Episode 7 of Testing Grounds: Saari Residence, Art and Decolonisation
What could it mean to decolonise art, and to use art as a tool for decolonisation?
Saari Residence is NAARCA’s Finnish partner. It’s located in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland, and maintained by Kone Foundation as a residence for artists of all disciplines and nationalities.
Leena Kela is a performance artist, and the Residency Director at Saari. She introduces us to the region, to Saari, and to our two contributors: Taru Elfving and Pauliina Feodoroff. Taru is a curator and writer focused on nurturing “undisciplinary” and site-sensitive enquiries at the intersections of ecological, feminist and decolonial practices. Pauliina is a Skolt Sámi theatre director, artist and land-guardian whose performance piece Matriarchy appeared in the Sámi Pavillion at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Taru and Pauliina explore ideas of decolonisation in art and “the art world”, both in the Nordic region specifically, and more broadly.
Find out more:
Saari Residence (https://koneensaatio.fi/en/saari-residence)
Snowchange Cooperative (http://www.snowchange.org)
Contemporary Art Archipelago (https://contemporaryartarchipelago.org)
Matriarchy (https://oca.no/thesamipavilion)
Contributors:
Leena Kela, performance artist, Residency Director at Saari Residence (http://www.leenakela.com)
Taru Elfving, curator and writer (https://contemporaryartarchipelago.org/about)
Pauliina Feodoroff artist, film and theatre director, land guardian, Sámi advocate (https://oca.no/thesamipavilion/thesamipavilion-pauliinafeodoroff)
TESTING GROUNDS is available on the last Friday of each month, to subscribe and listen, visit naarca.art/testing-grounds-podcast/ or search for “Testing Grounds” in your favourite podcast app.
TESTING GROUNDS is produced and edited by Katie Revell and includes original music by Loris S. Sarid and artwork by Jagoda Sadowska.
ABOUT NAARCA
NAARCA is a collaboration between seven artists’ residencies: Cove Park (Scotland), Saari Residence (Finland), Artica Svalbard (Norway), Art Hub Copenhagen (Denmark), Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland) and Narsaq International Research Station (Greenland). We are working together to develop, test and communicate new ways of living that are ecologically, socially, mentally and financially sustainable. We believe that artists’ residencies are exceptional institutions within the arts sector: safe environments for experimentation, where private, professional and public life intertwine. Learn more at naarca.art