Liverpool's famous community media project tenantspin co-produces a project for Media Facades festival with local residents in Helsinki and Liverpool.
The project is realized via workshops focusing on local people's conceptions of normality and citizenship. It is led by artist Alex Harrison together with community programme leader Laura Yates and tenantspin members Ian McNeill and Lucy Gonzales.
In May 18-24, tenantspin 2010 conducted the first workshop in Kontula, Eastern Helsinki, with participants from the Symppis community centre. A workshop with the same brief will be realised in Liverpool's Anfield/Breckfield. The resulting two video programmes build a bridge between two neighbourhoods and will premiere during the Media Facades 2010 festival.
tenantspin is a Liverpool-based community media project which has achieved international recognition and has created a successful model to engage artists and local residents in media production. Initiated by FACT Foundation for Art & Creative Technology in 1999, tenantspin was one of the first community media projects to practice online webcasts.
The project is part of Media Facades artist residency exchange between m-cult and FACT. It is realized in collaboration with HIAP Helsinki International Artist Programme, Kontupiste and Symppis and with support from the Finnish Institute in London.
The project will premiere in Kontula (Ostostie 3) during Helsinki's Night of the Arts, August 27 and screened again during the festival's final evening programme at Lasipalatsi Square. In Liverpool, the films are screened at the BBC Big Screen throughout September.
BBC reports:
'Communities in Liverpool and Helsinki have joined together to create films exploring their shared ideas of community and identity.
The project is part of the Media Facades Festival 2010 and linked residents in Anfield with their counterparts in Finland's capital.
The groups created two films which will be shown at 1300BST on the BBC Big Screen throughout September.'
Media Facades opening events during the Night of the Arts went beautifully despite the cool weather. The Helsinkian night-time audiences were breathing and touching with Hanna Haaslahti's Air Hunger and Heidi Tikka's At Hand, viewing the visionary landscapes of Ulu Braun, admiring the craftsmanship of Graffiti Analysis and creating abstract paintings with Action Flocking by OiOi collective. The club audience at mbar terrace also enjoyed the Remixed! VJ battle and urban visuals from the Random Doctors (VJ Finland). The Night culminated with the opening of Antoine Schmitt's City Sleep Light.
In Kontula, two films co-created by Alex Harrison/Tenantspin with residents of Helsinki and Liverpool were premiering, followed by Giants of the Hoods who inspired the young and the old dance the walls off. A report from Radio Kontula shows some highlights of the evening.
The workshop led by Liverpool's Tenantspin in Kontula finished with success yesterday.
The Tenantspin delegation - artist Alex Harrison, FACT Communities programme leader Laura Yates and Anfield/Breckfield residents Lucy Gonzalez ja Ian McNeill - worked with members of the Symppis community centre in Kontula during a hot May week. They co-produced a short film which was shot on Kontula locations and gives a humorous form to issues of loneliness and silence discussed in the group.
The process continues with a similar workshop in Liverpool and the resulting films from two neighbourhoods will premiere in the Media Facades 2010 festival. The warm bond created between Helsinki and Liverpool will certainly lead to further community media and art exchanges between the two cities.
Tenantspin (Liverpool) and M2HZ (Helsinki) present two media art & community media channels in an informal evening on Wed, May 19, 18-20. Open media & open doors at Hämeentie 28, Helsinki - welcome!
Tenantspin's visit to Helsinki is the first visible step towards the Media Facades 2010 festival which takes place in Helsinki and 6 other cities between August 27-October 3 2010. Tenantspin delegation leads a workshop on what constitutes normality and citizenship in the neighbourhoods of Kontula (Helsinki) and Anfield/Breckfield (Liverpool) - and the resulting videos will premiere in the Media Facades programme.
The visit is realized within a residency exchange between Helsinki and Liverpool, in collaboration with the Finnish Institute in London and HIAP Helsinki International Artist Programme, FACT, and m-cult. In Kontula, the Tenantspin workshop (May 19-23) will be hosted by Kontupiste and the Symppis crew.
We are happy to announce the first 2 projects which will premiere in the Helsinki MFF festival, August 27-September 5.
Sini Haapalinna, Markku Nousiainen, Pia Lindy, Matti Niinimäki (FI): "Giants of the Hoods", participatory media and dance project.
Tenantspin (UK): media workshops on "Normality and citizenship" in Kontula (Helsinki) and Anfield (Liverpool).
Both projects use methods of participatory media to find out about local people's ideas of normality and locality. In Helsinki, the projects will be realized in Kontula.
The pair of projects are supported by an artist-in-residence exchange between Liverpool (FACT) and Helsinki (m-cult). The residencies are realized in co-operation with the Finnish Institute in London and HIAP, Helsinki International Artist Programme.
Read more in the attached press release (in Finnish).
