Sala del Camino, Giudecca, Venice. Image courtesy of Jan Kaila.

EARN announces the first Research Pavilion: Experimentality, Venice
Opening: May 6, 6–8pm
Sala del Camino, Campo S. Cosmo, Giudecca 621
(Vaporetto stop: Palanca)

Hours: Tuesday–Sunday noon–5pm
(later openings on certain days see below)

Commissioner: Anita Seppä
Curators: Jan Kaila and Henk Slager
Coordination: Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki

The University of the Arts Helsinki organizes a Research Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. This first Research Pavilion consists of an international contemporary art exhibition and a platform for events featuring artistic research. Deploying the theme of “Experimentality,” the dynamic between artistic research and contemporary art will be articulated.

Both the exhibition and the research events will explore the following questions: How does experimentality manifest itself in contemporary art? Did the discourse on artistic research and its methodologies redefine our ideas regarding experiments and experimentality? Does current research generate new types of methodologies (such as affective or multisensory approaches) reassessing the nature of experimentation?

The exhibition in the first Research Pavilion includes artists from Finland and other European countries: Tiong Ang & Alejandro Ramirez, Magnus Bärtås, Henna-Riikka Halonen, Dirk Hoyer, Simo Kellokumpu, Matts Leiderstam, Antti Nykyri, Maija Närhinen, Tuula Närhinen, Janis Rafa, Heli Rekula, and Hito Steyerl.

Parallel to the exhibition, the first Research Pavilion will host a series of events: lab projects, discussions, screenings, interventions, seminars, and performative situations:

May 6: Opening performance: HUMAN COMPUTER DISTRACTION by Chicks on Speed (Melissa Logan, Alex Murray-Leslie, Tina Frank, Mathias Brendel and Kroot Juurak, starring Richard Bell). Opening reception in collaboration with Frame Visual Art Finland and the Alvar Aalto Pavilion of Finland.

May 7: “PowerPoint”: interstices of art making and artistic research. Series of events, workshops, and performances by TAhTO Doctoral Programme: Henna-Riikka Halonen, Dirk Hoyer, Esa Kirkkopelto, Itay Ziv, Tero Nauha, Elina Lifländer, Julius Elo, Kirsi Törmi, Kiril Kozlovsky, Sirkka Kosonen, and Pasi Lyytikäinen.

May 8: “Be-Longing”: “Sense of Belonging” in relation to locality and escapism as artistic techniques. Symposium arranged by Itay Ziv, with Edna Barromi Perlman, Pindera Agnieszka, and Ibtisam Mara’ana.

May 11–17: “Prospects: Before You Ask Me to Stay.” MaHKU (Utrecht) Fine Art students “occupy” the Research Pavilion with individual and collaborative works and interventions. The space will be used for delving into concepts such as performativity, interactivity, mobility, studies, seminars, and trials: Renée Aagtjes, Iman Al Sayed, Lotte van Geijn, Egbert Jonkers, Yongdeok Lim, Victor Munoz, Yasaman Owrang, Anh Phan Nguyen, and Sepideh Raiesi. Project coordinated by Tiong Ang.

May 19: “per.SPICE!”: the art of research with the spice of perception. A daylong event of talks and discussions related to the Journal of Artistic Research (JAR), with Julian Klein, Matthias Neukirch, and Michael Schwab.

May 30: (Afternoon) “Meeting the Other”: ethics in participatory moving image. Symposium by Johanna Lecklin, with Johanna Oksala, and Maija Timonen.

May 30: (Evening) “Exhibition/Non-exhibition”: an evening conversation that explores the dynamics of the “exhibitable” and the construction of publicness in the spirit of Robert Smithson’s “site/nonsite” with Paul O’Neill, Bard CCS, and Mick Wilson, Valand Academy of Arts (Gothenburg). From non-site to site, from non-exhibition to exhibition: what is the topos of exhibition/non-exhibition in the crowded moments of mega-exhibitions?

May 31: (Afternoon) “The frustrated witness”: realizing near misses within temporary exhibitions.
Symposium by Flis Holland, with Florian Dombois, Hans Rosenström, and Juuso Tervo.

May 31: (Evening) “Exhibition/Non-exhibition II”: Paul O’Neill and Mick Wilson. With special contribution from “the food thing.”

June 1: “Voices of Consolation“: moving image laboratory, including a screening and a workshop by Elina Saloranta.

June 2-4: “Interdisciplinary exploration of historical, traditional, experimental, and improvisational performance practices”: An event organized by Doctoral School of Classical Music and Doctoral School of Music Education, Jazz, and Folk Music.

June 14–20: “Performing Arts Research Centre”: programmed by doctoral researchers from the Theatre Academy: Sami Henrik Haapala, Tuuja Janicke, Otso Kautto, Simo Kellokumpo, and Rania Khalil.

June 27: “Exhibition/Non-exhibition”: stretched out. An enquiry into ideas of expanded exhibitionary practices through artist-led culture and the artist-curator, with Jason Bowman, Valand Academy of Arts (Gothenburg), Julie Crawshaw, Georgina Jackson (GradCAM/Toronto), and invited guest speakers examine the divergent modes and assemblages that are generated in, through, for, and by the field of artist-led cultures.

June 28: Closing event of the first Research Pavilion with PARSE Journal: “To be in the place of Palestine, to be in the place of India: An experiment in curatorial memory and exhibition amnesia.” Marking the conclusion of the first Research Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, the PARSE Journal presents a reflection on the exhibitionary dynamics of place and emplacement in the orchestration of visibility in contemporary art.

During the entire exhibition period the Research Pavilion will also harbour a special “reading room” for topical publications in the field of artistic research.

The first Research Pavilion is organized by University of the Arts Helsinki, in collaboration with EARN (European Artistic Research Network), Valand Academy of the Arts (Gothenburg University), MaHKU Fine Art (HKU University of the Arts Utrecht), Universita Iuav di Venezia, JAR (Journal for Artistic Research), GradCAM (Dublin), and Frame Visual Art Finland.