This event is a Nordic Spotlight, part of Nordic Bridges.
Overview
In Gorži, waterfalls cascade from the Power Plant building’s windows. The installation by Outi Pieski is inspired by the Sámi spiritual tradition, in which we live in a reciprocal relationship with all living entities. Gorži creates a poetic sight in which clean water flows freely. The voice of Sámi yoik singer Hildá Länsman brings out the feminine power and the spiritual meaning of water. Free water is a symbol of Indigenous resiliency and strength, a counterforce against individualism and competitive capitalistic societies. Issues around environmental protection and the climate crisis are connected to Indigenous people’s rights to self-determination. The need for clean water creates overflowing streams that runs into the structures of power.
About Outi Pieski
Outi Pieski lives and works in Ohcejohka (Utsjoki), in the Sámi area in Finland. Its northern nature and environment often come up in her works. Pieski’s paintings and installations are in dialogue with the Arctic region and commit to giving form to how the interdependence of nature and culture has shaped life practices of the Indigenous Sámi community. Her work combines the Sámi visual tradition of duodji and contemporary art practices to reopen conversations about the Sámi people within transnational discourses. Since graduating from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (2000), she has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Southbank Centre, London, UK (2017), EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2018), the Venice Biennale (2019), Gwangju Biennale (2021) and Helsinki Biennale, Finland (2021). Pieski has received several awards, including the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Award (2017) and the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Grand Prize (2020).
Partnership Festival: Lux Helsinki
Lux Helsinki light art festival offers an experience for all the senses during the darkest time at the start of every January. This free-of-charge city event includes impressive light art installations in the main route, satellites and art galleries. Commissioned and existing artworks are made by artists around the world. Light art events in Helsinki have been held since 1995; over 600,000 visitors visited the last edition in five days. The city of Helsinki organizes Lux Helsinki.
About Fjord Studio
Fjord Studio is a creative studio dedicated to bringing the magic of light art into people’s lives. Fjord Studio curates and produces light art projects for cultural events, urban spaces, architecture and stage. Based in Oslo, the studio works globally and produces the best in light art. The studio collaborates with renowned Norwegian and international light artists and new talents, experienced technical teams and international partners. With projections on buildings, intimate installations, site-specific light sculptures and immersive video art, the studio’s work is a broad exploration of light art. Together with their artists and customers, the studio works towards a shared vision to create meaningful, inspiring and memorable experiences of light and art. Fjord Studio has been developed by artist and curator Anastasia Isachsen and producer Frank Isachsen, the team behind the light art festival Fjord Oslo. Since 2020, their work has expanded to conceptualize, produce and communicate various types of temporary and permanent projects at the intersection of art and technology – in Norway and internationally. Ongoing projects include the annual light art festival Fjord Oslo, the new light art initiative Fjord Geiranger in Geiranger and Nordic Lights – a collaborative project with Harbourfront Centre and light art festivals in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, in addition to several smaller projects.
Creative Audio Response
Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir, Author of the Creative Response
Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir is an Icelandic author, illustrator, curator and teacher. She studied graphic design and painting at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and a Masters of Arts degree in Creative Writing from The University of Iceland. She was a guest student at The University of Copenhagen.
Gunnarsdóttir has written 11 books and illustrated innumerable others. She has curated many interactive exhibitions and illustrated the Njal’s Saga Tapestry, amongst other projects.
She has received the Icelandic illustrator’s award twice and has been nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize, the Nordic Council Literature prize, the Women’s Literature Prize, the West-Nordic Literature Prize and the In Other Words prize.
Gunnarsdóttir has participated in exhibitions in Iceland, Germany, the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, Scotland and the U.S.A. She teaches creative writing at The University of Iceland, illustration at The Reykjavík School of Visual Art and has facilitated creative workshops in many countries.
Andre Sills, Voice Actor
Andre Sills is a Hamilton-based actor, director, producer and writer. He has spent most of his career working in the theatre across the country. He most recently made his directorial debut at Crow’s Theatre directing Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ GLORIA (an Actors Repertory Company production). He spent seven seasons at Stratford, where he played Bottom in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, opening the new Tom Patterson Theatre Parking Lot under a tent. He also played the title character in the 2018 Stratford hit Coriolanus directed by the world-renowned Robert Lepage, and was in the top 10 shows of 2018 in the Washington Post and The Globe and Mail.
In addition, he spent four seasons at The Shaw Festival where he played Tom in The Glass Menagerie and received the My Entertainment World Best Actor Award for his work in An Octoroon, Dora Award and Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actor for his work in Master Harold and the Boys. He has also worked at Soulpepper Theatre where he toured across the country with Kim’s Convenience and also played Othello at The Black Rep in St. Louis, Missouri. Sills is a Resident Artist with The Actors Repertory Company.