HIAP TALKS@KIASMA discussion series: This spring’s guest artists David Medalla and Adam Nankervis give the public an insight into their work with an interactive performance of It Takes Two to Tango.

The Philippines-born artist and poet (b. 1942) David Medalla is a pioneer of kinetic, performance, participatory and land art. The New Museum in New York chose his biokinetic work Cloud Canyons (bubble machines) as one of the iconic sculptures of the last century. An early version of this beautiful piece created in the ’60s is currently in the Migrations exhibition at Tate Britain.

Medalla, who moved to London in the 1960s, describes himself as a Third World citizen, whose Philippine passport means he is unable to spend very long in any one country. He began studying at Columbia University when he was 12, and has subsequently established a prominent artistic career, and has long been a citizen of the world. In the 1970s, he was chair of Artists for Democracy, which supported liberation movements worldwide.

Medalla has been working with artist Adam Nankervis since 1991. In 1994, they founded the Mondrian Fan Club and, in 1998, a ‘do-it-yourself’ free arts festival in London, which is being held again this summer. Nankervis, who is from Australia, is the founder of the Museum Man travelling museum. Nankervis’ works are currently being shown in the Chateau de Sacy exhibition in London.

The HIAP TALKS are curated by Marita Muukkonen.