
Mox Mäkelä’s Host Sapiens (2018) and Jan Ijäs’s Waste no. 1 Money (2017) were selected in the international competition “Glocal Propose” of the 18th Seoul International NewMedia Festival (NEMAF), held from August 15–24. Anu Pennanen’s Monument for the Invisible (2003) will be screened in the thematic section Counter Memory & the Reconstruction of Body Movement.
Host Sapiens is an experimental ecocritical video art poem. “Mass extinction is here. Our plate will be soon bigger than our planet. Our choice.” The screening of Host Sapiens take place in Indiespace on Saturday, August 18, at 17:00.
Mox Mäkelä (b. 1958) is a conceptual artist active since 1978. Mäkelä’s art has been shown widely in different venues and contexts, e.g. in the Maritime museum of Finland and at international film and art festivals. In her ecocritical films and installations, Mäkelä examines the clash between nature and human nature within the marine milieu. Another part of her oeuvre is “idiot ibidem”, a long-term extended project that studies a literary historical chain of events with full methodological freedom and diversity.
In Jan Ijäs’s awarded Waste no. 1 Money, inflation has resulted in the Zimbabwe dollar completely losing its value. Banknotes are literally recyclable goods, turned into tablecloths and lampshades, for example. In the Harare slums, which are rife with crime, valuable US dollar banknotes must be concealed in clothing, which means that the notes quickly become breeding grounds for bacteria. According to money launderers, dollar bills can best be gently hand washed with Omo detergent in warm water. The screening of Waste no. 1 Money takes place in Indiespace on Friday, August 17, at 10:30.
Media artist and filmmaker Jan Ijäs lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. Ijäs works with documentary, fiction and alternative film. The films of Ijäs deal with serious and difficult social themes, like migration into foreign and hostile societies. Ijäs’s films have been shown very widely abroad by over a hundred film festivals and as installations in museums and galleries.
A Monument for the Invisible investigates urban Helsinki from a blind person´s perspective. The film focuses on Ruoholahti neighbourhood and the Kamppi construction site. These areas represent new city planning, Ruoholahti being the high-tech hub of the town and the huge Kamppi construction site becoming another shopping centre made of glass. It is based on the interviews with visually impaired people. The film is realised in a close collaboration with the blind lead actress Johanna Röholm. The screenings of A Monument for the Invisible take place at IndieSpace on Saturday, August 18, at 12:30, and on Tuesday, August 21, at 14:30.
Anu Pennanen is an artist based in Berlin. She works within urban public space and its relation to cinema and media. She is interested in people situated in alienating architectural structures of power. Pennanen has participated in international exhibitions and film festivals since 2004, including CCA Glasgow (2013), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2012), CAC Vilnius (2011), Centre Pompidou Paris (2010), Ars Baltica Photography Triennale (2008, 2007), Frankfurter Kunstverein (2007), Manifesta 5 (2004) and Momentum Nordic Art Biennial in Moss (2004). In 2011 she received The Golden Cube Award for best media installation award from Dokfest Kassel. Since 2011 Pennanen forms an artist duo with Stéphane Querrec.
The 18th Seoul International NewMedia Festival, 15.–24.8.2018
More information: NEMAF