Saara Ekström, Band of Weeds, and Tuomas Aleksander Laitinen are included in the Screen City Biennial, held from October 17–30 in Stavanger, Norway.
Screen City Biennial (SCB) in Stavanger, is the first Nordic Art Biennial dedicated to the expanded moving image. It presents artworks that explore the relation between image, sound, new technologies, public and digital spaces. The architecture of the Norwegian port city Stavanger facilitates an exhibition of new formats and the use of moving image in contemporary artistic practices. 2019 edition, “Ecologies – Lost, Found and Continued” is curated by Daniela Arriado and Vanina Saracino.
Saara Ekström‘s Beacon (2019) is a performance, expanded cinema event and an 8 mm film documenting endangered plants, sea life and insects from the Finnish archipelago. It is a mobile projection made to be taken out of the gallery context and into the streets, right among the people living in the community of Stavanger.
The Greenhouse Phenomenon by Band of Weeds is a sound inquiry into the pulse and life signals of plants, made audible to the audience to show how much activity there is within every weed. The Band of Weeds’ live sound performance is presented at the Stavanger Art Museum during the SCB opening weekend (October 17-20, 2019). Afterwards, the work will be integrated in the form of a sound installation located along the Mosvannet park throughout the whole biennial period. The Band of Weeds was founded as a conceptual band in 2015. In 2017, the founders Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger began releasing LPs and performing live acts. The first album, Other-Than-Human, was released in autumn 2017 and the EP Waiting for the Extinction 🙁 in spring of 2019. The current members of the band are Olli Aarni, Lauri Ainala, Kalle Hamm, Hermanni Keko and the featured plants, depending on the project.
Tentacle Tongue (2019) is part of Tuomas A. Laitinen’s research on more-than-human minds. The conductors of this work are cephalopods, and through this class of species, Laitinen examines questions of biodiversity and radical difference. The work consists of posters that the viewers can activate with an Augmented Reality (AR) app, on their mobile devices. This act of scanning will unfold as an intimate audiovisual work that dives into imaging technologies and the production of knowledge in the age of hyper-capitalism and climate crises.
Screen City Biennial, October 17–30 2019, Stavanger, Norway
More information: Screen City Biennial