Frontiers in Retreat: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Edge Effects Mustarinda, 16/06 – 13/08/2017
Elina Vainio, Tools buried in Future, 2017. Photo: Salla Lahtinen

This spring marks the finale of the five-year project Frontiers in Retreat (FiR) and it is time for wrapping up the project: we are looking back, but at the same time looking forward. Many of the processes that started or grew as part of Frontiers in Retreat will continue beyond the lifecycle  of the project. The pluralistic legacy of FiR has left its traces in numerous artworks, books, the website and blog, and constantly developing practices and debates.

There are still things to look forward taking place in the coming months: on April 27–28, FiR partner organisation Jutempus will organise a Zooetics symposium at MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. The programme, with the complete list of speakers, will be announced in Mid-March. In Helsinki, the gem of the spring is the launch of the Frontiers in Retreat book, edited by Tracey Warr and Jenni Nurmenniemi. The partner residency organisations are also gathering their physical archives of the project. While Frontiers producer Jaana Eskola is in charge of the project’s management and reporting operation, HIAP’s Salla Lahtinen, who has been working with the project’s communications since 2015, is collecting visual and textual documentations as well as objects into a physical archive – a time capsule of sorts – to be permanently placed at HIAP. In collaboration with Mustarinda, HIAP is also taking a leap towards the post-fossil future with a start of a new 3-year project, which in many ways is continuation of Frontiers here at HIAP. Thanks to our long-term supporter Kone Foundation for making all this possible.

Then a glimpse into June–December 2017, when FiR partner organisations realised a seven-chaptered series of expanded exhibitions, taking place at the nodes of the FiR network across the edges of Europe. Thanks to HIAP’s going exchanges in South Korea, our edition of the exhibition migrated to Art Sonje Center, Seoul. The exhibitions, titled Edge Effects, took diverse forms that reflected the aims, circumstances, and ecological contexts of each Frontiers organisation. In the end, the Edge Effects satellites happened both online and offline, indoors and outdoors, and as series of events. HIAP would like to thank each and everyone who made the Edge Effects exhibition series possible – thank you artists, partners, funders and visitors!

Very special thanks goes to the artists who have taken part in the numerous Frontiers in Retreat activities throughout the past years: Bartaku, Quelic Berga, Brett Bloom, Sylvia Grace Borda, Company, Gints Gabrans, Fernando Garcia-Dory, Kati Gausmann, Carl Giffney, Tue Greenfort, Terike Haapoja, Hanna Husberg, Radhildur Ingadottir, Saara-Maria Kariranta, Mari Keski-Korsu, Elena Mazzi, Nabb+Teeri, mirko nikolić, Tuula Närhinen, Khaled Ramadan, Anna Rubio, Joanes Simon-Perret, Richard Skelton, Tracey Warr, Simon Yuill.

We also would like to express our gratitude to our wonderful project partners: Johanna Fredriksson, Pauliina Leikas, and the whole Mustarinda collective; Nuno Sacramento, Sam Trotman, Yvonne Billimore, Sara Gallie, Eden Jolly & others from SSW; Lluís Llobet, Cesca Gelabert, Arnau Llobet and Pere Báscones from CAN Farrera; Signe Pucena, Ance Ausmane and Ugis Pucens from SERDE; Ljudmila Stratimirović, Dejan Ubović and Aleksandra Djordjević from KC Grad; Tinna Guðmundsdóttir andLitten Nyström from Skaftfell; Tracey Warr, Viktorija Siaulyte, Nomeda Urboniene and Gediminas Urbonas from Jutempus; as well as all our amazing current and former colleagues at HIAP who have been closely working with the project. Kudos to the original working group at HIAP (Taru Elfving, Irmeli Kokko, Jaakko Rustanius, Jenni Nurmenniemi) that initiated and conceptualised the project in 2013. There is a long list of great people and organisations that have contributed to our project over the past five years. Warmest thanks to all!

Below you can also find the complete list of the Edge Effects artists, curators and contributors, partners, funders and co-funders.

Kiitos – Thank you!

Best Wishes,
Jenni Nurmenniemi, Jaana Eskola & Salla Lahtinen (FiR team / HIAP)
Juha Huuskonen (Director / HIAP)

Edge Effects Skaftfell, 17/06 – 24/09/2017
On left ‘Towards a Frontier (book and music)’ (2016-17) by Richard Skelton, and on the right series of works ‘mountain print’ (2014) by Kati Gausmann. Photo: Nikolas Grabar

Edge Effects Scottish Sculpture Workshop SSW in CCA Glasgow and venues across the city,
27 – 30/07/2017
Deep Listening Workshop by Brett Bloom and Ximera Alarcon. Photo: Ross Fraser McLean/ Studio RoRo for Scottish Sculpture Workshop’s Edge Effects Programme

Edge Effects The Interdisciplinary Art Group SERDE, 09/08 – 30/09/2017
Photo: SERDE

Edge Effects – Active Earth by HIAP, Art Sonje Center, 07/11–03/12/2017
Elena Mazzi & Sara Tirelli: A Fragmented World, 3-channel video installation, 2016.
Photo: Yeonje Kim

Edge Effects – Serbia by Kulturni Centar GRAD, 27/11 – 03/12/2017
Tijana Radenković. Photo: KC GRAD

Edge Effects: Natural Movements at Farrera’s Edge by Centre d’Art i Natura

Edge Effects, June-December 2017
List of contributors

frontiersinretreat.org/edge-effects

Edge Effects artists and contributors:
Ara Ahn, Ximena Alarcon, Maaria Alén, Bartaku, Quelic Berga, Vladimir Bjeličić, Brett Bloom, Sylvia Grace Borda, Mele Broomes, Charismatic Megafauna, Yoomi Choi, Company, Dušica Dražić, Taru Elfving, Jaana Eskola, Gints Gabrāns, Fernando Garcia-Dory (INLAND), Kati Gausmann, Carl Giffney, Gyepi Sisters, Bora Hong, Ráðhildur Ingadóttir, Joosung Kang, Saara-Maria Kariranta, Mari Keski-Korsu, Haeju Kim, Salla Lahtinen, Maarit Laihonen, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Kyounghee Lee, Elena Mazzi, Nabb+Teeri, mirko nikolić, Jenni Nurmenniemi, Tuula Närhinen, Áine O’Dwyer, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Mina Piščević, Tijana Radenković, Anna Rubio, Petri Ruikka, Nuno Sacramento, Joanes Simon-Perret, Rohwajeong, Richard Skelton, Vjeko Sumić, Sara Tirelli, Elina Vainio, Tracey Warr, Alex Wilde (Open Jar Collective), Hyejin Yeo, Simon Yuill

Edge Effects Exhibition concept:
Jenni Nurmenniemi and Taru Elfving

Edge Effects Curators:
Mustarinda: MUSTARINDA; Skaftfell: Tinna Guðmundsdóttir; SERDE: Signe Pucena, Uģis Pucens, design by Ance Ausmane, Uģis Pucens; SSW: Yvonne Billimore and Sam Trotman; HIAP: Jenni Nurmenniemi; KC GRAD: Ljudmila Stratimirović; CAN Farrera: Lluís Sabadell Artiga, Pere Bascones, Lluís Llobet, Marta Prunera

Edge Effects Co-curators:
Edge Effects – Active Earth Learning Sessions: Bora Hong, Haeju Kim, Hyejin Yeo

Edge Effects Partners:
Scottish Sculpture Workshop presented Edge Effects in Glasgow as a part of Intentions in Action – Public Engagement programme at the CCA Glasgow, and in collaboration with Counterflows, Creative Carbon Scotland and Project Cafe. In Edinburgh SSW partnered up with Edinburgh Art Festival. HIAP produced it’s exhibition in Art Sonje Center in collaboration with Gallery Factory.

Project Funders:
The Frontiers in Retreat is funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The project is also supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Kone Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation and Finnish National Agency for Education – Internationalisation Services.

Edge Effects Co-Funders:
SSW: Creative Scotland, Finnish Institute London TelepART funding programme; HIAP: AVEK – The Promotion Center for Audiovisual Culture; Skaftfell: The Icelandic Visual Art Fund, The East Iceland Regional Development Fund, Seyðisfjörður Municipality and the Nature Preserve Fund of Pálmi Jónsson.

Exhibition Series Coordination and Communications:
Jaana Eskola & Salla Lahtinen, HIAP

Graphic Design:
NODE Berlin Oslo.
Poster & brochure design for HIAP in Art Sonje: Joosung Kang.