Andrea Coyotzi Borja, Elham Rahmati, Farbod Fakharzadeh, Helena Aleksandrova, Juha Hilpas, Laureline Tilkin-Franssens, Marloes van Son, Uzair Amjad
The Crew: taco stuffs and life “after” the institution
11.10. – 3.11.2019
Andrea Coyotzi Borja is present at her desk this week:
Tue-Thu 29.-31.10. 15:30h – 18h
Fri 1.11. – Not present, but you can find me via the phone at +358 45 11 25 655
The artists in this exhibition go way back together. We all studied at Aalto University, majoring in Visual Culture & Contemporary Art. Well, two of us started their studies when the program was located in Pori and was humbly called Visual Culture. These days the program has been moved to Väre and is called Visual Culture, Curating and Contemporary Art. In a few years, it will either dissolve all together or will have to host other programs who fall victim to budget cuts and the name shall keep getting longer and longer. Anyway, this is not for us to care about anymore since almost all of us have graduated and are living life “after” the institution.
Since two years back, the 8 of us were thinking of doing a group exhibition together. Because we hung out together so why not also do an exhibition together? First, we knocked on Cable Factory’s doors which agreed to give us space but only for a week and for a very expensive price. We did not say no to that until all our grant applications got rejected. So we said to hell with the exhibition and went on to look for jobs or whatever.
However, we would not be defeated by rejections that easily. We would keep applying. We sat and talked about our upcoming projects, discussed how we could bring our practices together and make a reasonable application. This time our proposal was semi-successful, we got one of the three spaces we applied for, so we had to deal with limited space. We accepted. We would divide the rent, pay ourselves and not rely on grants. Our initial proposal on the subjects of ‘Identity, Memory and Everyday Life’ was to give each subject its own space. Combining these into one space and we would end up with a lightly curated mess. We decided that if we would go for messy, we would fully embrace it.
The works, interests and practices of the 8 of us come from a very wide spectrum of subjects and different mediums. Our works explore subjects such as press bias, politics and how the media frames controversial issues; the internet, social media and cameras and how these new accessible technologies influence our memory; archives and storytelling as tools for imagining and visualizing parallel possibilities; the dynamics of the Infraordinary; self-identification within a certain subculture; algorithmic decisions and selections and how they are reshaping human logic and beliefs?; of birds and goodbyes; abstract storytelling through objects, soundscapes and audience interaction, transporting someone to a place they might have never been to.
The common thread that would connect our works together and creates a narrative is the fact that we are artists/friends/old classmates who like each other, have taco nights together and talk about their life “after” the institution. We want to show our works together and to us, this is a good enough reason for having an exhibition as any. The title of the exhibition is taken from the name of the Facebook channel through which we all communicate together.
Andrea Coyotzi Borja: www.andreacoyotziborja.com
Elham Rahmati: elhamrahmati.com
Helena Aleksandrova: www.helena-aleksandrova.com
Juha Hilpas: juhahilpas.blogspot.com
Laureline Tilkin-Franssens: ltfphoto.wordpress.com
Marloes van Son: www.marloesvanson.nl
Uzair Amjad: uzairamjad.com
