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.
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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. ​
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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!
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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.