ARCOmadrid 201419.-23.2.2014, Feria de Madrid
IC-98: Abendland (II: The Place That Was Promised; III: The Edge That Was Set), 2013-20142-channel HD-animation, stereo sound, 16'00'', edition 5+2AP
animation: Markus Lepistö, music: Max Savikangas, double bass: Juho Martikainen, music recording: Pekka Mikael Laine
Galleria Heino participates in the international ARCOmadrid art fair 19th - 23rd February 2014. Galleria Heino presents works by the following artist:
IC-98
In the melancholy forest
dwells a sick god.
In the dark forest the flowers are so
pale
and the birds so shy.
Why is the wind full of warning
whispers
and the road dark with dismal
forebodings?
In the shadow lies the sick god
dreaming venomous dreams…
(Edith
Södergran: Forest Darkness, 1929. Transl. by David McDuff)
Abendland is a three-part animation set in a mythologized distant future, a twilight world after the age of man. We are transported into a ruin of a walled garden, dominated by the looming figure of an overgrown fruit tree, which goes through parasitic and diclinous transformations. The work reminds us of the long and sometimes circular durations of time, putting the anthropocentric view of history in new perspective.
In its present two-part form, the installation consists of two synchronized projections facing each other and an accompanying soundtrack composed for double bass and electronics. The first part of Abendland, I: The Vaults of Dreams, is due out later in 2014. It shows us the sepulcher chamber below the tree.
Visa Suonpää
& Patrik Söderlund
A solo exhibition Abendland - Tierras Crepusculares by IC-98 will be presented at Conde Duque 30th January - 20th April 2014. The exhibition is part of #FocusFinland collateral programme coordinated by Frame Visual Art Finland in collaboration with the Finnish Institute in Madrid.
The #FocusFinland Pavilion at ARCOmadrid features two video installations by
HETA KUCHKA
"A Finnish
man doesn´t talk or kiss." In A Portrait of a Young Man Kuchka
wants to call this stereotype into question. "Finland is a sparsely populated
country with vast areas of forests and lakes, and people are used to having a
lot of space around them. In the video, a hundred young men sit in the army
sauna squeezed in next to each other. The camera is rolling. The viewer will begin
to recognise individuals as the men start reacting to the heat and leave one by
one." At the same time the social situation deconstructs the military hierarchy.
The last man left in the sauna becomes a portrait of the Finnish man, one of
the depictions of "sisu", Finnish guts.
The four-channel video installation The Sky´s a Falling and We Better Hurry Up or the Both of Us Are Dead Kuchka forms a one-woman bluegrass band. At the same time she gives new life to the instruments of her late father, a musician. Kuchka asked Wasel Arar, who used to play in her father´s band, to teach her for a month to play them before the premiere of the video. The song we hear on the video is one that Kuchka´s father composed to her as a child. Through the work the artist asks: Is it possible to adopt another person´s identity for even one song?
Leevi
Haapala (Curator #FocusFinland)
For more information, please visit: ARCOmadrid | Frame Visual Art Finland
