Re:place
The project is created and curated by Sarah Spitzer, Ruby Chiu, and Tatiana Mantovani.
The project ‘re:place’ focuses on the urban/ environ- mental space as a living body composed of different elements that define, shape and determine our everyday life. Through the fundamental role of functional urban elements, old abandoned places – as waste of our fast- moving world and capital centers – or forgotten, unused spaces and marginal zones recede.
The aim of the project is to evoke – by exploring and experimental interventions and performances as site- and-time-specific acts which focus on these unused/ useless places – reflections on whether and how it is possible to reinvent, transform and/or reactivate what was forgotten, unconsidered or marginal.
To work with interventions implies encountering the unknown and openness. As the specific space brings its own history and appearance which affects the work and can inspire to remember, the work can also affect the space and its understanding.
In the context of re:place, three artists present their different approaches of exploring and challenging accustomed ways of using and perceiving their surrounding space. Their investigations on body and space evoke several questions:
Which (untold) stories could be imagined by forgotten, unused places? How can we change the perspective of a space and raise awareness on topics such as reconsidering and reusing? What are the different relations between human, space, society and politics and how do they express themselves? Where do I locate myself in this system of interconnections? And how can we change conventional thinking through personal interactions within the surrounding space?
Onur Tayranoğlu
Onur Tayranoğlu’s artistic work focuses on performance studies and playful acts as a future making potential. In their explorations, they search for strategies to hack reality e.g. by dealing with rumors, gossip and lies and to counteract the systems of power.
*1999, Istanbul (TR), currently based in Helsinki (FI)
Onur Tayranoğlu
A Close Stranger, performance 2022, Hakaniemi, Helsinki
‘What are the signifiers of an abandoned space? Can our imagination and memory ever leave a space empty?’ Onur Tayranoglu
Rooms are carriers of personal stories and memories. In their performance, Onur Tayranoğlu invites the visitors into the room of their former flatmate, which has been empty for several months.
By integrating used objects left behind and a written letter to them, they try to (re)construct the identity and story of their unknown former flatmates.
Who lived in the room before? How did they use it? What did the inhabited space look like? And where are they now and what are they doing?
It is a play of fiction and reality, an attempt to approach the unknown and to reactivate the intimate abandoned space.
In addition to the performative reflection on the relation between human, space and time, Tayranoglu’s work also deals with interpersonal relationships – the social attitude of ignoring, avoiding or abandoning each other’s presence.
*1999, Istanbul (TR), currently based in Helsinki (FI)
Doğa Çal
Doğa Çal usually works site-specific with different media such as video, installation
and performance. In her artistic practice she deals with the subject of identity and temporality as well as the relation between space and body. Since 2016 she is part of the Nesin Art Village (NAV), an innovative art programme with the aim to maintain an approach that focuses on criticality and independent production processes.
*1995, Izmir (TR), currently based in Helsinki (FI)
Doğa Çal
Villa Hällebo, 2022, performance, Kruunuvuori, Helsinki
Is it possible to gift this place its lost warmth?’ Doğa Çal
Villa Hällebo is the name of a former summer residence in the old villa district of Kruunuvuori. Built in the late 19th century, it is a place with a long history of changing residents and owners. After it was abandoned by its last inhabitants and became more and more decayed and in danger of collapse, it was taken under the responsibility of the City of Helsinki. Unable to find a new investor, the villa continued to fall into disrepair until it finally burned to the ground last year.
What remains are only a few stones and an empty place that still reminds of the building’s former presence. The place has become something in between.
In her happening ‘Villa Hällebo’, Doğa Çal deals with this specific space and tries to reactivate it, to remind us of the life it once had. To do this, she invites the visitors to come together, take a seat and take part in the place. Different questions are raised:
Catrin Edlund
Catrin Edlund
Jätkäsaari, Helsinki
‘I often ask myself: Do I belong here?…’….. Catrin Edlund
Helsinki is a city of change. New buildings are constructed, infrastructures are expanded, no place remains unchanged for a long time. What emerges are spaces of transition and transformation – marginal places.
Catrin Edlund’s intervention ‘title’ focuses on the urban area of Jätkäsaari and its large construction site running from the north to the east along the shoreline. While workers are building new apartments during the day, the construction site turns into an outdoor area used by the residents in the evening. Edlund explores the relation between individuals, groups of people and the urban space of Jätkäsaari. Using leftovers such as stones or pieces of metal and gravel that
stay as relics of change, she creates site-specific sculptures emphasizing the incompleteness and state of transition of her environment as well as questioning the ability of humans to adapt
to their surroundings.
RE:PLACE
The project is created and curated by Sarah Spitzer, Ruby Chiu, and Tatiana Mantovani.
The project ‘re:place’ focuses on the urban/ environ- mental space as a living body composed of different elements that define, shape and determine our everyday life. Through the fundamental role of functional urban elements, old abandoned places – as waste of our fast- moving world and capital centers – or forgotten, unused spaces and marginal zones recede.
The aim of the project is to evoke – by exploring and experimental interventions and performances as site- and-time-specific acts which focus on these unused/ useless places – reflections on whether and how it is possible to reinvent, transform and/or reactivate what was forgotten, unconsidered or marginal.
To work with interventions implies encountering the unknown and openness. As the specific space brings its own history and appearance which affects the work and can inspire to remember, the work can also affect the space and its understanding.
In the context of re:place, three artists present their different approaches of exploring and challenging accustomed ways of using and perceiving their surrounding space. Their investigations on body and space evoke several questions:
Which (untold) stories could be imagined by forgotten, unused places? How can we change the perspective of a space and raise awareness on topics such as reconsidering and reusing? What are the different relations between human, space, society and politics and how do they express themselves? Where do I locate myself in this system of interconnections? And how can we change conventional thinking through personal interactions within the surrounding space?
Onur Tayranoğlu
Onur Tayranoğlu’s artistic work focuses on performance studies and playful acts as a future making potential. In their explorations, they search for strategies to hack reality e.g. by dealing with rumors, gossip and lies and to counteract the systems of power.
A Close Stranger, performance 2022, Hakaniemi, Helsinki
‘What are the signifiers of an abandoned space? Can our imagination and memory ever leave a space empty?’ Onur Tayranoglu
Rooms are carriers of personal stories and memories. In their performance, Onur Tayranoğlu invites the visitors into the room of their former flatmate, which has been empty for several months.
By integrating used objects left behind and a written letter to them, they try to (re)construct the identity and story of their unknown former flatmates.
Who lived in the room before? How did they use it? What did the inhabited space look like?
And where are they now and what are they doing?
It is a play of fiction and reality, an attempt to approach the unknown and to reactivate the intimate abandoned space.
In addition to the performative reflection on the relation between human, space and time, Tayranoglu’s work also deals with interpersonal relationships – the social attitude of ignoring, avoiding or abandoning each other’s presence.
*1999, Istanbul (TR), currently based in Helsinki (FI)
Doğa Çal
Doğa Çal usually works site-specific with different media such as video, installation and performance. In her artistic practice she deals with the subject of identity and temporality as well as the relation between space and body. Since 2016 she is part of
the Nesin Art Village (NAV), an innovative art programme with the aim to maintain an approach that focuses on criticality and independent production processes.
Villa Hällebo, 2022, performance, Kruunuvuori, Helsinki
‘What makes a piece of a space a place? Is it possible to gift this place its lost warmth?’ Doğa Çal
Villa Hällebo is the name of a former summer residence in the old villa district of Kruunuvuori. Built in the late 19th century, it is a place with a long history of changing residents and owners. After it was abandoned by its last inhabitants and became more and more decayed and in danger of collapse, it was taken under the responsibility of the City of Helsinki. Unable to find a new investor, the villa continued to fall into disrepair until it finally burned to the ground last year.
What remains are only a few stones and an empty place that still reminds of the building’s former presence. The place has become something in between.
In her happening ‘Villa Hällebo’, Doğa Çal deals with this specific space and tries to reactivate it, to remind us of the life it once had. To do this, she invites the visitors to come together, take a seat and take part in the place. Different questions are raised:
*1995, Izmir (TR), currently based in Helsinki (FI)
Catrin Edlund
Strange Debris, performance 2022, Jätkäsaari, Helsinki
‘I often ask myself: Do I belong here?…’….. Catrin Edlund
Helsinki is a city of change. New buildings are constructed, infrastructures are expanded, no place remains unchanged for a long time. What emerges are spaces of transition and transformation – marginal places.
Catrin Edlund’s intervention ‘title’ focuses on the urban area of Jätkäsaari and its large construction site running from the north to the east along the shoreline. While workers are building new apartments during the day, the construction site turns into an outdoor area used by the residents in the evening. Edlund explores the relation between individuals, groups of people and the urban space of Jätkäsaari. Using leftovers such as stones or pieces of metal and gravel that
stay as relics of change, she creates site-specific sculptures emphasizing the incompleteness and state of transition of her environment as well as questioning the ability of humans to adapt
to their surroundings.