Artists for live performance programme
Ellakajsa Nordström and Ylva Trapp (SE)
Ellakajsa Nordström and Ylva Trapp have, in addition to their indiviual practices, collaborated since 2009. They create installations, sound pieces and performances in which they explore language acquisition, translatability and phenomenology. Their works exist somewhere between the digital and the physical space, where words get lost and are retold, where images multiply and project on reflective surfaces, and where signs and letters become objects to be held, touched or moved around in an ever changing attempt to communicate. Ylva is a graduate from Konstfack (The University College of Arts and Crafts) in Stockholm and from Umeå Art Academy in Sweden, and Ellakajsa graduated from Oslo Art Academy and Central Saint Martin’s in London. Their collaborative work has been exhibited at Halka Art Space and Imc 5533 in Istanbul (TR), Konsthall C in Stockholm (NO), Vandaler Kunstforening in Oslo (NO), IASPIS in Stockholm (SE) and at Künstlerhaus Vorwerk-Stift, Hamburg (DE).
www.ylvatrapp.se / www.ellakajsanordstrom.com
Photo: Heidi Freymann
Francesco Kiàis (IT/GR)
Francesco Kiàis is an artist, an independent art writer and curator. He is creator and director of [mind the] G.A.P. - Gathering Around Performance, a platform based in Athens dedicated to performance art.
In the past years he has contributed, both as a theoretician and as an artist, to different educational and curatorial projects, among the Venice International Performance Art Week, while the current year he helds a series of lectures on Performance Art at the Ionian University. www.francescokiais.com
Photo: Kobie Nel
Henrik Koppen (NO)
Henrik Koppen is a Bergen based artist who works with performance, video, sound/music and sculpture. He has a BA from Bergen Academy of Art and is often taking part in the activities of Performance Art Bergen. Koppen is engaged in several different collaborations with other musicians and artists such as the group HITYAMAC and the performance duo Koppen & Jorkjen.
Henrik Koppen has shown his performances in events such as PALS Performance festival in Stockholm, Sweden (2014), 'Sounds' group exhibition in Galerie Schlecker in Kiel, Germany (2015), PAB Local at Stiftelsen 3,14 in Bergen (2016), and Territories performance festival in Torún, Poland (2016). www.henrikkoppen.format.com
Photo: Jan Bolomey
Ida Grimsgaard (NO)
Ida Grimsgaard got her BA in scenography at Norwegian Theatre Academy in Fredrikstad, Norway. An important element in her work is the focus on a personal, physical experience. With a starting-point in the body’s memory and our emotional understanding, Ida wants to understand and communicate a language of the senses. It shouldn't be only the eyes or brain that decides, but also the physicality.
Ida is interested in the performative, both concerning space, and also with objects. She uses costumes and a visual language to animate objects, giving them life and personality. With the desire to live in a world were we don’t deny what we don’t know – Ida wants to confirm a truth in our fantasy. www.idagrimsgaard.com
Photo: Dima Gred
Jolanda Jansen (NL)
Jolanda Jansen graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (2005)
followed by post graduate studies at the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede (2007).
In her performances and video installations, Jolanda submits her body to various transformations, or rather deformations, to engage with the possibility of self-reinvention and release from cultural determinations. Her work often stages the passage from a sexualized female body to an animal-like corporeality as a way of challenging constraining definitions of self and femininity. Striving to disorganize and transform her own controlled body and engage with issues of voyeurism and gender power relations. Her work has been featured internationally among others at Villa Noailles, Hyeres (FR), Scope Basel (Sw), CREATurE Live Art Festival, Kaunas (Lith), NordArt Carlshütte Büdelsdorf (DE), and Solyanka Gallery Moscow (RU) and is also the founder of P.S. Performance Site The Hague; organizing performance art events. www.jolandajansen.nl
Jolanda Jansen graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (2005)
followed by post graduate studies at the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede (2007).
In her performances and video installations, Jolanda submits her body to various transformations, or rather deformations, to engage with the possibility of self-reinvention and release from cultural determinations. Her work often stages the passage from a sexualized female body to an animal-like corporeality as a way of challenging constraining definitions of self and femininity. Striving to disorganize and transform her own controlled body and engage with issues of voyeurism and gender power relations. Her work has been featured internationally among others at Villa Noailles, Hyeres (FR), Scope Basel (Sw), CREATurE Live Art Festival, Kaunas (Lith), NordArt Carlshütte Büdelsdorf (DE), and Solyanka Gallery Moscow (RU) and is also the founder of P.S. Performance Site The Hague; organizing performance art events. www.jolandajansen.nl
Photo: Peter Radocaj
Kevin Meehan (USA)
Kevin Meehan is a performance artist, theatre artist, curator, and installation designer based in Philadelphia. He is a core company member of the Obie Award winning experimental theater company New Paradise Laboratories, a Wilma Theater HotHouse Resident Artist, and one half of the performance duo Miniature Refrigerator Operator. “My work is an investigation of the provenance and social impact of American pop-consumerism; how deep are its roots and how far its reach? My aim is to conjure, jostle, disrupt, and instigate memory. I like blurry areas.” He holds a BFA from Adelphi University, has studied with London International School of Performing Arts in Berlin, and most recently with Johannes Deimling in PAS#50 at PAO Festival 2016.
Photo: Kristian Jalava
Liina Kuittinen (FI)
As an artist I am on my four. I am next to the ground. I see the surfaces from very close distance, the small particles and the space between them.
The main materials in my practise are body and performance. Lately I have been drawn to the questions of duration, different time scales of human body, performance, and geological time.
Liina received her Master Degree in Fine Arts (MFA) from The Academy of Fine Art in Helsinki in 2017. In addition to her own artistic practice she have also organized various performance art events in Helsinki and other cities in Finland. www.liinakuittinen.tumblr.com
As an artist I am on my four. I am next to the ground. I see the surfaces from very close distance, the small particles and the space between them.
The main materials in my practise are body and performance. Lately I have been drawn to the questions of duration, different time scales of human body, performance, and geological time.
Liina received her Master Degree in Fine Arts (MFA) from The Academy of Fine Art in Helsinki in 2017. In addition to her own artistic practice she have also organized various performance art events in Helsinki and other cities in Finland. www.liinakuittinen.tumblr.com
Photo: Nabeela Vega
Martine Viale (CA/FR)
Born in Montreal, Canada, Martine Viale lives and works in Perpignan, France. Anchored in a practice of presence, her work aims to create installations grounded in performance. More recently she has been focusing on creating works in the public space and unusual places that can facilitate unpredictable encounters with passersby. Through this process she prioritizes the momentary loss of bearings and uses actions as a tool of investigation for different personal and social conditionings. Since 1999, her work has been presented in several festivals, galleries and site-specific contexts throughout Canada and the United States as well as in Poland, Israel, Brazil, Cyprus, Serbia, Scotland, Spain, The Philippines, France, Belgium and Denmark. www.martineviale.wordpress.com
Photo: Susanne Quist
Mia Øquist (NO)
Mia Øquist lives and works as a artist in Bergen, focusing on performance, text and drawing. In many of her works, she explores the human body in social situations, conditions and spaces. In her performances the body is used as a tool to make images and study social settings in different landscapes. As an active member of Performance Art Bergen the artist have been participating in performance sessions - improvisation in various urban landscapes for many years.
She has a Master from Bergen National Academy, a Bachelor from the Trondheim Academy of fine arts and had an exchange to The Royal Art Academy in Stockholm. Øquist has held performances and exhibitions in Norway, Europe, USA and China. She teaches workshops in art, are on the board of PAB and Kunstgarasjen, and have organized performance events and festivals since 2006. www.miaoquist.no
Mia Øquist lives and works as a artist in Bergen, focusing on performance, text and drawing. In many of her works, she explores the human body in social situations, conditions and spaces. In her performances the body is used as a tool to make images and study social settings in different landscapes. As an active member of Performance Art Bergen the artist have been participating in performance sessions - improvisation in various urban landscapes for many years.
She has a Master from Bergen National Academy, a Bachelor from the Trondheim Academy of fine arts and had an exchange to The Royal Art Academy in Stockholm. Øquist has held performances and exhibitions in Norway, Europe, USA and China. She teaches workshops in art, are on the board of PAB and Kunstgarasjen, and have organized performance events and festivals since 2006. www.miaoquist.no
Photo: Lolo Hgtyu Tuyuyu
Nika López (ES)
Nika López is born in Valencia, Spain, where she lives and works is educated in Fine Arts from the Universitat Politècnica de València in 2016. López specializes in an interdisciplinary artistic practice including drawing, photography, video, installation, sculpture and performance; but always inspired or directed by a love towards nature. Which is why she excludes both toxic and animal derivatives in her work. She has participated in national and international festivals in Madrid, Cyprus and Buenos Aires. Her work has been published at the Annual Document of Performance Practice Emergency INDEX, among others. www.nikalopez.com
Photo: Fernando Barbosa e Silva
Shannon Cochrane (CA)
Shannon Cochrane is a Toronto-based performance artist. Her work has been presented across Canada and in over 18 countries around the world. Her work constructs situations and deconstructs images that look critically at the formal presentation of art action, authorship and repetition, often using humour as a strategy. She is the Director of FADO Performance Art Centre, a Toronto-based artist-run center established in 1993 that provides a platform for international and Canadian performance artists. She is a co-founding member, curator and organizer of the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto’s live art biennial established in 1997.
Shannon Cochrane is a Toronto-based performance artist. Her work has been presented across Canada and in over 18 countries around the world. Her work constructs situations and deconstructs images that look critically at the formal presentation of art action, authorship and repetition, often using humour as a strategy. She is the Director of FADO Performance Art Centre, a Toronto-based artist-run center established in 1993 that provides a platform for international and Canadian performance artists. She is a co-founding member, curator and organizer of the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto’s live art biennial established in 1997.
Photo: Monika Deimling
Weronika M. Lewandowska (PL)
Weronika M. Lewandowska - slam poet, performer, producer of VJs meeting, doctor of culture studies, as well as curator of independent events of new media art (BYOB, Share Warsaw). Strongly linked to the international spoken word and poetry slam scene, she has presented her poems at the most important spoken word and poetry events in Poland and abroad: Milosz Festival in Karkow 2016, FLUPP Rio de Janeiro 2015, Festival URBAN POETRY Ryga 2015, ORDSPRAK Uppsala International Poetry Festival 2013, Spoke'N'Word on Tour in Paris, Kiev, London and Beijing 2011, Reims Slam d'Europe 2011/2013, European Slam Meeting Berlin 2009 – to name but a few. On a regular bases she leads workshops on spoken word, literary performances and trans-media digital storytelling. She is interested in light art, new media and technology, as well as new forms of narrative.
www.weronika-lewandowska.tumblr.com