Using the fly-tipping (illegally dumped waste) sites that can be found around Oulu, Trashscape (@trashscape_oulu) will explore today's Anthropocene era from a futuristic point of view. Through guided walk tours, new vocabulary of today's living philosophy, picnic talks and workshops Translation flowers will explore today's consumerist culture, discarded waste, relationship to nature and the act of collective making and changing. The project will serve as a platform to discuss and think through on human influence on our planet and how is today’s accelerated techno ecological progress affecting not just our environment, social and consumer structure but also art world. In this way we will not only approach this issue as a critique of the disposable consumer culture in which we are living, but also as an anthropological study of contemporary life, and to open up discourse about what an art event, exhibition, or museum can be in this new environment. The project is implemented by Translation Flowers collective and will be a part of Oulu August festival.
The project is kindly supported by Oulu August Festival (production) and Ministry of Culture and Information Serbia (travel grant).
TRASHSCAPE
explore the future
Kalen mutaja was a site specific and collaborative work that explored the disintegration of communication, and the layering and mutation of language and stories. The work was the resulting effort of Inkeri Jäntti, Nancy Dewhurst and Sunčica Pasuljević Kandić, during a collaborative residency on Varjakka island in Varjakka, Finland.
The opportunity was organised and supported by the dance company TaikaBox, and took place in July 2019.
For more images and information on Kalen mutaja, visit this link
KALEN MUTAJA
“I described these places to Sam over the phone. He understood immediately. He wrote what I considered the most amazing pages of screenplay I hadever read based on me describing places to him. He wrote those dislocated characters based on the knowledge of dislocated places.”
From an interview with Wim Wenders “A sense of place”
The collective Translation Flowers began to work as a group in the summer of 2019, when they participated in an art residency in Northern Finland on the abandoned island of Varjakka. They are an international female trio, whose members are: Inkeri Jäntti (FI), Nancy Dewhurst (UK) & Sunčica Pasuljević Kandić (RS). With each artist coming from different artistic and linguistic backgrounds (Finnish, English and Serbian), they found a common interest in place, cultural diversity, the semantics of language, translation, and (mis)communication between one another and between their environments.
Just like in Wenders’ story, the abandoned island of Varjakka is a dislocated place whose sense the artists could only grasp through stories and words they heard. Their work is process based and tends to question models of artist collaboration, community engagement and connection - with one another, community and place. They find it integral to include the public in the process of communicating, making and exploring new sites.
Their hope is to create art that is accessible and beneficial for all. That creates bridges instead of barriers. That nurtures a sense of belonging and agency. That facilitates the sharing of stories, concerns, and hopes. That enables positive growth, healing and change