Turku - Finland - Rapid

Over a three week period a number of installations around the city of Turku were developed. These installations asked a number of questions including:

Do you think you own that space?
Does my presence restrict your freedom?
Is this space being used to it's full potential?

The work attempted to question the use of public urban spaces and to temporarily transform spaces for community engagement.

This residency was part of the Rapid project. Two artists from UK, Finland and Portugal took part in collaborative and cross-disciplinary work with the communities of Turku and artists from the Titanic Gallery. The communities who took part were disadvantaged communities located on the outskirts of Turku.

A shipping container placed in the street housed a video projection of discussion around a 'kitchen table'. It offered a projected window view at the end. The video was shot within a recycling centre in constructed kitchen environment. The container formed a 'room' . within a fictional house in the street containing furniture. People took part in the activities in the 'living room' area. In collaboration with Susana Nevado and Rapid artists.

Balloons were given out to people with a number of questions and suggestions written on them around the use of public space. Collaboration with artists from Gallery Titanik.

Ladies from the community living on the outskirts of Turku came to take part. They are wearing hats crocheted from video-tape. They ask in text questions such as 'is this space being used to it's full potential?'

This small festival linked the gallery of Ars Nova to the Gallery Titanik. They have very different politics. Ars Nova is more traditional whilst the Gallery Titanik is artist led and does not host exhibitions but discussions around the role of artists in contemporary Europe.

Mobile projectors and cones containing words used as part of large scale installation reclaiming the space around the cathedral. Collaborative work with sound, performance, image and text with Rapid artists including Tim Steiner.

'Do you think you own that space?"

Sticker project to accompany the balloons.

 

This commission was supported by Seachange Arts in the UK,
Avis Municipality in Portugal, the city of Turku in Finland (Youth Council), Arts Academy Turku. Ars Nova, Gallery Titanik.
A European Commission Funded Project