viewpoints and actions. In 2011, Germain began the ongoing project "Carrying White Men", an investigation that continues and develops over time. Mainly through performance but also photography, Germain explores how gender and race matters in how we perceive different bodies.
Cecilia Germain graduated from the Fine Art department at Konstfack in Stockholm 2006.
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Ida Hansson (Umeå) b. 1978
Ida Hansson is a visual artist working with performance and video. Her work focuses on questions concerning identity, gender, normalcy and what it means to be human. She explores these issues by using alter egos and through role-playing.
She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim, Norway, and Master's degree at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. She is a board member of the artist-run gallery Verkligheten in Umeå, and worked on the 'Survival Kit' art festival organised by the gallery. Hansson has also been curating and teaching at various art institutions in Scandinavia.
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Johanna Hästö (Säter) b. 1978
Johanna Hästö's artistic work often explores concepts such as inside-outside and intimacy-distance. She is interested in how we relate to and orients us in our past, our present and future. Her work often investigates human communication.
Besides her artistry, Johanna Hästö workes in a mental health museum in Säter. There are connections between that job and her artistic work, such as the interest in social structure ideas about human vulnerability.
Johanna Hästö has been represented in exhibitions like Survival Kit in Riga, Latvia, 2012 and LATENT at Säter's hospital, 2012. She has studied at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and is now based in Dalarna.
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Essi Kausalainen (Helsingfors) b. 1979
Perceiving the world as an organic entity, a chaotic body in which all the parts are equally important, Essi Kausalainen makes works in which space, different species of beings and things are approached as performers and partners. Together with plants, minerals and objects she creates ceremony like situations and events to explore and to celebrate their complex coexistence. Inspired by plant thinking, feminist science studies, new materialisms and quantum physics Kausalainen creates ambiguous works that - instead of images or objects - take the shape of gestures and actions.
Essi Kausalainens work has been exhibited and performed in venues such as la Galerie (Noisy-le-Sec), kim? (Riga), Moderna Museet Malmö, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Museum for Contemporary Art Roskilde, Nikolaj Kunsthalle (Copenhagen) and Kunstraum Bethanien (Berlin).
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Karl Larsson (Malmö) b. 1980
Karl Larsson is an artist and poet. In his artwork, he explores the everyday life and reality, and is interested in how the modern man in his search for meaning, make up rules in their everyday life to make it more comprehensible. These rules, perceptions and simplifications works as starting points for his artistic creation. Karl Larsson's working method is based on the idea that all parts of the creative process should be as free as possible so that the technique and the result are not closed.
Larsson has published six poetry books. Among the most recent ones are Commonplace (Container Corps, Portland 2015) and Parrot (Paraguay Press, Paris 2010). Recent solo exhibitions venues include Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm (2016), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR (2015) and Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg (2014-15).
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Eskil Liepa (Umeå) b. 1979
Eskil Liepa mainly works with performance and installations and his art is often conceptual and based on an open ongoing process. To explore philosophical questions regarding consciousness and our experience of reality, he uses himself as a guinea pig. Liepa creates performances with spatial mind maps of adhesive tape, starting from the artist's mind structure in the public space and seaks to create a dialogue with the audience. In his art, Liepa aims to unravel things that in fact are impossible to sort out, and to report the failure of the interval in real time. Eskil Liepa studied at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.
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Hanne Lippard (Berlin) b. 1984
Hanne Lippard's practice explores the voice as a medium. Her education in graphic design carry throughout her work and is evident in her interest for language and how it can be visually powerful. Her texts are visual, rhythmic, and performative rather than purely informative, and her work is conveyed through a variety of disciplines, which include short films, sound pieces, installations and performance.
Lippard has performed and exhibited at Tallinn Kunsthal, 6th Moscow Biennal, Kunsthalle Wien, Transmediale Berlin, Badischer Kunstverein, Kunsthalle Leipzig, HAU Berlin, UKS Oslo, KunstWerke Berlin and Berliner festspiele.
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Martin Wallén (Umeå) b. 1986
Martin Wallen works with subjects such as self-pity, effort, submission and sports. Sports as play and sports as something serious. With video, photography, sculpture and performance art, he creates characters with a strong connection to his own person and his own emotional life.
Wallén has studied at Nyköping Folkhögskola, Gerlesborgsskolan in Stockholm and Umeå School of Art. In autumn of 2016, he begins his studies at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. In 2016 he participated in Liljevalch Vårsalong.
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WOL performance duo (Stockholm)
WOL performance duo consists of Wenche Tankred (b. 1951) and Lovisa Johansson (b. 1969). Their home stage is Fylkingen in Stockholm, an artist-run scene and association for experimental music and art.
WOL is a continuous artistic process bordering between performance, sound and installation art that has been active since 2007. They work with sound and images, the human absurdity, sensibility and beauty. Their ideas emerge from an interaction with different objects, and mainly those that give off some type of sound. The aim is to create living images with multiple meanings.
WOL has participated in several festivals and exhibitions such as The Cage-week at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2012; Creature Live art Festival in Kaunas 2013 and Liljevalchs Vårsalong, 2014.
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Zierle & Carter (Penzance, Cornwall)
Alexandra Zierle and Paul Carter's practice spans performance and live art, socially engaged practice, video, sound, installation, and photography. Through their collaborative practice, Zierle & Carter critically examine different modes of communication and what it means to be human, addressing notions of belonging, dynamics within relationships, and the transformation of limitations. Their work sites an embodied investigation into human interactions and encounters, acting as an invitation to venture into the spaces in-between the external and internal, permanent and transient, spoken and unheard.
Over the past decade their work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe, Canada, United States, South America, Australia, in Asia and Africa, such as the inaugural Venice International Performance Art Week, Federation Square (Melbourne), CIPAF (Cyprus), Grace Exhibition Space (New York) and Rapid Pulse (Chicago)
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Moe Satt (Yangon) b. 1983
In 2005 Moe Satt graduated in Zoology and directly after graduation he started with performances, as part of a new generation young artists in Yangon, working more conceptually. As a performance artist Moe Satt mostly works with meaningful hand gestures - like communication, work and routine gestures. The hand as a medium of inter-human gestures can communicate beyond the spoken language - it can reveal who you are, what you are used to/accustomed to do with your hands and so on.
Moe Satt has participated in many exhibitions, festivals and biennales across Asia, for instance at the Busan Biennale (2012) and the CAFA biennale Beiing (2013). Satt also works regularly as a curator for different galleries and in 2008 he founded the first performance festival in Burma: Beyond Pressure. Moe Satt writes on a regular basis about art in Burma and contributes to magazines across the region.
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Gunilla Samberg (Umeå) b. 1945
As a visual artist, Gunilla Samberg works with performative expressions, installations and configurations in different materials - always with a conceptual basis. Communication and dialogue are important components in her projects and they often involve other participants, for example in the collective performance Synåd from 2011 and in Convoy and Molnskugga from 2014. Convoy visualizes issues about the environment and our future on Earth. Molnskugga is dealing with language, domicile, communication and identity through process-based work with poetry as a tool.
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Edith Marie Pasquier (London)
Edith Marie Pasquier argues that the poetic image holds the potential to be the political image - the variants of the poetic are dissected in her work through a series of experiments, dialogues, writings and studies. She probes the physical, spacial and auric dimension of the photograph, inviting the viewer to experience the surfaces and layers within an image. Ash Figures, is performed with Double Bassist Josefin Landmér from Norrlandsoperan.
Pasquier has received photographic/artistic awards and commissions from a variety of institutions such as Film London, The Serpentine Gallery, London and Bildmuseet in Sweden. She has exhibited in Europe and the USA and is a PhD candidate (Thesis) in photography on an AHRC Fellowship with The Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The programme includes films and talks that provide an insight into contemporary performance art, as well as three artist-led workshops.
The following events are part of Room for Performance 13 September - 1 October 2016, a collaboration between Bildmuseet and Vita Kuben, Norrlandsoperan's exhibition space for contemporary art.
TUESDAY 13/9 - SUNDAY 18/9
Film in Flexhallen during all opening hours: The Misfits: 30 Years of Fluxus (80 min) featuring leading Fluxus artists such as Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Jonas Mekas and Yoko Ono.
TUESDAY EVENING 13/9
Inauguration of the performance weeks at Bildmuseet, Room for Performance. Performance by Moe Satt and Martin Wallén. Artists Bill Olsson and Gabriel Bohm Calles introduces performance art. Prolonged opening hours, café & bar.
18.00 Performance: Martin Wallén (Umeå)
18.30 Room for performance is opened by Lisa Lundström, Bildmuseet, and Helena Wikström, Vita Kuben/Norrlandsoperan. Talk by Bill Olson, performance pioneer in Umeå (Decay Pitch).
19.00 Talk: Artist Gabriel Bohm Calles, (Malmö) gives an introduction to performance art.
20.00 Performance: Moe Satt (Yangon)
SATURDAY 17/9
Performance by John Court, Hanne Lippard and Gunilla Samberg, as well as Maja Melsted and Jenny Simm, students at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.
11.00-18.00 Performance: John Court (Torneå), ongoing (7 hours)
13.00 Performance: Gunilla Samberg (Umeå)
13.45 Performance: Maja Melsted (student at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts)
15.00 Performance: Jenny Simm (student at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts) with workshop participants. Workshop in the workshop area 14.00-14.45 if you want to participate
16.00 Performance: Hanne Lippard (Berlin)
SATURDAY 17/9 - SUNDAY 18/9
Two-day performance workshop led by Malmö-based artist Gabriel Bohm Calles. 10:00-16:00 both days. Max 12 persons, pre-registration required.
SUNDAY 18/9
Performance by Jumana Emil Abboud, Johanna Hästö, Edith Marie Pasquier and others. London-based curator Filipa Ramos talks about the artist Joan Jonas.
13.00 Performance: Jumana Emil Abboud (Jerusalem)
14.00 Performance: Johanna Hästö (Säter)
15.00 Talk: Filipa Ramos, kurator (London) gives a talk about artist Joan Jonas
16.30 Performance: Edith Marie Pasquier (London), with double-bassist Josefin Landmér from Norrlandsoperan
TUESDAY 20/9 - SUNDAY 25/9
Film during all opening hours: Joan Jonas' Reanimation, which she performed at Umeå Jazz Festival 2013 as part of Bildmuseet's Theatrical Fields exhibition.
TUESDAY EVENING 20/9
Performance by Malmö-based artist Karl Larsson and artist talk by Edith Marie Pasquier (London). Prolonged opening hours, café & bar.
18.30 Performance: Karl Larsson (Malmö)
19.00 Artist-talk: How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, a Wolf and Seven Wild Birds. Edith Marie Pasquier (London) reflects on Joseph Beuys and his performances with animals.
SATURDAY 24/9
Performance by Cecilia Germain and WOL performance duo, as well as art students Razvan Anghelache and Annika Stridh, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.
13.00-17.00 Performance: Razvan Anghelache (student at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts), one person at the time (15 min), drop-in
14.00 Performance: Annika Stridh (student at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts)
15.00 Performance: WOL performanceduo (Stockholm)
16.00 Performance: Cecilia Germain (Umeå)
SATURDAY 24/9 - SUNDAY 25/9
Two-day performance workshop led by British duo Zierle & Carter. 10:00-18:00 both days. Max 15 persons, pre-registration required. In collaboration with Teatercentrum Norra, Danscentrum Norr and Ögonblicksteatern.
SUNDAY 25/9
Performance by Ida Hansson, Eskil Liepa and performance duo Zierle & Carter, as well as Ellen Angus and Josefine Östlund, students at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.
13.00 Performance: Josefine Östlund (student at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts)
13.30 - 15.30 Performance: Ellen Angus (student at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts)
14.30 Performance: Eskil Liepa (Umeå)
15.30 Performance: Ida Hansson (Umeå)
16.30 Performance: Zierle & Carter (Cornwall) with workshop participants
TUESDAY 27/9 - SUNDAY 1/10
Filmed performance by John Court, Essi Kausalainen, Zierle & Carter and others, looped in Flexhallen during opening hours. By the workshop area on second floor, a film by Mark Harvey (Auckland).
TUESDAY EVENING 27/9
18:30 Essi Kausalainen (Finland) and Moe Satt (Burma) present their work and discuss performance art with Micael Norberg, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.
Prolonged opening hours, café & bar. In association with Iaspis.
THURSDAY 29/9 - FRIDAY 30/9
Two-day performance workshop led by Helsinki-based artist Essi Kausalainen.
10:00-16:00 both days. Max 12 persons, pre-registration required.
SATURDAY 1/10
Performance by Sofia Breimo, Essi Kausalainen and the performance duo Zierle & Carter.
13:00-18:00 Performance: Zierle & Carter (Cornwall) ongoing (5 hours)
13.00-15.00 samt 16.00-18.00 Performance: Sofia Breimo (Uppsala), one person at the time (ca 10 min), drop-in
15.00 Performance: Essi Kausalainen (Helsingfors) with workshop participants
Throughout Bildmuseet's opening hours, except during other events, we are showing films about and featuring performance art.
Week one (13-18 Sep): The Misfits: 30 Years of Fluxus, featuring leading Fluxus artists such as Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Jonas Mekas and Yoko Ono.
Week two (20-25 Sep): Joan Jonas' Reanimation, which she performed at Umeå Jazz Festival 2013 as part of Bildmuseet's Theatrical Fields exhibition.
Week three (27 Sep-1 Oct): Filmed performance by John Court, Essi Kausalainen, Zierle & Carter and others.
Room for Performance is a collaboration between Bildmuseet and Vita Kuben, Norrlandsoperan's exhibition space for contemporary art. With thanks to Iaspis and Umeå Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University.