CURRENT ART ACTIVITIES

SPECULATION (ELATION 11):

VARTIOSAAR - WUNNDERKAMERNAUTICA (LOOPING PROGRAM 157MIN)

TORSTEN ZENAS BURNS / CURATOR / 2023 

The 11th edition of an ongoing speculative themed VILM screening series. For Finland, we explore a constellation of time-based works created by local and international artists. These scenes are linked by a shared curiosity related to reimagined organisms, sacred places, and relationships both real and imaginary. Ecological fictions, temporal visitations, virtual geography, appropriated stories, and  phantasmagoric  manifestations are activated delivering unique experiences for the Collaborative viewer.

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INTRODUCTION TITLES: FINLAND COMMERCIAL - 1:00 / 1984

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LENKA CERNOTOVA - RUNNING – 7:00 / 2023                                                                                                                                                                                              Perceive as wolves (wolf-human´s docu-fiction)                                                                                                                                                                                          I wish to thank : Pavel a Jan Černotovi, Vladimír Kokolia, Eva Červená, Stanislav Komárek, Jiří Malík, Jan Koranda, Pavel Hulva, Magda Stanová, Karel Pivoňka, Martin Karel Klusoň, Torsten Zenas Burns, Monika Czyzyk, Michal Bojda, Václav Tomášek, Pavla Semeráková, Buhuslav Kuřík, Róza Černot 

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DARRIN MARTIN - FREE TO BE YOU AND ME - 4:20 / 2006                                                                                                                                                                    Four of the original children on the merry-go-round in the opening sequence of Marlo Thomas’s star-studded television special of the same name rephrase the catchy opening theme song.  An internet mogul, an independent filmmaker, a temp computer specialist, and an orthodontist reiterate the songs nostalgic promise of freedom couched within a technologically mediated environment.  Free to Be You and Me was part of the Free to Be . . . You and Me Invitational curated by Thomas Beard & Nick Hallett.  Asking artists to re-envision various sections of the album / television special. https://darrinmartin.myportfolio.com

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HELENA ALEKSANDROVA - GARDENIA – 8:20 / 2021                                                                                                                                                                                Inspired by ‘Society of the Spectacle’ by Guy Debord and ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley, “Gardenia" is a visual essay on video pleasure and video boredom. Helena Aleksandrova is a Helsinki-based artist and cinephile who engages with film and moving image through the roles of director, performer, editor, and art director. Her visually rich scenography draws on camp and vintage aesthetics to put forward subversive but celebratory explorations of popular (sub)cultures. Her works often play with familiar and contested ideas about female representation and sexuality through humour, spectacle, horror, and artifice. 

https://www.helena-aleksandrova.com

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KARL ERICKSON - AUTONOMOUS REALITY COMMUNITIES - 6:50 / 2018                                                                                                                                    "Autonomous Reality Communities" is a visual tone poem using the vocabulary of motion graphics and abstraction to posit that humankind is not the center of universe and that there are other layers of existence. I draw the title from Gene Youngblood's essay of the same name, in which he argues for the use of computer generated and modulated moving image art as the basis for forming new ideas and connections. I combine this with the need for empathy with the non-human. The combination of empathy and technology allows us to dismantle dominant, stagnant modes of thinking and assemble new futures. "Autonomous Reality Communities" was created as a live performance, with the video and sound manipulated in real-time. He is an Assistant Professor of Digital Art at Rhodes College, Memphis, TN. https://karlhugoerickson.com

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ANNA MATVEINEN - ISLE OF GUARDS - 6:30 / 2022                                                                                                                                                                              This film was made in Cult of Euphoria 2022, a "Halloween" themed genre film workshop. Crew: Angel del Riego Boza, Anna Matveinen, Taimi Nevaluoma, Veera Ruoholinna. https://amatveinen.com

 

DAVID LYNCH - SCENE FROM A DAVID LYNCH DV PROJECT - 6:00 / 2005                                                                                                                                   I may be the sole pirate here with the use of one hand…. You might be ….I am…

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A 5-MINUTE HOUR  - EPISODE 15 - 5:00 / 2022                                                                                                                                                                                              Daniel Werger gives us a welding demonstration. We visit the Urban Light installation by Chris Burden at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Jessica makes a new primitive folk doll. Torsten Zenas Burns gives us a sneak peek at his latest video G.A.R.D.E.N. Colin samples Pink Panther tea. The noise poet known as blackhumour gets the last word in; well, kind of. https://www.youtube.com/@A5MinuteHour

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KELLY SEARS - PHASE 2 - 6:00 / 2022                                                                                                                                                                                                             In the near future, real estate developers deploy sonic weapons used at protests to clear neighborhoods for high-end high rises. On the front lines are sound medics that tend to those injured by the assaults. As they respond, one member of the team documents the incidents to create a future archive for other sonic activists. For Phase II, the filmmaker walked around areas of rapid development in her city and took thousands of photographs. This animated, speculative fiction/non-fiction archive maps out more aggressive eviction and deployment tactics to come. Kelly Sears creates hybrid speculative fiction and nonfiction animations. She animates appropriated source imagery that suggests an official process, order, or account – ranging from instructional guides to chronicles of specific histories. https://vimeo.com/kellysears

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MONIKA CZYZYK - ASTROBOTANY - 2:37 / 2023                                                                                                                                                                                        Vegetation on Mars might be blue.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Monika Czyżyk is a visual artist based in Helsinki/Finland. She works primarily with moving image in the context of experimental documentaries and socially engaged projects. She is currently researching the topic »reimagined gardening« and collecting locally sourced clay for DIY kiln firings. https://monikaczyzyk.org

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SARAH TURNER - GRIEF KINK - 10:00 / 2022                                                                                                                                                                                                  Know Yourself. Part guided meditation, part psycho-spiritual ritual, the Oracle of Alfred seduces you into sitting with your grief.

Sarah Turner is a new media and video artist who creates large scale immersive environments and performances through analog media and creative coding. She engages in ritual and contemporary mythologies to augment reality through performative psycho spiritual activations. https://www.sarahsarahturnerturner.com

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URSULA BROOKBANK - SOLO - 6:20 / 2020                                                                                                                                                                                                    Using film, overhead projection, photography, video, and performance, I make textural experiences that capture the illusive and transformative potential of humble objects and materials. These ordinary things, under conditions of
light and shadow, produce another world, one that illuminates the poetry of the ordinary. http://www.ursulabrookbank.com

 

DANIEL MALPICA - SELECTION OF VARIABLE DIGITAL PIECES FOR VARTIOSAARI SCREENING – 12:00 / 2023                                                    Daniel Malpica is a Finnish-Mexican writer, graphic designer, publisher and multimedia artist. His work involves the exploration of cross-narratives, transmediality, design and literary arts. http://www.danielmalpica.com

 

JULIA LOHMANN - MITOMNIA – 18:00 / 2022                                                                                                                                                                                               We are eco-systems. We have embedded organisms into even the deepest layers of our body: Mitochondria, bacteria derived organelles live within each of our cells. A Billion years ago, the aerobic Bacteria they derive from made all complex life on Earth possible when they incorporated themselves into the then Unicellular ancestor of the Eukaryotic cell (Margulis and Bermudes, 1985) and made multicellular organisms possible. Perhaps they have more agency than we think? Perhaps they are the ones who built this world, an omni-presence that grew our planet into the complex, rich system we love and destroy. Perhaps we are their AI organisms. And we are not behaving to plan. This film was commissioned by the MIT Museum in 2022 for the exhibition ‘Gene Cultures’. Credits: Concept: Julia Lohman / Script: Julia Lohmann, Gero Grundmann, Ena Naito, Zoe Robertson / Actors and Speakers: Julia Lohmann, Ena Naito, Elise Piquemal, Zoe Robertson / Illustrations: Gero Grundmann / Camera, Editing and Sound Design: Julia Lohmann, Ossi Oikari / https://www.julialohmann.co.uk

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MATEUSZ SCIBOR - PROMISED LAND – 4:30 / 2016                                                                                                                                                                                 Artist living in Warsaw, Poland - Promised Land, (Single channel documentation of appropriated graphics and music subverting Cambridge Analytica) Primarily used in clubs during a live DJ- sets, the dancing footage is (mixed live) to a DJ’s music and finish with a Monteverdi bit leaving people rather confused and/or in emotional states.

 

MONIKA CZYZYK - ORGANIC TECHNO - 2:37 / 2023                                                                                                                                                                                Hypnotic portrait of love for the garden and love to the island. Carefully documented using 360-time lapse videos. Cyclical repetition, attachment, care, friendship with a spider from a black barrel has been manifested. The 360 hypnotic video is accompanied by a dance track constructed completely from organic field and studio recordings (clay, boars, vegetables, water, etc). https://monikaczyzyk.org

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TORSTEN ZENAS BURNS & DARRIN MARTIN  - VOLCANICA - 9:30 / 2005                                                                                                                                    A feel-good glimpse into a full-bodied lava canal. Horror and hippies transmigrate through a portal begun through a hole in the head, which activates a redefined eruption. Burns & Martin both received BFA’s at Alfred University. Burns received his MFA in video and performance from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993. Martin received an MFA in media and sculpture from The University of California, San Diego in 2000. Together, they have based their videos and installations on their research into diverse speculative fictions including re-imagined educational practices, appropriated horror genres, animation choreographies, cosplay, and cryptid-human love stories. https://www.torstenzenasburns.com/martin-burns