(Re)configuring Territories Talk: Anthropology, Fieldwork, and Design Research

The exhibition ‘НА КОЗЕ НЕ ПОДЪЕДЕШЬ (YOU CAN’T GET THERE ON A GOAT)’ exhibition debuts two site-specific spatial gallery interventions by recent NART Artists-in -Residents Andrea Stanislav (US) and varialambo (Varia Sjöström, Hatz Lambo) (FI/DE). The two solo projects link to transfigure NART’s gallery spaces through a physicality of visual poetics and theatre, informed by dreams, experiences, performances, and unexpected events which took place at NART on the Estonian-Russian border in the Summer of 2022. Both artists reflect upon the sight of Narva as a contextualised charged corridor or ‘Zona’, where language, exile, history, neighbourliness, rapprochement, diplomacy and cyclical memories shift into immersive environments of light, sound, sculpture and moving image.

We are organizing a festival at Narva Art Residency. The festival is called Festival of Invitations, and it consists of lectures, discussions, workshops and a celebratory dinner at the Narva Art Residency and its surroundings. The event also celebrates the opening of an exhibition by varialambo [1] and Andréa Stanislav. This event is the concluding part of four-year (Re)configuring Territories research project, and we hope that it will bring together both those who have participated in the project in the previous years and those who have not yet become familiar with it.

Sean Roy Parker who is in the Kreenholm Plants residency at Nart in June and July wrote a lovely review of the Seeds, Pollen, Future Spring School workshop group’s performance.

We are happy to invite you to the School of the Near Future in Narva Art Residency to conclude (Re)configuring Territories Spring School 2022.

varialambo is currently at the Reconfiguring Territories research residency in Narva. At the beginning of their residency, we discussed Narva’s first impressions, getting to know new places and the plans they have for Narva.

Live-Action Role-playing the City is a weekend-long workshop that explores performative artistic research in the context of urban surroundings. How can cities be approached by means of LARPs? How can LARP exercises be used for questions dealing with the city? What kind of power structures emerge? The workshop will begin on Friday, May 3 at 4p.m. and end on Sunday, June 5 at 3 p.m. 5-8 participants will be admitted to the workshop. Register by May 20.

(Re)configuring Territories research programme continues as a week-long Spring School on June 1(Re)configuring Territories research programme continues as a week-long Spring School on June 13 – 19, 2022. This year’s programme explores the politics of collective imagination in the midst of the socio-political and technological upheavals we currently face. How do the changing perceptions of territorial relationships, the experiences of belonging to a place, the multiple spatial layers of history, and their connection to human and non-human agencies shape abilities to imagine futures? What are the possible roles and structures of educational institutions that could develop the necessary skills and knowledge of political imagination?

(Re)configuring Territories stands for free and open societies, against war and violence. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. The war has also changed the context of (Re)configuring Territories project. We are currently reorganizing our resources and this year’s programme. Action and friendships are now even more important #StandWithUkraine #StopRussianAggression

Before the year ends, we – the organisers in Finland and Estonia – gathered to share wishes and hopes for 2022, which will be the final year of the (Re)configuring Territories programme.

Ksenia Kaverina wrote a mid-term reflection on the (Re)configuring Territories programme on art and culture website Arterritory.

A week-long intensive Spring School culminated with a hybrid public event where the participants of the three workshops shared glimpses of their processes and findings.

The starting point for this conversation are the prevailing industrial and economical conditions of the city of Narva and beyond, which TOK curators have been exploring during their residency (Re)configuring Territories in May and June 2021. By discussing a variety of post-industrial contexts and sites, we will integrate the economic, manufacturing and architectural processes of decay of the Ida-Viru region into a wider geographical and conceptual framework.

Creative Association of Curators TOK joined the Narva Art Residency on May 20 – June 18. The introduction talk with the TOK curators Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits was hosted by curator Ksenia Kaverina and the (Re)configuring Territories programme curators Tommi Vasko and Kaisa Karvinen.

(Re)configuring Territories programme continues as a week-long Spring School on May 31 – June 6, 2021. The Spring School consists of three simultaneous workshops mentored by anthropologist Francisco Martínez and urbanist Andra Aaloe, graphic designer, baker and writer Maria Muuk, and architecture, art and design practice MYCKET.

The live action role-play taking place in Narva, eastern Estonia. Because of the ongoing epidemiological situation this year’s LARP participants will be online; facilitated by technologies like geo-located audio AR, instant messaging apps, Zoom and live-stream webcams. The river Narva and its lore will be transported and beamed to you.

Interest in anthropology is growing in situated architecture and design research circles, with fieldwork and community-led design processes becoming an increasingly important part of the critical discourse. What should architects, designers, and artists know from anthropology and its methodology? What can these disciplines learn from each other? (Re)configuring Territories program curator Tommi Vasko will talk with professor Francisco Martínez and filmmaker and artist Polina Medvedeva about fieldwork and the relationships between artistic research and anthropology.

Could fiction and eating dinner together be seen as ways to question the conventional methods of spatial and design practices? Can these careful methods create a more resilient and discursive architecture and design culture? In the talk, the art & architecture group MYCKET (Mariana Alves Silva, Katarina Bonnevier, and Thérèse Kristiansson), graphic designer/writer/baker Maria Muuk and curator Kaisa Karvinen investigate strategies in each of their practices and dream about possible roles of architects and designers in the neighborhoods of current society. The talk starts with a short reading. In the talk, the art & architecture group MYCKET (Mariana Alves Silva, Katarina Bonnevier, and Thérèse Kristiansson), graphic designer/writer/baker Maria Muuk and curator Kaisa Karvinen investigate strategies in each of their practices and dream about possible roles of architects and designers in the neighborhoods of current society. The talk starts with a short reading.

The first (Re)configuring Territories talk was a discursive introduction to the research program. How can residencies and gatherings create discussions about borders, territories, and design and architecture cultures? (Re)configuring Territories program curators Kaisa Karvinen and Tommi Vasko will talk with curator and archivist Ksenia Kaverina, program director Karoliina Korpilahti and Narva Art Residency’s director Ann Mirjam Vaikla.

(Re)configuring Territories welcomes applications for a six-week Residency in May–June 2020. The Residency is meant for practitioners and researchers who share an interest in situated practices and speculative approaches.

Elena Hess-Rheingans who took part in the (Re)configuring Territories Spring School 2019 wrote about Narva, the Spring School and Damiano Cerrone’s MetaNar workshop.

(Re)configuring Territories program’s first instalment is a week-long Spring School in May. The Spring School consists of three simultaneous workshops mentored by designer and theorist Aiwen Yin, urban planner and researcher Damiano Cerrone, and filmmaker and artist Polina Medvedeva. Apply by March 31, 2019!