Welcome to HIAPs Open Studios April 2008! At the event the current artists in residence Lou Galopa, Sandra Mann and Randa Mirza will keep their studio doors open, to give the public a view of their current work in progress as well as previous works.

Lou Galopa (FRA)

Lou Galopa (b. 1975) is a visual artist, working with installations, films and documentaries. Galopa is living between Paris and Strasbourg and working in different locations. Galopa works deal with the fragile reality “in suspension”…

During her residency at HIAP Galopa is working among other things on a video installation captured while travelling over sea between Helsinki and Tallinn.

Galopa´s solo exhibition Mental Landscape will be opened at HIAP Project Room on Tue 15.4.2008, at 16:00.

Sandra Mann (DE)

The German artist Mann (b.1970) is working with diverse media, focused on installation and photography.

Not that Sandra Mann is a photographic reporter, nor is she a documenter of the in scene. Larry Clark or Nan Goldin are more where she comes from. Sandra Mann flies out and observes, unobtrusively; nothing escapes her eye. The camera is her constant companion.

At HIAP Open Studios Mann will present previous artworks and some current projects in progress.

Sandra Mann will have a solo at HIAP Project Room in May 2008.

Randa Mirza (LBN)

Randa Mirza (b. 1978) is a Lebanese artist living in Beirut, who works with digital photography and live video editing. She studied at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and the Paris 8 Universit de Vincennes-Saint-Denis. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions and won various prices, mainly the NO LIMIT award by Les rencontres photographiques d´Arles. Mirza is preparing her first solo show in Finland at the Finnish Museum of photography where she will be showing her Shock Culture project started two years ago in Finland while on a residency at NIFCA.

Shock Culture is on show at the Finnish Museum of Photography, 2.5.- 22.6.2008