[Nodar003] Three Years In Nodar Context-Specific Art Practices in Rural Portugal 315 pages full color catalogue Accompanying double CD with 20 sound compositions made in Nodar Price: 25 Euros + postage For orders, please contact info@binauralmedia.org The catalog includes essays, critical texts, field diaries, photographs and drawings of more than 40 artists who developed art [...]

Resident Densities Exhibition by artists who participated at Binaural- MoKS exchange programme in 2008- 2010 Y- gallery, Tartu, Estonia 4th-  21st of August, 2010 You are cordially invited to exhibition opening at August 3rd, 5pm On the edges of Europe, two artist-in-residence centers Binaural/Nodar and MoKS have set themselves up, one in the Portuguese village [...]

Mosses and Lichens
Collective Exhibition of 6 Estonian Artists
Santa Clara Gallery, Coimbra (PT)
March, 28th – May, 28th 2009

The Santa Clara Gallery hosts between March 28th and May 28th 2009 a collective exhibition of 6 contemporary artists born or living in Estonia: John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp, Toomas Thetloff, Anna Hints, Svetlana Bogomolova and Peeter Laurits.

This exhibition, which seeks to give visibility to the creative vitality of an artistic community located on the other side of Europe, is organized within the context of the cooperation agreement in place between two art centers: Nodar Artist Residency Center, a media arts residency in rural context managed by the Portuguese collective Binaural, and MoKS, Center for Art and Social Practice, located in the village of Mooste, Estonia.

Three of the mentioned artists (John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp, Toomas Thetloff) were resident artists in Nodar during 2008, and the works they will present in the exhibition were conceived in interaction with the region’s rural context. The other three artists (Anna Hints, Svetlana Bogomolova e Peeter Laurits) will be resident artists in Nodar throughout 2009 and will present some emblematic previous works.

The exhibition includes three photographic series (“Charons Crossing” by Peeter Laurits, “Early Childhood Lessons” by Anna Hints and “Aliens and Gummy Bears” by Svetlana Bogomolova.) and three video creations (“Nodar Flowlines” by John Grzinich, “Kudum” by Evelyn Müürsepp and “A Film” by Toomas Thetloff).

The exhibition is curated by Olga Maia Seco, owner of Santa Clara Gallery, by Luís Costa, coordinator of Nodar Artist Residency Center and by Peeter Laurits, one of the most prominent Estonian visual artists.

Exhibition opening:

Saturday, March 28th at 7.00 p.m.
Galeria Santa Clara,
Rua António Augusto Gonçalves, 67
3040 241 Coimbra
Portugal
Tel. 239 441 657

Web:

http://www.galeriasantaclara.com
http://www.binauralmedia.org
http://www.moks.ee

The Estonian multidisciplinary artist Toomas Thetloff carried during April 08 out an investigation on how local villagers perceive the activities of Nodar Artist Residency Center. His project was conducted through a series of audio interviews and photographic documentation. The material was later edited in a 45 minutes video called “A film” that was presented on the final public event of the residency.

Here are some photos and a small movie clip of his project:

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Binaural and Associação Cultural de Nodar present:

Media Arts. Tradition. Environment.

A multidisciplinary event in rural context, organized within the scope of the Nodar Artist Residency Program. An encounter between contemporary and traditional cultures. A dialogical reflection of Nodar geographical and socio-cultural contexts, directed to both rural and urban audiences.

Nodar, S. Pedro do Sul (Portugal) 19 April 08 – 3.00 p.m.

3.00 p.m. – Pedestrian Walk on the Banks of the river Paiva
5.30 p.m. – Three Audiovisual Projects by Artists from MoKS (Estonia): John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp and Toomas Thetloff
7.00 p.m. – Traditional Songs by Two Local Collectives: Worksongs from Sequeiros and Challenging Singing (ancient form of Rap) from Parada de Ester
9.30 p.m. – Cinema: Three feature movies about rural life

Three artistic projects will be presented in the scope of a cooperation agreement in place with the Estonian organization MoKS:

John Grzinich | USA, Estonia
“Flowlines” | Sound and Video Art

A Sound Locations Project

My interest is to carry out a sonic and visual survey of the landscape around Nodar through a series of site-specific recording sessions. In particular I will attempt to compare and contrast the geographic lines caused by the natural water flows towards the river at the bottom of the valley versus the man-made aqueduct that transverses the vertical lines and brings water into the village. Both of these phenomena actually rely on natural forces yet one was created for a specific purpose for the local inhabitants.

John Grzinich is a mixed-media artist who has worked primarily with sound composition, performance and installation since the early 1990s. He has performed and worked on projects extensively throughout Europe and the US and has published a number of CDs of his compositions on such labels as Staalplaat (NL), Edition Sonoro (UK), SIRR (PT), CUT (CH), CMR (NZ), erewhon (BE), Intransitive Recordings (US), Orogenetics (US), Elevator Bath (US), Pale-Disc (JP), Digital Narcis (JP), and Cloud of Statics (CH). Currently John is a project and media lab coordinator for MoKS – Center for Art and Social Practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in southeast Estonia.

http://maaheli.ee/

Evelyn Müürsepp | Estonia
“Pattern Research” | Drawing, painting, photography, installation

Recently a visit to Obinitsa (Setu village in Estonia by Russian border) twisted my mind. A local craftswoman showed me traditional patterns that ladies have done for hundreds of years and what they still keep creating on their clothes (embroidering, crocheting, knitting etc). There is one rule they have followed – one is never allowed to copy given pattern, but one always has to alter it somehow and must be able to show where the alteration was made. By coming to Nodar- I keep my eyes, senses and ears open. What can I find there? To research and collect patterns in and around Nodar. Drawing, painting, photographing, and recording them. These can be either patterns from nature or patterns from people’s activities (eg wallpaper patterns, stichings on fabrics). Work produced based on research: either animation, video, drawings, paintings or installation. It depends on the material I gather and in what I find.

Evelyn Müürsepp, is an Estonian visual artist. She holds a B.A in Fine Arts by the University of Tartu and is one of the coordinators of MoKS, an art residency center in Mooste. Evelyn collaborates with the sound artist John Grzinich in several projects combining sound and visual arts, and she has presented her solo works (mainly graphic art, painting, photography, site-specific installations) in galleries and festivals in several Baltic and northern Europe countries.

http://maaheli.ee/eku

Toomas Thetloff | Estonia
“Nodar Vs. NOGS” | Still photography video.

To perceive the fruitful characteristics of a subject, it is wise to examine it from many different perspectives. If we consider a space to be a vocabulary then we also need tools of common language to share the experience. For this reason I want to undergo the collective experience of Nodar through the eyes and ears of an ordinary villager. In a small community it is important for an organization to be aware of its impact on the community. One way to learn this is by examining the myths and stories people hold on them.

Toomas Thetloff is an Estonian interdisciplinary artist working in the fields of photography, sound, installation, performance and video. Since 2005 he has been running several performance-actions in cooperation with „Art Security” and EKSP. He is also a coordinator for an experimental project space „p.o.t.t.” and a member of MOKS.

http://www.fantomas.jabber.ee

Poster of the event (click on image to enlarge the poster’s size):

The Nodar Artist Residency Program for 2008 is about to start and will happen in four different modules between March and October. In this year’s residencies 15 artists from different origins and artist backgrounds were chosen by the selection committee to develop their own projects in the Nodar region. The Nodar Artist Residency Center, located in a rural mountain community of Portugal, organizes and produces the development of multidisciplinary artistic projects (mainly in the areas of sound, visual and intermedia arts) from both local and international artists, followed by public presentations in the region. The resident artists are encouraged to establish interactions with the place, its inhabitants, geographic space and memory.

Regarding this year’s projects it is worth mentioning an important presence of sound artists (7) who will develop their personal approaches to the local acoustical heritage and environment, both natural and human. For instance, Viv Corringham and Pali Meursault will deal with different notions of “sound walks” whereas Duncan Whitley will work with field recordings of a local football team to create a site-specific sound installation. Another interesting example is the project proposed by the Austrian musician Noid, a collective musical performance to happen simultaneously in several points of a mountain near Nodar, that will deal with a notion of balancing the performed sounds with the landscape sounds, without destroying what is already present.

One the other hand, an emphasis was given to projects that question and problematize the local social reality, through artistic reflections to be made together with the local communities. We believe that, together with the documentation of the local rural heritage, it is of utmost importance to provoke a free and uncompromised discussion (as it is, by definition, the artistic approach) about the reality and the tension aspects that it involves. In this regard, are worth mentioning the projects to be developed by Francisco Janes, Christine Niehoff and Cédric Anglaret.

Last but not the least, several parallel actions will be developed in each residency, namely in cooperation with the local schools. A final presentation of the artistic works will happen on the last Saturday of each residency module.

Artist residencies calendar for 2008:

31 March – 20 April
John Grzinich (USA / Estonia)*
Toomas Thetloff (Estonia)*
Evelyn Müürsepp (Estonia)*

* Artists invited under a cooperation agreement with the Estonian organization MoKS (http://www.moks.ee)

2 – 21 June
Cédric Anglaret (France)
Christine Niehoff (Germany)
Samuel Ripault (a.k.a. Pali Meursault) (France)

28 July – 16 August
Francisco Janes (Portugal)
Jurate Jarulyte Weiss (Lithuania)
Lezli Rubin-Kunda (Israel)
Viv Corringham (UK)

5 – 25 October
Arnold Haberl (a.k.a. Noid) (Austria) + guests
Wolfgang Dorninger (Austria)
Andrea Brandão (Portugal)
Duncan Whitley (UK)

Link to the complete artist residencies program (artists and projects), here.