(English version below)

Avataan yhdessä dialogi käyttäen ääntä, kuvaa, ja piirustuksia. Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge ja lintulintu kutsuvat luomaan SUORAN ja VÄLITTÖMÄN reaktion taideteoksiin, jotka ovat esillä Vapaa käännös -näyttelyssä. Sinun taiteellinen vastauksesi antaa mahdollisuuden inspiraatiolle virrata vapaasti.

Milloin: Sunnuntai, 18.11.2018, klo. 13:00-16:00
Kenelle: kaikkien ikäisille
Missä: MAA-tila, Pääskylänrinne 10, 00500 Helsinki
Kielet: Suomi, englanti, ranska
Lisätietoa: arlene@prisonspace.org

( ( ( Tartunta < > < > ääniaallot käännöksenä) ) )
Resonanssi, väreily, kommunikaatio ilman sanoja. Dialogi meidän kesken, keskellämme, itsessämme, Vedä syvään henkeä. Jaetaan vaihtoehtoinen kieli, välitetään väreily kommunikaatioksi, rakentaen siltoja, yhteyksiä, resonanssi on kaikkialla ja kaiken aikaa. Ääni liikuttaa sinut lähemmäksi ydintä, jättäen taakseen materian rajoitteet. Muokkaamme tilaa läpi seinien, otamme kimmokkeen edestakaisin. Kuule mitä kuultavissa on, käännä oma äänesi kohti tilaa.

) ) ) kuva <—> teksti ( ( (
Teleskooppinen katselu, laajakulmaiset rakenteet.
Tässä hetkellisessä kollaasi/installaatio työpajassa luot vastauksen tarkasti rajattuun tilaan tai tilojen väliseen suhteeseen. Esim. tietty kulma galleriassa, tietty laatta lattiassa, oven kahva , kahden seinän välinen etäisyys. Tämä kollektiivinen kuvan tekemiseen ja tekstiin pohjautuva kokeilu tutkii tekstin käännöksiä kuvaksi ja toisin päin näyttelyssä esillä olevien töiden kontekstissa sekä synnyttää dialogeja materiaalien rajallisuudesta, että kysymyksiä saatavilla olemisesta.

Taiteilijoista:
Vapaita käännöksiä on näyttely, joka käyttää tulkinnan prosessia ollessamme vuorovaikutuksessa ja luodessamme uusia teoksia MAA-tilassa. Tilassa esillä olevat kerätyt teokset ovat vankien, ex-vankien ja henkilöiden, joiden elämään vangitsemisella on ollut vaikutus. Nähtävillä olevat teosten ehdotus on yleisölle käydä kiihkeää keskustelua, inspiroitua ja luoda luovasti aktivoitunut tila. Poikkitaiteellinen näyttely esittelee kansainvälisen kattauksen töitä MAA-tilassa marraskuun 15-29. sekä netissä.

lintulintu on kokeellinen. Identifioidumme heteroseksuaaliseksi ja etuoikeutetuksi ääni-duoksi, kaksi lintua-yksi kivi. Meillä on hintavat elektroniset välineet ja maalliset vartalomme, jotka yritämme saattaa harmoniaan. Huolimatta itseaiheutetun kärsimyksen tuottamasta valttikortista löydämme tiemme hyvän olon tunteeseen. Kaaos vaihtuu niin kutsuttuun ääni-taiteeseen ja kriittinen näkökulma on vain jalostunutta keskustelua. Äänitaidetta, performanssia ja kokeellista musiikkia avant-garden vivahteilla, dystooppinen leikki ja kolmen kuukauden pimeys tuotuna valoon.

Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge syntyi pienessä ranskankielisessä rannikkokylässä Quebecissä, Kanadassa. Keskeistä Evelynin työskentelyssä ja projekteissa on kiinnostus aktivoida tiloja, joita usein ylenkatsotaan tai jotka ovat näkymättömissä, tutkien siirtymien ja muistin teemoja sekä teemoihin sulautuneita monimutkaisia tasoja ja mekanismeja. Evelyne on suorittanut taiteen kandidaattia vastaavan tutkintonsa (bachelor of fine arts) valokuvauksesta, Concordian yliopistossa (Montreal, Kanada) ja taiteen maisterin tutkintonsa elektronisesta taiteesta Alfredin yliopistossa Taiteen ja suunnittelun laitokselta (School of art and design-Alfred, New york). Tällä hetkellä hän toimii apulaisprofessorina Rochesterin yliopiston Taiteen ja linssiin painottavan median laitoksella (Art and lens based media-Rochester, New York). Evelyn kiittää Rochesterin yliopistoa ja Kanadan valtuuston taiteiden jaostoa (Canada council of the arts) avokätisestä tuesta viimeisimmässä tutkimustyössä.

///

Let’s open dialogue through sound, image, and drawing. Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge and lintulintu invite you to create DIRECT and IMMEDIATE responses to the artworks on display at Free Translation exhibition. Your artistic response makes space for inspiration to flow. 

When: Sunday, November 18, 2018 from 13:00-16:00
For whom: all ages
Where: MAA-tila, Pääskylänrinne 10, 00500 Helsinki
Languages: Finnish, English, French
For more information: arlene@prisonspace.org

( ( ( Transmitting < > < > translating soundwaves ) ) )
Resonance, communication without words. Dialogue between us, around us, within us, take a deep breath. Sharing alternative language, translating resonance into communication, building bridges, connections, resonance is all around and all the time. Sound moves you closer to the core, leaving out material restrictions. We’ll shape the space beyond the walls, bounce back and forth. Hear what can be heard, turn voice into sound.

) ) ) Image <—> text ( ( (
Telescopic viewing, wide-angle configurations.
In this ephemeral collage/installation workshop, you will make a response to a very specific space or trajectory, for example, one corner of the gallery, one tile of the floor, a door knob, the distance between two walls. This collective image-making and writing experiment will explore translation(s) of text into image and vice versa in response to the work presented in the exhibition and ignite dialogues about material limitation and question(s) of access.

About us:
Free Translation is an exhibition that makes use of the translation process as we interact and create new artworks at MAA-tila. The collected artworks are created by incarcerated people, ex-convicts, and anyone affected by imprisonment. The works on view will encourage the audience to prompt dialogue, inspire thoughts, and creatively activate the space. The multi-disciplinary exhibition showcases international works at MAA-tila from November 15-29 and online.

Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge was born in a small francophone coastal village in Québec, Canada. Central to Evelyne’s practice and projects is an interest to activate spaces that are often invisible or overlooked, and to explore themes of displacement and memory and the complex layers and mechanisms embedded within. She received her BFA in photography from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) and her MFA in electronic integrated arts from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University (Alfred, New York). She is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Lens Based Media at the University of Rochester (Rochester, New York). Evelyne would like to thank the University of Rochester and the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous support on her recent research projects.

lintulintu is experimental. We identify as heterosexual and privileged sound duo consisting two birds one stone. We have expensive electronic equipment and our earthly bodies, which we try to harmonize. Despite the advantage of self caused suffering lintulintu finds a way to feeling good. Chaos switches into so called sound art and critical point of view is just advanced conversation. Sound art, performance and experimental music taking flavors of avant-garde, playing around dystopia and bringing three months of darkness into light. We’ve gone to few schools and worked with institutions.

How is language formed?  How does a sign convey a message without words?  How do symbols develop over time so that they are used locally and internationally?  What is our own meaning-making process with certain signs and symbols?

As the first graders at Ressun peruskoulu have been investigating safety signs on the street and will soon embark on inventing their own, we thought it would be a good idea to see how artists have used symbols in their artwork.  Each symbol essentially carries its own language and system of communication.  Sometimes these messages are clear and sometimes not, but the process of decoding not only challenges our mind to understand from another perspective, but we can also learn a lot about ourselves along the way.

Today, we looked at David X. Levine's series, LESSONS, as he created his own language for these artworks.  David's language, although kept secret, is communicating many things.  Everybody in class shared their own interpretation of what each symbol meant and what the artwork is trying to tell us.  Some perceived each symbol as a letter or a word or even a whole sentence.  We all were left with wanting to know more, so we decided to interview David.

1B: What is your favourite food?
DXL: FRENCH FRIES.

1B: What do you like to do?
DXL: I LIKE TO GO TO THE MOVIES & SEE SILLY FILMS.

1B: Do you have a pet?
DXL: NO. BUT I LOVE CATS.

1B: Do you have kids?
DXL: NO. BUT I THINK KIDS ARE AWESOME.

1B: Why do you make art?
DXL: MAKING ART MAKES ME FEEL GOOD. & IT’S SO EXCITING TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.

1B: What things do you not like to do?
DXL: I DON’T LIKE TO BE AROUND MEAN PEOPLE. 

1B: How can you make such big pictures using colored pencils?
DXL: I AM VERY PATIENT & I HAVE NO OTHER JOB SO I CAN SPEND ALL DAY DOING IT. ALSO, IT’S EXCITING TO DO SOMETHING SO RIDICULOUS.

1B: How long does one drawing take to make?
DXL: ONE DRAWING TAKES ABOUT 3 WEEKS TO MAKE.

1B: How many languages have you created?
DXL: I HAVE ONLY CREATED THIS ONE LANGUAGE. ALTHOUGH ABSTRACT ART IS ALSO A LANGUAGE, & EACH ARTIST WHO MAKES ABSTRACT ART IS MAKING THEIR OWN LANGUAGE SO THAT THEY CAN COMMUNICATE TO THE WORLD, & TO THEMSELVES. SO I GUESS I HAVE CREATED 2 LANGUAGES SO FAR.

1B: Where did you get this idea from?
DXL: BECAUSE I FELT PEOPLE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND MY ART I THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE THEM A REAL REASON TO NOT UNDERSTAND IT BY CREATING A LANGUAGE THAT ONLY I UNDERSTOOD.

1B: How old are you?  When is your birthday?
DXL: I AM 56 YEARS OLD. I WAS BORN ON JUNE 22, 1962 AT 3:45AM.

1B: What is your favourite color?
DXL: IT CHANGES ALL THE TIME. WHEN I WAS YOUNG IT WAS BLACK. THEN PINK. 2 YEARS AGO IT WAS GREY. NOW IT IS YELLOW. 

1B: Do you have very expensive shoes?
DXL: NEVER!

1B: Where are you from?
DXL: MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS. VERY CLOSE TO BOSTON, THE CAPITAL.

1B: How many letters/symbols are in this language?
DXL: 55

1B: What does each symbol in your language mean?
DXL: EACH SYMBOL REPRESENTS A WORD OR PHRASE WHICH ONLY I KNOW. I USE THESE SYMBOLS TO WRITE A POEM ON MY PAPER, WHICH BECOMES AN ABSTRACT DRAWING.

1B: What is your favourite cake?
DXL: STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

​Thank you, DAVID X. LEVINE!

COUNTRY GONE MISSING: Nightmares in the Time of Trump, a new book of collectively sourced dreams has just been launched!  With enchanting and disturbing reports from the collective unconscious filtered through the fevered and brilliant night-time brains of artists like Meredith Monk, Maxine Hong Kingston, Steve Kuusisto, Greg Sarris, Eileen Myles, Alison Cornyn, Susan Banyas and many more. Beth has illustrated these dreams with 20 original (pretty damn amazing) drawings.  Please order your copy (or two or three), put one in a time capsule… all proceeds go to benefit Swingleft and progressive Dems in the mid-terms. #Resist!   

Go to www.countrygonemissing.com to order yours. 

Prison Outside #2 is a cross-disciplinary discussion on artistic projects in and around prison. It takes place on November 21st-23rd in Helsinki and will present speakers from Finland, Russia, Ireland, Canada, USA, and Belgium. The program in PUBLICS and MAA-tila will include presentations, round table discussions, film screenings, and workshops. Free Translation, an exhibition of artistic and literary works on imprisonment will be launched during the conference. We will discuss artistic practices in prison, and their effect on rehabilitation, understanding the histories of incarceration, and encouraging communication between people of different walks of life.

​Artists, researchers, teachers, students, ex-convicts are very welcome to join the discussion. This event will be held in English, Finnish and Russian languages. Full program coming soon!

MECHANICS OF CONFORMITY (MOC) Part II
A collaboration between Catalysti artists and Objekti festival 2018

As part of Objekti Festival, there will be an exhibition at Trapesa 14.6-2.9.2018. In addition, there will be two public events in the form of a conversational piece. The events are organized at Trapesa on Friday, the 15th of June and on Friday, the 17th of August from 17:30 to 20:30.
​
Our collective project investigates the excess, absence, cutting, covering, growing, coloring and grooming of hair as both the materialization of individuality and of conformity. As an artistic medium and mediator of meaning, hair can communicate a sense of self and otherness. In this sense, it can either uphold or upset conventional distinctions between divisions of gender, race, region and religion. From these issues, hair epitomizes a global yet subjective social and personal significance.

Within this collaboration, four women explore concepts of identity, relationships, perceptions, liberation and otherness through hair. Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Catalysti artists who have shaped MOC collective are Rosamaria Bolom, Edwina Goldstone, Sepideh Rahaa and Arlene Tucker. MOC collective has been created around the subject of hair and from early 2017.

Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair, and you could get a history of the world. 

How do they look at us?
How do we look at ourselves?
How do the others look at each other?

Description of the works by each artist

Arlene Tucker: 
​Intertwined looks at how family members relate to each other despite their shared DNA. Here, the concept of family also extends to individuals welcomed by choice. This piece is a continuation of Arlene Tucker’s Hair Tree (2017), which gathered family members scattered over four continents by collecting cuttings of their hair. Moving inwards, she attempts to comb through memories to understand where and how knots are formed. Tucker hopes this will further open dialogue about family and with family.

Edwina Goldstone:
Watching Me, Watching You, Watching Me, follows the metamorphosis of an image through many stages as it follows the twists and turns of the artist's decision-making and memory process as she recalls and connects past & present conversations about ‘Hair’, with all the ambivalent, contradictory ideas and mixed feelings that are attached to it. Added together as an animated sequence the drawings form a peculiar imaginative narrative that never remains constant but grows and morphs with thought and time.

Romamaría Bolom:
Last year, Mechanics of Conformity Collaboration lead me to a deeper reflection about how norms and values are introjected into our behavior since our childhood. A series of images came to me. I could remember three efficient rituals whose normative beliefs affect behavior. Me recuerdo a mi misma // I remember my self // Muistan itseni, is a mask and a ritual for a society that judges us and teaches us how to behave ourselves from childhood to old age. Also, not to be punished or excluded that are established and normalized. 

Sepideh Rahaa:
Entangled- ME & HAIR is an ongoing project where Rahaa is addressing her personal identity and its relation to hair, where hair plays a significant role in her daily life interacting with others in the society, how we connect and disconnect based on our appearance. Artist has used series of life memories and experiences conveying the core concept through performing art, poetry and video.

http://objekti.net/
http://www.catalysti.fi/

This project is supported by The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike).

Prison Outside & Translation is Dialogue invite submission of artworks from incarcerated people, ex-convicts, and anyone affected by imprisonment to participate in the multi-disciplinary exhibition, Free Translation. Free Translation will exhibit international works in November 2018 at MAA-tila Gallery in Helsinki and online.

This exhibition will make use of the translation process as we will interact and create new artworks in the gallery space. Your works on view will encourage the audience to prompt dialogue, inspire thoughts, and creatively activate the space. This call is open to all ages. ​
​
What to send:

• Drawings, paintings, animation, photography, video, textiles, poems, texts, or art in any other medium.
• Submissions can be sent by post or email.
• On the artwork, please write your name or pseudonym, date and place.
• Please include any special requests or details on how you would like your piece to be presented.

By sending us your artworks you give consent to putting them on Prison Space and Translation is Dialogue websites, social media outlets, and including them in the exhibition in Helsinki and online. If for any reason, you wish to be anonymous, please state that clearly. We reserve a right to exhibit a selected number of works.

Please note that the artist is responsible for posting the artworks to be included in the exhibition. If you would like your artwork to be returned, please provide a pre-paid envelope for your artwork. For more information, please contact Anastasia at info@prisonspace.org

​Artworks can be sent to:
Re: Free Translation
c/o Kone Foundation
Otavantie 10
00200 Helsinki
Finland

As we have been kindly offered the office of Kone Foundation as the submissions' delivery point, please ensure your packaged artwork fits in a standard letterbox. To discuss transportation of larger works, please email info@prisonspace.org

Submission deadline: October 31st 2018.

Russian https://prisonspace.org/OTKRYT-PRIEM-RABOT-NA-VYSTAVKU-SVOBODNYI-PEREVOD
Finnish https://prisonspace.org/Avoin-kutsu
English https://prisonspace.org/open-call

Please feel free to pass this call to those who might be interested!
​
Click on the links to learn more about Translation is Dialogue (TID) and Prison Outside.

Aalto University wrote a snippet about OBJEKTI. I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to work with all of these amazing artists.  Years ago when I was an exchange student at Aalto University, I took Andy Best's class “Media Intervention in the City”, which OBJEKTI was born from.  I believe my class was the first class Andy had.  That was in 2011!  

Excerpt from the article:
The group exhibition OBJEKTI returns to Espoo centre this summer for its fourth edition with a diverse and exciting line up of artists and projects. This year there is a strong focus on ecological and social themes. The exhibition is open 14.6.-2.9.2018.

There are sixteen artists participating with a total of twelve projects. Many works have been especially created for OBJEKTI and are site-specific to their locations. The exhibition represents different forms of contemporary art – sculpture, installation, sound art, community and participatory projects.

Many of the artists work or study at Aalto University. The artists taking part are: Heini Aho, Art & Process (Ari Björn ja Heini Matveinen), Bartaku, Rosamaría Bolom, Edwina Goldstone, Ramina Habibollah, Parsa Kamehkhosh, Sanna Karlsson-Sutisna, Petri Kuljuntausta, Maria Mastola, Tuula Närhinen, Sepideh Rahaa, Tiina Raitanen, Satu-Minna Suorajärvi and Arlene Tucker. 

I am extremely happy with the selection of artists and artworks for this year’s OBJEKTI” says curator and organiser of the exhibition Andy Best, who is the Head of General Studies and Sculpture lecturer at Aalto University. “It is always exciting to work with the artists and begin the installation process, as ideas turn into reality. This year’s show will be challenging, but hopefully fascinating for locals and visitors alike. Many of the works deal with critically important topics such as climate change, mass extinctions, and the migrant crisis, yet relate to them in poetic, creative ways. Other works ask us to question time, existence, and our place in the world.”

​Read the full article here.