Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson | Ekenäs, Finland

Heidi Lampenius, Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson and Miikka Vaskola
Art and cocktail event
Villa Snäcksund, 10600 Ekenäs
Tuesday 31st of July, from 18:00 to 20:00
Memories treasured in silence – ett samarbete mellan Heidi Lampenius, Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson och Miikka Vaskola:
You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed. People may not notice at the time, but that doesn’t matter. The world has been changed nonetheless.
(Julian Barnes, Levels of Life, p. 3, Vintage 2014)
The artists participating in treasuring memories in silence; Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson (IS), Heidi Lampenius (FI), and Miikka Vaskola (FI) all share the common experience of channelling their creation through some sort of expression of silence, and employ various media to that end. The beauty and perfection realized in bringing their works together is founded on the synthesis and metamorphosis as they are pitted one against the other. Effortlessness, a certain mildness and a different understanding of time comes into being; the world has, in essence, changed.
Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson (b. 1966) studied at The Icelandic College of Art and Crafts and École Des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg in France. He works with different media such as paintings, installations on site and photographs, dealing with issues of how identities are made and shaped, distributed and retold, rooted and rebounded.
https://icelandicartcenter.is/people/artists/birgir-snaebjorn-birgisson/
Miikka Vaskola’s works are firmly rooted in the moment. When he starts painting a work, he does not know where it will take him, as he has not yet been there. A crucial aspect of what he does is continual motion, repeated searching and trying things out. He describes his working process as controlled blundering. Time is visible in his works as seeking, failing and correcting, as renewed attempts to find that certain something that makes the painting complete.
Painter Heidi Lampenius’ abstract works draw on subtle fragments of memory traces to trigger representations of places – the works function as a sort of archeology of memory. She searches for traces and signs that are not defined, but still strong enough for allowing memories or ideas of a place to appear. Lampenius thus investigates the memory and the image, the visual memory, that continues also after the initial stimulus. The poetic and powerful works are created with inks and acrylics on canvas, working the paint into the material which absorbs the colours.
https://helsinkicontemporary.com/artist/heidi-lampenius#story
Snäcksund is located in the town of Ekenäs in Raseborg, surrounded by a thriving grove forest on a hill next to the sea.
The Villa is primarily inviting Swedish-speaking Finnish artists. The Foundation for Swedish Culture in Finland grant three year scholarships for residing the Villa. Artists residing in the program during 2017-2019 are Ida Koitila and Heidi Lampenius.
The Croft is a place for short periods of artistic or art-related research, adjoined to the Snäcksund Villa residence. The residence programme at The Croft is open to Nordic artists, curators, art critics and educators, and is built around both invited projects and periodically announced open calls. Each residency is planned individually to match the needs of the project. Due to the diverse character of projects we facilitate both short and long stays (up to 2 months). Participants receive travel allowances for the most economical return journey to The Croft, plus production support according to need. The Croft also serves as a residency-in-residence programme under The Villa programme.
For further information, please contact
Programme Coordinator Åsa Lönnqvist: asa.lonnqvist@proartibus.fi +358 40 594 0394
Executive Director Sabina Westerholm: sabina.westerholm@proartibus.fi +358 50 400 2075