Borderland Poetics project assistant exchange programme

The partners of the Borderland Poetics announce the participants of the assistant exchange programme 2021: Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir, Kamilija Tekle Cizaite and Simona Šulnytė, who will work for 1 – 2 months at CCA and Tallinn Photomonth (Tallinn/Narva, Estonia), Sequences festival (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Rupert (Vilnius, Lithuania). The participants were selected via an open call that received 32 applications from Estonia, Lithuania and Iceland. The participants were selected by the team members of the events they will work with.

The project assistant positions are an opportunity for students or recent graduates to gain 1 or 2 month long first-hand work experience and contribute to preparing and producing a major art event. This is a paid opportunity that promotes cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Participants of the programme in 2021:

Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir (b. 1995) is an independent curator, writer and project manager. She has worked on productions of various size and scale, such as in her role as LungA Art Festival’s current Curator of Public Programs and leading Project Manager at Sequences ix Real-time Art Festival in 2019. Alongside being an active emerging cultural practitioner in Iceland since 2015, she has looked for inspiration and experience abroad. She previously held positions at Artzine, Reykjavík International Film Festival, The Living Art Museum, and The Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She lived and studied histoire de l’art at Université Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne and graduated with a BA in Art Theory from the University of Iceland in 2019. Þórhildur has recently completed her MA in Arts and Cultural Management at King’s College, London; where she focused on curatorship, public programming and radical museology. Her own research interests are in activism, postcolonial and queer theory.

Tinna‘s vision towards arts and culture has mutual ground with the fundamental principles of Rupert‘s mission which consists of conversation, learning and supporting transdisciplinary creative processes in the arts. Alongside her internship this fall she is looking forward to further exploring the creation of critical spaces of radical empathy and active listening.

Kamilija Tekle Cizaite (b. 1998) is a filmmaker and photographer currently based in Berlin. In 2017 she graduated from the National M. K. Ciurlionis School of Arts where she studied classical flute and piano for 12 years. In 2021 she graduated from a Film Production (BA) course at Catalyst Institute For Creative Arts and Technology in Berlin, Germany where she has participated in many creative projects as a writer, director, sound and video editor, director of photography, producer, set designer.

Her short movies have successfully participated in festivals in Germany, Lithuania and the United States. Kamilija’s pictures have been published in several magazines. Kamilija is mostly interested in building worlds and creating art pieces with strong atmospheres and important messages that leave the audience feeling and thinking.

Simona Šulnytė (b. 1998) is a recent economics & business administration graduate from Aarhus University in Denmark and will be assisting the projects of Tallinn PhotoMonth and Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art. Her thesis focused on sustainable fashion and people’s behavioural motivators for purchasing second hand clothing. Her experience includes internships in Modern Art Museum and Rupert centre in Vilnius.

Given the economics’ social nature, Simona’s wish is to continue applying the knowledge of business management towards her passions of arts, design and culture in a broader sense and to continue contributing to reducing the knowledge as well as the awareness gap between the mass public and the complex arts scene. “I am happy to join the CCA and Tallinn PhotoMonth, both projects I am humbled and thrilled to contribute to, as my very first introduction to Estonia’s diverse scene of young creators,” says Simona.

The programme is coordinated by partners of the Borderland Poetics Research Programme – the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, The Icelandic Art Centre, Rupert – centre for arts, residencies and education. The Borderland Poetics is a 3-year long network to promote cooperation between Estonian, Icelandic and Lithuanian art scenes. The title is a reference to an exhibition “Border Poetics”, curated by Estonian curator Eha Komissarov in 2018.

The programme is supported by the Nordic Culture Point.