Welcome to the Spring edition of the HIAP Open Studios!

Check programme and event info below or download here!

The event offers the unique opportunity to meet up and engage into conversations with the resident artists and curators, get to know more about their practice, and view the work that they are currently developing as part of their residency. This season’s event takes place in the first half of the Spring residency season that runs until mid-July, and therefore allows a glimpse into the early stages of artistic work, research and experimentation.

This year’s Open Studios also showcases work-in-progress from Ukrainian artists who are residents of the Ukrainian Solidarity Residencies Programme network. The current partners of the programme are AARK, Art Centre Salmela, Connecting Points programme, Fairres, Goethe-Institut Finnland, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme,    Kristinestad Art Residency, Loviisa Art Support Association, Nelimarkka Museum, Pro Artibus, Tahmelan Huvila, The Finnish Artists’ Studio Foundation, The Finnish Illustration Association Kuvittajat, and Värtsilä Artist Residency. The continuation of the programme is possible due to the support of Kone Foundation and Nordic Culture Point.

Participating HIAP residents
Anna Broms (FIN)
Margaret Chu (HK, CHN)
Valerio Di Lucente (ITA)
Elina Juopperi (FIN)
Make or Break (AUS)
Daniel Malpica (MEX/FIN) and Eva Mihti (FIN)
Blaine O’Donnell (IRL)
Sarah Rodigari (AUS)
Vincent Roumagnac (FRA/FIN)

Participating Ukraine Solidarity Residencies Programme residents
Polina Choni (UKR)
Nataliia Deineka (UKR)
Katya Lesiv (UKR)
MKUV Studio – Maria Kulikovska and Uleg Vinnichenko (UKR)
Stanislava Ovchinnikova (UKR)
Anastasiia Sviridenko (UKR)

 

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PROGRAMME

FRI 26 MAY 17:00–21:00
SAT 27 MAY 15:00–19:00

Besides the ongoing presentations of the residents’ work-in-progress, the programme features also live events.

LIVE EVENTS

FRIDAY 26 MAY
(we recommend taking the 16:40 ferry)

• • • • 18:00–20:00 (drop-in anytime): Join Katie Lenanton and Paola Jalili from Feminist Culture House, launching their new curatorial research poster-publication ‘Studio Visit Ethics’ hosted by Make or Break in the HIAP Studios. Bring your burning questions about feminist curatorial practices!

      • 19:00 performance by SongGirls Greta Röning, Jemina Haukka, Silvu Kuunsalo, Venny Vaino as part of HIAP resident Sarah Rodigari’s research practice, HIAP Studios, 15-20´

• • • ON VIEW IN THE HIAP STUDIOS
      Works-in-progress by Anna Broms, Margaret Chu, Make or Break, Daniel Malpica and Eva Mihti, Sarah Rodigari.

    • ON VIEW AT GALLERY AUGUSTA – PROJECT SPACE
      Works-in-progress by Polina Choni, Nataliia Deineka, Valerio Di Lucente, Elina Juopperi, Katya Lesiv, MKUV Studio – Maria Kulikovska & Uleg Vinnichenko, Blaine O’Donnell, Stanislava Ovchinnikova, Vincent Roumagnac, Anastasiia Sviridenko.

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GALLERY AUGUSTA & PROJECT SPACE

• VALERIO DI LUCENTE

  books ᐧ colours ᐧ composition ᐧ structure ᐧ representation

FILES
Images as books, books as objects, objects as images.

OVERALL RED
Recently I’ve stumbled across a detail regarding two of the most famous portraits of László Moholy-Nagy shot at the entrance to the Master’s House at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he was a professor. In the first photograph we see Nagy in full figure, looking sideways and dressed in workman’s overalls. In the other one, showing his hand in front of the camera, we notice the same workwear. The colour of Nagy’s overalls was red, a ‘uniform’ that he wore with pride as a symbol of his utopian ideals. Through the years I’ve never associated a colour to these photographs, they always existed in my mind as a memory in black and white. This study presents the original photographs, an interpretation by a computer, and my version attempting to adjust reality as we know it.

• ELINA JUOPPERI

  there-is-another-way ᐧ technology ᐧ nature

Greetings from me! I’m having a group exhibition opening at Havremagasinet, Sweden, on the same day as the HIAP Open Studios. I left behind a leaflet; transcriptions of interviews which create the heart of the audio-video installation that I’m showing at Havremagasinet.

• VINCENT ROUMAGNAC

  performing arts ᐧ theatre ᐧ visual arts ᐧ artistic research ᐧ data ocean theatre

At HIAP, I’ve been working on Tragedy & the Goddexxes/VII. Exodos, the last episode of the first artistic part of my postdoc research project Data Ocean Theatre.
Exodos consists of carrying out collaborative work with guest-friends artists who visited the project over the first part of the residency on the island. For the Open Studios, I invite the visitors to witness the building of the installation that will trace this collaborative work in the Research Pavilion 5 exhibition which is opening on 5.6. at HIAP Gallery Augusta.

Vincent Roumagnac’s residency is one of the Uniarts Helsinki Research Pavilion #5 residencies, a collaboration between HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, Saari Residence and Uniarts Helsinki.

• BLAINE O’DONNELL

  photography ᐧ text ᐧ sculpture

Blaine O’Donnell is an artist working primarily in sculpture. Taking an experimental approach to the materials and debris of photography, architecture and geology, he investigates the art object as a starting point for tracing networks of relationships between objects, humans and places. For HIAP Open Studios, Blaine O’Donnell will present Things To Do With Photographs, a text-based work exploring experiences of photography, time and place.

Blaine O’Donnell’s residency at HIAP is realised in the context of a residency exchange between HIAP and Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, with the support of The Arts Council of Ireland and Finnish Institute in London.

UKRAINE SOLIDARITY RESIDENCIES PROGRAMME

This year’s HIAP Open Studios event also showcases work-in-progress from Ukrainian artists who are residents of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies Programme network.

The current partners of the programme are AARK, Art Centre Salmela, Connecting Points programme, Fairres, Goethe-Institut Finnland, HIAP, Kristinestad Art Residency, Loviisa Art Support Association, Nelimarkka Museum, Pro Artibus, Tahmelan Huvila, The Finnish Artists’ Studio Foundation, The Finnish Illustration Association Kuvittajat, and Värtsilä Artist Residency.
The continuation of the programme is possible due to the support of Kone Foundation and Nordic Culture Point.

• NATALIIA DEINEKA

  self identity ᐧ search ᐧ home ᐧ roads ᐧ lost ᐧ labyrinth ᐧ war ᐧ installation ᐧ textile

The Road Home

The Road Home is a textile installation that was created from the feeling of being lost and confused. During my life I have lived in 15 different houses and now ask myself where is the home to which I should return? And how do I find the road that leads there?
The (full-scale attack of Russian on Ukraine) war took away my confidence, feeling of safety and understanding where to go. I wonder now if maybe the home, to which I’m going, is beyond anyone’s vision and understanding?

Nataliia Deineka is currently in-residence at Värtsilä Art Residency for the period July 2022-June 2023. Deineka’s residency is realised in the context of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies programme.

• POLINA CHONI

  Works from the series Chemical Reaction 

Collages of paper strips covered by inks made from various natural ingredients collected in Ukraine. Natural inks, paper, glue.

I love experimenting with colours and textures. I was exploring the natural materials found in Ukraine for producing inks. Flowers, berries, mushrooms, husks, tree bark, stones, and even rusty nails were used. I collected them throughout the year. When the full-scale war broke out, I took them with me from Kyiv to a safe place.

The war in Ukraine is causing severe ecological damage. Shelling and bombings lead to dangerous chemicals entering the soil, while heavy metals contaminate groundwater and fires destroy ecosystems. It’s ecocide, a crime against nature.

These artworks aim to reflect the pain of realising the disaster’s magnitude.

During my experiments, I tested the colours on paper strips. The inks triggered chemical reactions, resulting in captivating textures and colour combinations. I decided to use them as the foundation for my work.

I see them as a symbol of how fragmented my present is, like a puzzle that I put together from pieces of events, feelings, knowledge and experiences. It is as though I am trying to assemble my life together and craft it into a new reality.

Polina Choni is currently in-residence at AARK (Archipelago Art Residency in Korpo) for the period February-March and May-July 2023. Choni was in-residence at Tahmelan Huvila during April 2023. Both residencies are realised in the context of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies programme.

• KATYA LESIV

           art book ᐧ lullaby ᐧ landscape ᐧ riso printing ᐧ loss ᐧ cycle

Lullaby for Olvia 1

The book is part of the LULLABY project.

This lullaby is dedicated to Olvia. An ancient Greek settlement in the Mykolaiv region, where I was only once in the fall of 2016. I remember the burnt black grass on the slopes, the shards and bones that remained after the excavations, and the golden quince tree with silver leaves on the seashore.
I experienced a loss there.

Katya Lesiv is in-residence at HIAP for the period April-November 2023. Lesiv’s residency is realised in the context of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies programme.

• MKUV STUDIO – MARIA KULIKOVKSA & ULEG VINNICHENKO

  war ᐧ borders ᐧ body ᐧ watercolour ᐧ migration ᐧ immigration ᐧ exile ᐧ again displaced

During the HIAP Open Studios I will continue drawing on the papers received during the last one and a half year, from 24 February 2022 – the day of Russia’s full scale invasion to Ukraine. This watercolour series is ongoing work, started in February 2014, when Crimea was annexed by Russia.
I really hope that one day, soon, this series will be finished.

Maria Kulikovska is in-residence at HIAP for the period September 2022–September 2023. Kulikovska’s residency is realised in context of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies programme.

• STANISLAVA OVCHINNIKOVA

  trauma ᐧ PTSD ᐧ sexual assault ᐧ violence ᐧ memory ᐧ silence

The work-in-progress I am presenting emerges from my ongoing research into sexual assault, PTSD, and the role communities play in the emergence and progression of trauma, as well as my personal reflections on societal ideas and understandings of justice. Part of my work also studies the involuntary physical movements observed on video-recordings of PTSD therapy sessions, accessing and addressing corporeal memory of trauma.

Stanislava Ovchinnikova is currently in-residence at Kristinestad Art Residency for the period April-June 2023. Ovchinnikova’s residency is realised in the context of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies Programme.

• ANASTASIIA SVIRIDENKO

  alienation ᐧ uncertainty ᐧ ambivalence ᐧ self-identification

wip

I am showing some works from my upcoming project on the complexity of self-identification: We know very little about what is happening inside us and what shapes our desires, our fears. It can be difficult to hear your inner voice due to the strength of surrounding ideologies. The tone of the characters in the paintings is alienation, uncertainty, along with the search for empathy and identity. The uncertainty and incompleteness of the work becomes the key aesthetic for the visualisation of ambivalence – the characters in the paintings are still looking for the shape and boundaries of their body. Working with sculptures, I use wood as a durable and natural material and combine it with such an element that is missing in painting as clothing – a source of protection and self-identification.

Anastasiia Sviridenko is currently in-residence at Pro Artibus for the period April 2022-December 2023. Sviridenko’s residency is realised in the context of the Ukraine Solidarity Residencies Programme.

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HIAP STUDIOS

• ANNA BROMS

  energy ᐧ flux ᐧ time ᐧ transferring ᐧ skin-like properties ᐧ vibrations ᐧ nests

Early blue

They will disintegrate in time at something comparable to the rate at which we human beings disintegrate, and with the same obvious subjection to its effects… (Anne Truitt, 1982)

At the eastern end of the HIAP studio building, up on the 18th century brick wall, are seven deep embrasures. Surrounding them are differing exterior and interior spaces, sewn together with flat stitches of long cotton batiste painting. Some works from the recent exhibition at the gallery Oksasenkatu11 are present in my studio upstairs.

During my residency I have painted and worked on creating e.g. moving images and sound-activated sculptures. On the island I have surrendered my environmentally friendly paintings to the conditions of the sea and the wind. In unison with other materials and the weather conditions, the works gain skin-like properties. Could animals even benefit from the presence of the works?

Anna Broms’ residency at HIAP is realised in collaboration with University of the Arts Helsinki Foundation.

• MARGARET CHU

  time ᐧ space ᐧ existence

Hong Kong artist Margaret Chu uses geometry, repetitive forms and traces of historical texture to create paper sculptures and paintings. She wishes to combine cultural elements and materials from the East and West, to express her impressions of Suomenlinna relating to the sense of existence and the conditions of survival.

Margaret Chu’s residency at HIAP is realised in collaboration with the Art Promotion Office (Hong Kong, China).

• DANIEL MALPICA & EVA MIHTI

  installation ᐧ literature ᐧ film ᐧ narratives ᐧ sound

Daniel Malpica and Eva Mihti will open their studio turned into an immersive installation, where diverse narratives of individual mental processes, and varying states of consciousness, come to life and delve deep into the human psyche.

• SARAH RODIGARI

  situated ᐧ text ᐧ performance ᐧ installation

I’m presenting two works I have been finishing whilst in residence: Harbour (2023), and Trade (2023). Harbour was commissioned by the Sydney Opera House for the exhibition Returning. The film layers culture themes of belonging and home in relation to the iconic architecture of this building and its colonial history. Trade extends on a series of conversations on labour, value and work, undertaken whilst in residency at Monash University Museum of Art and Monash Business School in 2021, from which I developed the artwork Towards an Affective Measure for the exhibition Language Is a River at MUMA, Melbourne, 2021.

Fri 26.5. 19:00–19:20 → HIAP Studios:
Performance by SongGirls Greta Röning, Jemina Haukka, Silvu Kuunsalo, Venny Vaino as part of Sarah Rodigari’s research practice.

Drive quietly across the bridge

At the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900 the Finnish sentence “Aja hiljaa sillalla” won a competition in which Finnish was nominated the most beautiful language in the world.
This presentation by SongGirls resonates with the above sentiment and shares my research into relational practices across language, voice and affective labour.

Sarah Rodigari’s residency at HIAP is realised with the support of The Australia Council for the Arts.

• MAKE OR BREAK

  ethics ᐧ non-human ᐧ feminism ᐧ thinking together ᐧ conversations ᐧ time travel

Sydney, Australia-based art collective Make or Break (Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes) are imagining art making projects that extend longer than human lifetimes.

Fri 26.5. 18:00–20:00 (drop-in anytime) → HIAP Studios:
Join Katie Lenanton and Paola Jalili from Feminist Culture House, launching their new curatorial research poster-publication Studio Visit Ethics, hosted by Make or Break in the HIAP Studios. Bring your burning questions about feminist curatorial practices!

Sat 27.5. 15:00–19:00 (drop-in) → HIAP Studios:
Join Make or Break for some brief thinking, writing and doing exercises – small acts to shift the way we think and see.

Make or Break’s residency at HIAP is realised with the support of The Australia Council for the Arts.

 

Free entrance. We are looking forward to welcoming you!

Note: Parts of the event will be photo-documented. The images will be used by HIAP for communication purposes.

 

• How to get to Suomenlinna

Take the HSL ferry that leaves from the Market Square (Kauppatori). Ferry timetable here.
The private water bus FRS Finland/Suomen Saaristokuljetus Oy leaves from the Market Square (Lyypekinlaituri). Timetable & fares here.

• Accessibility

Accessing the HIAP studios, office, Gallery Augusta & Project Space by wheelchair is possible but we recommend to be accompanied by a person assisting because the entrance doors are not step-free. The HIAP toilets are not wheelchair-accessible but you can find accessible toilets on five different locations on the island indicated on this map. The closest one to the HIAP Studios is located in the Summer Theatre (building nr 36 on the Suomenlinna visitors’ map).

If you prefer to follow a more accessible route towards the HIAP premises, please check the map indicating more accessible routes on the island here. The map is also available at the Tourist Information Desk in the Jetty Barracks (building nr 2 on the visitors’ map). Please note that no signposts designate the accessible route in the terrain.

We are happy to help you plan your visit. Please contact us for additional information!