Full Programme of TO THE SQUARE 2

TO THE SQUARE 2 (#TSQ2) re-invigorates the question of public space as the crucial locus for the articulation of the political and the art of protest. Read more..

Curated by Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen
Commissioned by Checkpoint Helsinki as part of Helsinki Festival
The 7th iteration of the Re-Aligned Project of Perpetuum Mobilε

TSQ2 ARTISTS: Ammar Abo Bakr (Luxor/Cairo); Núria Güell (Barcelona), Khaled Jarrar (Ramallah); Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle (Belgrade); Nikolay Oleynikov (Nizhny Novgorod/Moscow); Raumlabor (Berlin); ZIP Group (Krasnodar).

THE SQUARE newspaper: edited by Ivor Stodolsky; design by Tzortzis Rallis (Occupied Times); art by Ganzeer, Federico Geller, Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle and articles by Michel Bauwens, Feminist Pencil, Grey Violet, Núria Güell, G.U.L.F., Occupy Museums, Teivo Teivainen, Telekommunisten and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Zona Prava/Pussy Riot.

The grand opening of all works will be on the 29th August, followed by a concert by the prominent singer of the Egyptian Revolution, Ramy Essam.

JOIN THE EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/737483989641891/

SUBMIT pictures/short videos by e-mail: anyone68word@photos.flickr.com

PROGRAMME 14–31st Aug (Constantly Updated)

THURSDAY 14th

6-9pm – PRE-EVENT Meet the Artists: Nikolay Oleynikov and Khaled Jarrar (who defeated an initial Israeli Security Agency travel-ban) unveil their projects. HIAP Suomenlinna, Studio Johan Tobias. https://www.facebook.com/events/1558027921083426/

FRIDAY 18th

8pm-2am – CLUB WARM UP: Nikolay Oleynikov presents the nomadic multi-channel broadcast station, RADIO PRAVDA. Activist professor Teivo Teivainen joins him for a lively discussion with the curators, in the context of Oleynikov aka DJ Kolyan’s club night (mbar terrace) http://mbar.fi/events/1063/

THURSDAY 21st

RADIO PRAVDA starts its journey, roaming the streets and squares of Helsinki, with living and dead, local and far-flung participants, inter-courses, location-stops and sound animating this mobilized broadcast station.

2pm Lasipalatsi Square.

4pm Hietaniemi Cemetery. Live Radio for the Dead

5.30pm – Sörnäisten metroasema / Helsingenkatu. Fix us

7pm RADIO PRAVDA returns to Lasipalatsi Square (as always).

FRIDAY 22nd

1.30pm RADIO PRAVDA on the square

3-5pm TSQ2 DEBATE: THE FUTURE OF THE SQUARE. Stakeholders giving presentations related to the planned changes to Helsinki’s Lasipalatsi Square include, among others, Marianna Kajantie, Lasipalatsi Media Centre; Kai Kaartio, Amos Anderson Museum; Tapio Mäkelä (mbar); Tuomas Rantanen, Voima newspaper / City Councilor (Greens) Minna Tarkka, Media Facades and other Helsinkians. Introduced by the curators, the first half of the discussion will be held in Finnish and moderated by Tuomas Toivonen. Switching to English in the second half, TSQ2 artists Ammar Abo Bakr, Khaled Jarrar, Nikolay Oleynikov, Raumlabor and the ZIP Group as well as Media Facades artists Suse Miessner (Helsinki) and Ivan Henriques / World Wilder Lab (Rio de Janeiro) will join the discussion. In co-operation with the Media Facades Festival. At the the ZIP Group platform, at the centre of Lasipalatsi Square.

7 pm RADIO PRAVDA on Lasipalatsi Square.

SATURDAY 23rd

4pm RADIO PRAVDA at Kontufestari (www.kontula.com)

7pm RADIO PRAVDA on Lasipalatsi Square.

SUNDAY 24th

2-6pm – The Berlin based urban transformers Raumlabor are running an open WORKSHOP in Kontupiste to build mobile cinema-chairs for a “mo-we-mobile”: a truly MOBILE CINEMA-THEATRE with a mobile projection-carriage, a mobile screen and cinema-chairs on wheels. Build and watch with them! (Keinulaudankuja 4, 00940 Helsinki)

3pm on Lasipalatsi Square. Start of the last roaming tour of Helsinki with Nikolay Oleynikov,the artist of RADIO PRAVDA.

7pm – RADIO PRAVDA back on Lasipalatsi Square.

MONDAY 25th

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square. This ambitious multi-part pavilion will include a discussion platform, stages, a relaxation-room, screening space, art-walls and food. Watch them build their new architectural piece, starting Monday 25th. Towards the opening on the 29th, there will be more and more spaces to “construct” with them!

4-8pm – Raumlabor‘s open WORKSHOP in Kontupiste.

10pm Raumlabor‘s “mo-we-mobile” screenings in Kontula.

TUESDAY 26th

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square.

2pm PRESS CONFERENCE: The TSQ2 project and concepts will be presented, and the artists will discuss their ongoing projects.

5pm Volunteers gather at Lasipalatsi square for the performative aspect of Khaled Jarrar’s Dis-/Obey.

6:30pm Khaled Jarrar’s public action starts in front of the Old Student House (Mannerheimentie 3) from which Dis-/Obey returns to Lasipalatsi Square, where a first view of the accompanying installation will be presented.

5-9pm – The Berlin-based urban transformers Raumlabor are running an open WORKSHOP on Lasipalatsi square to build mobile cinema chairs for a “mo-we-mobile”: a truly MOBILE CINEMA-THEATRE.  Join them!

10pm Raumlabor’s “mo-we-mobile” Mobile Cinema screening in urban space.

WEDNESDAY 27th

Ammar Abo Bakr paints a massive-scale canvas hung in Lasipalatsi Square.

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square.

2pm-4pm Press screening of ART WAR directed by Marco Wilms. The protagonists Ammar Abo Bakr and Ramy Essam and the curators will be present. Kino Engel.

3pm-8pm Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle start their Non-Googleheim project in the Lasipalatsi Square

10pm L SQUARE CINEMA: PUSSY VS. PUTIN II (world premiere)
TSQ2 DEBATE: A panel with the director Gogol’s Wives (via videolink) and guests including Grey Violet (queer activist from Moscow), Teemu Matinpuro (Finnish Peace Committee), Anastasiya Anikina (anarchist activist), Teivo Teivainen (Professor of World Politics) and Ivor Stodolsky (curator, writer) and Anton Nikkilä (musician and researcher). Live on RADIO PRAVDA.

THURSDAY 28th

Ammar Abo Bakr painting a massive-scale canvas in the square.

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square.

3-8pm Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle continue installing theirNon-Googleheim works in Lasipalatsi Square.

6-7pm TSQ2 DEBATE: Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle talk about the Non-Googleheim project with Jussi Koitela (artist, curator) and Thomas Wallgren (philosopher, activist and politician), among others. RADIO PRAVDA broadcasts the session. Lasipalatsi Square.

10pm Raumlabor‘s “mo-we-mobile” Mobile Cinema screenings in urban space.

FRIDAY 29th

Ammar Abo Bakr continues work on his massive-scale canvas in Lasipalatsi Square.

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square. Paint, exhibit, relax..

Khaled Jarrar’s INSTALLATION Dis-/Obey re-mounted in Lasipalatsi Square.

3-8pm Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle finish Non-Googleheim.

4-8pm political ART-PRINT WORKSHOP with Tzortzis Rallis of the Occupied Times / Occupy Design. PARTICIPATE!

8pm TO THE SQUARE 2: GRAND OPENING
Opening words by Deputy Major Ritva Viljanen and Chairperson of Checkpoint Helsinki Markus Kåhre with contributions by TSQ2 curators and artists. Reaching its completion, the ensemble of TSQ2 works will be presented on the square. Live on RADIO PRAVDA.

9pm OPENING CONCERT with RAMY ESSAM
(the leading musician of the Egyptian revolution)
Featuring Paleface and Räjähtävä Nyrkki.
Live on RADIO PRAVDA.

10pm DJ Daddy Pales on mbar stage

SATURDAY 30th

12am-4pm political ART-PRINT WORKSHOP with Tzortzis Rallis.PARTICIPATE!

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square. PARTICIPATE!

Khaled Jarrar’s installation Dis-/Obey.
5.30-6.30pm TSQ2 DEBATE: Khaled Jarrar, the curators Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen, Christopher Wessel (South Africa / Third Space, Helsinki) and other guests discuss the political situation in Palestine/Israel and its relationship to his work Dis-/Obey. Live on RADIO PRAVDA.

10pm L SQUARE CINEMA: ART WAR, directed by Marco Wilms.
TSQ2 DEBATE: The protagonists Ammar Abo Bakr, Ramy Essam and Ganzeer (via video link) discuss the film. Päivi Mattila (Finnish Human Rights League) and Iida Siimes (PEN) join for the debate. Live on RADIO PRAVDA.

SUNDAY 30th

ZIP Group “CONSTRUCTIVISM” on Lasipalatsi Square. See above. PARTICIPATE!

Khaled Jarrar’s INSTALLATION Dis-/Obey

2-4pm TSQ2 DEBATE:ZIP Group and Raumlabor in conversation with Trashpavillion activists among others. Live on RADIO PRAVDA.

10pm. L SQUARE CINEMA: INDIGNADOS directed by Tony Gatlif

Constantly Updated here:
https://www.re-aligned.net/tsq2-concept-programme/
http://www.checkpointhelsinki.org/en/programme/to-the-square-2/ (mirror)

END OF PROGRAMME

Link to this Page: https://www.re-aligned.net/tsq2-concept-programme/

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Press release: Open call for Volunteers for a Performative Action by Khaled Jarrar (Palestine)

Press release, 5th of August, 2014

Open call for Volunteers for a Performative Action by Khaled Jarrar (Palestine) On Power, Dis-/Obedience and War

Meeting point for volunteers: LASIPALATSI SQUARE at 5pm on Tuesday, 26 August

Performance: The action starts at 6:30pm in front of the Old Student House, passes through the streets of Helsinki, and culminates with a march TO THE SQUARE (Lasipalatsin Aukio).

For his new performative artwork, Khaled Jarrar is looking for 50 volunteers – of all age and kind. As a former bodyguard of President Arafat of PLO/Palestinian Authority, Jarrar will train the volunteers to march in a specially coordinated movement through the streets of Helsinki. This performative action questions the military regimentation of the body, mass obedience and programmed behaviour, while emphasizing the responsibility of the individual, and the case for resistance and civil or military disobedience. Especially in conflict situations such as the violence which has scarred his home in Palestine/Israel, taking responsibility can change lives.

Following his well-loved “Hunger (Bread) Wall” on Helsinki’s Baana in the spring of this year, which was part of BACK TO (THE) SQUARE 1, Khaled Jarrar new work “On Power, Dis-/Obedience and War” is part of the second edition of Perpetuum Mobilε’s commission for Checkpoint Helsinki: TO THE SQUARE 2.

TO THE SQUARE 2 connects seven artistic-political projects, a newspaper and a radio station, with contributors from across continents. The project will unfold in a ever-changing series of events taking place on Helsinki’s central Lasipalatsi Square from 18–31 August, and around the city. On the 22 August a public discussion about the future of Lasipalatsi Square itself is scheduled, involving all local stakeholders of this public space – including Helsinki residents, the Lasipalatsi Media Center, mbar and Amos Anderson Museum. The grand opening will be held on the 29 August, followed by a concert on the square with Ramy Essam, the celebrated musician of the Egyptian Revolution.

Curated by Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen, TO THE SQUARE 2 is part of the RE-ALIGNED Project of Perpetuum Mobilε, commissioned by Checkpoint Helsinki as part of Helsinki Festival.

Practicalities for Volunteers:

To join and volunteer, please send an e-mail to Stephanie Roiko (stephanie@hiap.fi) at HIAP, our much valued partner in the project, by the 15th of August. Please provide your name, age and your shirt, trouser and boot size. You will get a confirmation and further instructions in advance of the performance. The meeting place for volunteers is at 5pm on Lisipalatsi Square. The training will take approx. 1,5 hours, following which the group will perform in the streets and public squares of Helsinki for approx. 30-40 minutes.

For more information on the wider project see:

Checkpoint Helsinki: www.checkpointhelsinki.org/fi/ohjelma/to-the-square-2, Facebook www.facebook.com/CheckpointHelsinki

Perpetuum Mobile: https://www.re-aligned.net/press-release-square-2-takes-lasipalatsi-square-august

For news and updates see https://www.facebook.com/PerpetualMobile.org

Curators: Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen, tel. +358 440 965 103, perpetualmobile(at)gmail.com

_________

Short bio of Khaled Jarrar

In his artistic work in multiple genres – including photography, video, performance and sculpture – Khaled Jarrar interrogates issues often related to the problematic situation in his native country. As a former personal bodyguard of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Jarrar is particularly concerned with the question of recognition of the State of Palestine. Having become an artist, he uses his experience as a means of thinking through the questions of armed conflict, soldierhood and nationhood, home and belonging. Jarrar is also a filmmaker, whose documentary “The Infiltrators” (2012) was screened in Helsinki as part of Back to (The) Square 1 in March 2014.

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Núria Güell

guell_nuria2Núria Güell (1981, Vidreres, Spain)

​​With a strict positioning oriented towards creating mechanisms for dissent, Nuria Guell’s work reformulates the limits of “legality”. Analyzing the ethics of institutions that govern us, she investigates the abuses of power perpetrated by established legality and hegemonic morality, which act as control mechanisms that dominate collective subjectivity, thinking and common sense. Through her projects she exposes these mechanisms and employs them to generate counter-strategies which transgress or put into crisis established moral and legal forms.

In the past years, Núria Güell developed the concept of DISPLACED LEGAL/MORAL APPLICATION to define the methodology that structure her projects. Analyzing a legal or moral principle, this is applied in an opposite or inverse direction, hence reversing power relationships, and with a little twist, initiating a questioning of established norms. Through this manner of “drilling” reality and its “natural” obviousness, Núria Güell’s work opens alternative realities and possibilities, altering established power relationships.

Graduated in Arts from the University of Barcelona (Spain), she is continuing her studies at the Behavior Art School in Havana (Cuba) under the direction of Tania Bruguera. Her work has been exhibited at the biennials of Havana, Pontevedra, Ljubljana, Liverpool, Goteborg; and at museums in Barcelona, The Hague, London, Paris, New York, Eindhoven, Chicago, Miami, Formigine, Stockholm, Madrid, Hertogenbosch, Istanbul, Leipzig, Bucharest, Zagreb, Cali, Lima, Graz, among other places.

www.nuriaguell.net

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Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle

jeremic_raedleVladan Jeremić and Rena Rädle are Belgrade-based artists and curators whose projects combine drawing, discussion, documentary video and photography. Their projects include various forms of interventions, public debate and their social dissemination. In their curatorial and artistic practice they research the intersection between contemporary art and politics. Urbanism today and emerging social movements, has been the focus of much of their recent work.

Rädle&Jeremić have worked together since 2002, co-authoring video works and projects. Their recent exhibitions include, Between Worlds II, Kraljevic Gallery, Zagreb; Self Made Urbanism Rome, NGBK, Berlin; Places of Memory – Fields of vision, Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki; Moving Forwards, Counting Backwards, MUAC, Mexico City; and The Housing Agenda, Cable Factory Gallery, Helsinki. They have worked with groups such as the Chto Delat? and Perpetuum Mobilε.

Jeremić&Rädle’s works are in the collections of the Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art MUDAM, and Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid, among others. As a researcher, Rena Rädle has written and produced projects on the Holocaust and WWII history in the Balkans. As a curator, Jeremić was the director of the Gallery DOB of the city’s Cultural Center of Belgrade, and has curated more than thirty exhibitions in local and international contexts. These include include I Will Never Talk About the War Again realized in Färgfabriken in Stockholm and in Kibla, Maribor. With Rädle, they were co-initiators of the project Call the Witness – 2nd Roma Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennial. Jeremić is also a co-founder and member of ArtLeaks.

www.modukit.com/raedle-jeremic

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Kunstforum Newsletter on TO THE SQUARE 2

Kunstforum Newsletter, the highly respected German art-news source, reports on TO THE SQUARE 2, linking it to the history of urban squares and uprisings globally. Article below:

Aktionen & Projekte:
To the Square 2

Am 3. und 4. Juni 1989 walzte das chinesische Militär Protestveranstaltungen auf dem Tian’anmen-Platz nieder. Der Tahir-Platz in Kairo war 2011 zentrale Anlaufstelle der ägyptischen Revolution, die schließlich zum Sturz des Präsidenten Hosni Mubarak führte. Der Taksim-Platz in Istanbul ist traditionell Demonstrationsort der Gewerkschaften und der linken Parteien. 2013 kam es hier zu massiven Protesten gegen eine Stadtentwicklungspolitik, die u.a. ein Einkaufszentrum anstelle des Gezi-Parks vorsieht. Seit November 2013 ist der Maidan-Platz in Kiew Mittelpunkt der Proteste, die im Februar 2014 eskalierten und den Präsidenten Janukowitsch in die Flucht trieben; allerdings kam es bei den bürgerkriegsähnlichen Unruhen zu 80 Todesfällen. Friedlicher geht es bei den Occupy- und Blockupy-Camps in den Bankenvierteln zu. Ivor Stodolsky und Marita Muukkonen, beide von Perpetuum Mobilε, kuratieren in Helsinki das  „Re-Aligned”-Projekt „To the Square 2“, das sich mit der Tradition städtischer Plätze als Forum von politischem Altivismus auseinandersetzt. Vom 22. bis zum 31. August 2014 besetzen die Teilnehmer im Rahmen des Helsinki Festivals den zentralen Lasipalatsi Platz. Einer der Teilnehmer ist z.B. Khaled Jarrar aus Ramallah (Palästina), der 50 Armeeuniformen mitbringt und Freiwillige zur Anprobe sucht. Nikolay Oleynikov aus Moskau begleitet das Projekt mit einer mobilen Radiostation. www.helsinginjuhlaviikot.fi/en,  www.Re-Aligned.net.

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Ramy Essam

Ramy Essam is known as the “singer of Tahrir Square”. His song “Erhal” (“Leave”) of 2011 became the anthem of the Egyptian Revolution, and until today he continues his songs of protest.

Related

RAMY – In the Frontline
Ramy & CO at Cafe Mascot
TO THE SQUARE 2  / #TSQ2
World Village Festival

Resident of
AR-Safe Haven Helsinki Residency, Autumn 2014 & Winter 2016

essam_ramy1Ramy Essam started to write songs at the age of 17, inspired by young poets like Amgad Qahwagi and Mohamed Bahgat, as well as the poet Ahmed Fouad Negm who spoke up against Mubarak’s regime. He established the band “Mashakel” (“Problems”) in 2009 and started to sing for a free life, illustrating through his lyrics the simple daily problems lived through by all Egyptians under Mubarak’s regime. Hailing from Mansoura, Ramy came straight to Tahrir Square in Cairo on January 30 to participate in the January 25 Revolution. Camping on Tahrir Square, he was recognised as a regular Cairene ever since.

Ramy Essam played audiences of up to 400,000 people during the revolution. He was tortured by the Mubarak and later the Morsi regime for his revolutionary activism. Threatened by the likely torture if he was forced into armed service under the Morsi regime, he left Egypt in 2014.

Ramy Essam was hosted at AR-Safe Haven Helsinki and performed together a few nights later at the TO THE SQUARE 2 festival. Ramy Essam released new albums in 2015 and 2016, and has been touring Europe and the United States  He is currently recording his next album, co-produced by AR, to be released in 2017.

Time out London put Ramy Essam’s Irhal third on the list of the “100 songs that affected humanity”.

Ramy Essam on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RamyEssamOfficial/

Ramy plays Lasipalatsi Square

Ramy Essam, Opening Concert of To the Square 2, a part of PM’s Re-Aligned Project

Ramy and Paleface

Ramy Essam and Paleface, Lasipalatsi Square, Helsinki 2014

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Raumlabor

raumlaborWorking in between the fields of architecture and public art, Raumlabor, whose name means ‘space laboratory’, create projects based around events, performance and theatre. Raumlabor are a group of architects based in Berlin, who came together in 1999 in response to the rapid and unrestrained development of the city following the fall of the Berlin wall. Their playful approach critiques this dominant mode of architectural production, proposing instead temporary projects that transform the urban landscape through what they call ‘urban prototypes’. This approach is not only used to critique official planning processes but also to influence them.
Collaboration is a key part of their strategy with specialists including engineers, sociologists, local experts, ethnographers and citizens, being brought together around specific projects. Their projects try to open up a space of communication and negotiation in which relations can be made and conflicts played out, and they acknowledge that for them architecture is first and foremost a social phenomenon.

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Updated Press release: TO THE SQUARE 2 takes over Lasipalatsi Square (August)

Press Release, updated 12.8.2014:

On the heels of the positive public resonance generated by BACK TO (THE) SQUARE 1 around Helsinki in March 2014, Checkpoint Helsinki presents a second iteration of the Re-Aligned Project curated by Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen of Perpetuum Mobilε.

TO THE SQUARE 2 will connect artistic and political movements across several continents, taking over the central Lasipalatsi Square from 18–31 August as part of Helsinki Festival. The grand opening in the presence of the artists will take place on 29 August, followed by a concert on the square with Ramy Essam, the celebrated musician of the Egyptian Revolution.

“From Tunis to Cairo, from Occupy to Wikileaks and Blockupy Frankfurt, from Tiananmen Square to Moscow, what does it take to fill a square?”, the curators ask.

Commissioning artists deeply involved in forms of resistance and movements “to the square”, TSQ2’s curators have invited Egypt’s famed and much-loved street-artist Ammar Abo Bakr (Luxor/Cairo); Núria Güell (Barcelona), joining the project in absentia (as usual) from Cuba, with interventions in our contemporary economic dis-logic; the renowned Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar (Ramallah), whose new public intervention seeks 50 volunteers to match the 50 army-uniforms he will include in an installation; Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle (Belgrade), political and satirical artists extraordinaire, with Jeremić doubling as founding co-editor of the Art Leaks Gazette; Nikolay Oleynikov (Nizhny Novgorod/Moscow), whose mobile broadcast station “Radio Pravda” will roam the streets, squares and airwaves; the Berlin-based urban transformers Raumlabor; and the sincerely hilarious ZIP Group (Krasnodar) and its “wild constructivsm” in the centre of Lasipalatsi Square.

THE SQUARE, a new newspaper accompanying the project, is designed by Tzortzis Rallis (Occupied Times) and includes art by Ganzeer, Federico Geller, Vladan Jeremić & Rena Rädle and articles by Michel Bauwens, Feminist Pencil, Grey Violet, Núria Güell, G.U.L.F., Occupy Museums, Teivo Teivainen, Telekommunisten and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Zona Prava/Pussy Riot.

After the protest movements which broke out in capitals across the world from 2011 onward, we live in a period of regressive politics and at times violent repression. The question today is, what would it take for people to go TO THE SQUARE 2 – that is, to go to the streets again? Perhaps it requires new extremes of economic inequality? Or massive ecological catastrophes or raw racism? Or an infinitely bigger “big brother”? For where did it all come from, and where does it go — that revolutionary energy?

“Artists and activists’ freedom of speech has been severely threatened, and some, such as Ammar Abo Bakr have to fear for their lives”, the curators Stodolsky and Muukkonen explain. Yet here we have them, on a central square in Helsinki. Lasipalatsi Square may be a political tabula rasa, but this may soon change.


Checkpoint Helsinki is a new art organization that commissions and produces artworks by emerging international artists. It invites artists and curators to realize ideas for projects in Helsinki, and thus functions as a platform for artistic work. The aim of Checkpoint Helsinki is to make art show in the cityscape, and to open up different forms of contemporary art to the public.

Perpetuum Mobilε, co-founded by Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen in 2007, is a curatorial vehicle which brings together art, practice and enquiry. It acts as a conduit and engine to re-imagine certain basic historical, theoretical as well as practical paradigms in fields which often exist in disparate institutional frames and territories. PM has worked extensively in the Nordic, European and international field.

Special thanks to HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme

Contacts for further information:

Curators: Ivor Stodolsky, +358 40 7254 050; Marita Muukkonen +358 44 0965 103 E-mail: PerpetualMobile -at- gmail -dot- com

Finnish Press: Krista Kinnunen, +358 50 385 4555 E-mail: krista.kinnunen -at- checkpointhelsinki -dot- org

International Press: Kathrin Luz +49 (0)171 3102 472 E-mail: kl -at- neumann-luz -dot- de

Helsinki Festival: helsinginjuhlaviikot.fi/en

Checkpoint Helsinki: checkpointhelsinki.fi/en, facebook.com/CheckpontHelsinki, twitter.com/CheckpointHki

Perpetuum Mobilε’s Re-Aligned Project (Detailed Artists’ Bios and Curatorial Concept):  www.Re-Aligned.net, www.facebook.com/PerpetualMobile.org, twitter.com/PerpetualMob

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Tzortzis Rallis

rallis_tzortzis

Tzortzis Rallis is a Greek graphic designer based in London. He supports grassroots political collectives in Greece, he is the co-founder of the Occupy Design UK collective and co-designer of The Occupied Times of London, the independent, not-for-profit newspaper born out of the Occupy movement – dedicated to socio-political, economic and environmental justice. With his work, workshops and lectures, Rallis exercises criticism of his own discipline and questions the contribution of design to the contemporary political and social context. In his personal activity, he uses visual communication skills to engage in social and political initiatives. He studied graphic design and fine arts in Greece, Spain and UK.

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Ganzeer and Sampsa branded “terrorists” for #SisiWarCrimes Campaign

Statement from the Curators of Perpetuum Mobilε / Re-Aligned.net

It’s a harsh moment, when artists are declared “terrorists”. Our friend the Egyptian artist Ganzeer is under serious threat.

In a bizarre turn, Ganzeer has been accused of working for the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now banned as a terrorist organisation under the Sisi regime. An ironic twist since, under President Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government, Ganzeer was attacked as an “enemy of Islam” for supposedly blasphemous work.

Ganzeer’s designation as a terrorist is the brutal reaction to the #SisiWarCrimes campaign, which is growing by the day. Co-initiated by Finland’s own political street artist #Sampsa, this campaign unites street artists across continents.

The campaign addresses the massacres – estimate at 638 dead and 3994 injured – which accompanied General Sisi’s overthrow of the Morsi government in August 2013. It also raises awareness about a government, tolerated if not supported by all major powers, and its increasingly totalitarian control of all walks of life, including art.

According to the Guardian, “[s]ince Sisi deposed Morsi last July following days of mass demonstrations, at least 16,000 Egyptian dissidents have been arrested, and thousands killed during protests. The crackdown initially focused on Morsi’s Islamist supporters before expanding to secular-leaning activists.” (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/graffiti-artists-unite-against-abdel-fatah-al-sisi-egypt) This includes banning those, such as the “6 April Youth Movement”, who were a key group in the demand for freedom and justic in the revolution of 2011, that have stood against both evils of religious fundamentalism and the military state.

Despite his bloody record, General Sisi’s regime has until now been seen as the ‘least worst’ option by western governments. Through his fierce grip on the state and media, he seems certain to become Egypt’s new president.

However, heavy criticism by artists, activists and now also statesmen is gaining ground (e.g. by former President Jimmy Carter http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/17/jimmy-carter-egypt-election-sisi-president-precipice#top)

Ganzeer in Finland

Ganzeer was a key figure in the March 2014 show, BACK TO (THE) SQUARE 1, curated by Marita Muukkonen and Ivor Stodolsky of Perpetuum Mobilε, and commissioned by Checkpoint Helsinki (documentation: https://www.re-aligned.net/documentation-back-square-1-installation-views/?lang=en). We hope to also have his participation in the upcoming TO THE SQUARE 2 (www.checkpointhelsinki.org/en/programme/to-the-square-2/).

Ganzeer (https://www.re-aligned.net/ganzeer/?lang=en) was already part of RE-PUBLIC, Perpetuum Mobilε’s project on the Baana in Helsinki in August 2013 (https://www.re-aligned.net/re-public-russian-art-in-the-streets/?lang=en). At the time, he was in residency at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, through the “On the Move” programme (www.hiap/project/move). This was how he made contact with artists including Sampsa and the hip-hop star Paleface – for whom he prepared a forthcoming album cover.

We hope to see Ganzeer safe and sound, and support and encourage all efforts to raise the #SisiWarCrimes campaign to a new level.

Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen

Curators

Perpetuum Mobilε
www.PerpetualMobile.org

References:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/graffiti-artists-unite-against-abdel-fatah-al-sisi-egypt

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