Performing Transition is a screening realized in cooperation with URB 12, the festival of urban art. The project is presented by curator Necmi Sönmez as part of his curatorial residency at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme and FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange.

Performing Transition explores the complex relationship between attempts to investigate public space as a site for artistic reflection and the onslaught of public advertisement in its many forms, which may have great appeal but limited intellectual substance. Performing Transition aims to offer an alternative, to demonstrate the possibility of generating initiatives that combine unspectacular but vivid visual imagery with social relevance. This screening brings together different artistic positions from five countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, US) and the residents of Helsinki.

The video works by the invited artists bring forth many different interpretations of public space. One of the themes shared by the works in Performing Transition is the relationship with performance, its various methods and meanings, and its consciously selected forms such as posing, adopting a fictional role or concretely constructing an artificial setting. The main context of Performing Transition is the disputed terrain between public space and commercial interests. The selected works with their individual viewpoints provide us with ways to approach and understand many cultural and artistic phenomena, like mystification, abstraction and narration.

Artists and Works:

Pilvi Takala (b. 1981, lives and works in Amsterdam/Istanbul)
– Easy Rider, 2006, 4:25 min., DVD.

Michael John Whelan (b. 1977, lives and works in Berlin)
– Chaoskamp, 2012, 5:00 min., dimensions variable.

Magnus Thierfelder (b. 1976, lives and works in Malmö)
– All of this and nothing and nothing, 2012, 2:04 min., dimensions variable.

Emil Salto (b. 1968, lives and works in Copenhagen)
– Stills from Hands, 2011, 7:00 min. loop.

Anthea Behm (b. 1977, lives and works in New York)
– Adorno/Bueller, 2011–2012, 13:33 min., single channel HD video loop.

Necmi Sönmez is an independent curator and art historian who lives and works in Düsseldorf and Istanbul. He is staying at HIAP Cable Factory until July 31.

You can find the text for the screening here.

The picture is from Pilvi Takala’s video piece Easy Rider (2006).