Monika Czyżyk, Bamboocene: Memories of Synchronicty
Näyttely / Exhibition 20.8. – 13.9.2020
Avajaiset / Vernissage
20.8.2020 from 18:00 to 20:00
More extensive text in English below.
Myymälä2 galleriassa 20.8.2020 avautuva näyttely Bamboocene: Memories of synchronicity on osa Monika Czyżykin monivuotista mediataide-projektia joka on tehty yhteistyössä Pekingissä sijaitsevan Institute of Provokationin, China Academy of Urban Planning and Designin sekä Anjuin provinssissa sijaitsevien kylien Wanjin ja Shangcun kanssa.
Näyttely koostuu neljästä työstä, 75 minuuttisesta doku-fiktiosta nimeltä I Want to Build a Rocket. Kuvattu Kiinassa, Suomessa, ja Puolassa, teos käsittelee pienten yhteisöjen ja avaruusmatkustamisen kosketuspintoja. Toinen teos nimeltä Geographies of a Lonely Pole, koostuu galleriaan installoiduista orgaanisista materiaaleista. Näyttelyn kolmas ja neljäs teos on Torsten Zenas Burnsin kanssa yhteistyössä toteutettu digitaalinen printti-projekti ja graaffinen novelli nimeltä BAMBOONAUT CLUSTER, sekä valokuvakatalogi joka dokumentoi Czyżykin doku-fiktion tekemistä Kiinasta Suomeen.
Czyżykin doku-fiktio julkaistaan avajaispäivänä myös Myymälä2 gallerian nettisivuilla sekä Monika Czyżykin vimeo sivulla. Elokuvan löytää myös näyttelyn posterissa sijaitsevan QR koodin kautta.
Näyttelyä on tukemassa Koneen Säätiö sekä Suomen Kulttuurirahasto.
Erityiskiitokset Suomen Avaruusseuralle, Ähtärin Eläintarhalle, sekä kaikille Kiinalaisille yhteistyötahoille ja asukkaille jotka osallistuivat projektiin.
**Näyttelyn aikana on kaksi erityistapahtumaa joiden tarkka ajankohta ilmoitetaan pian: Ensimmäinen tapahtuma on bambu-raketin laukaiseminen yhdessä Suomen Avaruusseuran kanssa.
Toinen on virtuaalinen näyttelykierros Institute of Provocationin WeChat alustalle jonka vetäjänä on Dakota Guo.
Monika Czyżyk, Bamboocene: Memories of Synchronicty
20.8. – 13.9.2020
Opening / Vernissage
20.8.2020 from 18:00 to 20:00
Bamboocene: Memories of synchronicity will be presented at Myymälä2 gallery by the visual artist Monika Czyżyk in August 2020. This multi-year media project was commissioned by the municipalities of Wanjian and Shangcun, located in Anhui province. It was created in cooperation with the the Institute for Provocation, a studio art residency located in Beijing, and the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.
The exhibition will feature a docufictional film project called: I Want to Build a Rocket. The film shot on location in China, Finland and Poland explores several themes including community revitalization, touristic gentrification, ecological fictions, synchronicity, bamboo species and international space programs. The idiosyncratic film is delivered as a multivocal travelogue with songs, collaborative performance art, experimental animations and documentary elements co-existing together. The project questions whether the folk cultures will metabolize these global changes and flourish? Transform. Or ultimately disappear? Scenes also touch on the unique bamboo flowering which happens at the same time all over the world irrespective of their geographical location and climate as long as they were derived from the same mother plant.
The 75 minute loop will be embedded into and accompanied by mixed media sculptures under the title: Geographies of a Lonely Pole created both in Beijing and Helsinki’s Vartiosaari island. The organic materials explored in the installation include inscribed bamboo species gathered from China, Finland and Netherlands. The bamboo has been recycled from Czyżyk’s earlier show at C5 gallery in Beijing. Newer bamboo coming from the Netherlands is originally used as a food source for the guest pandas at Ähtäri Zoo. The pieces playfully reference the 1st bamboo self-propelled, ground crawling fireworks and rockets called “Earth rats” created in China during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 CE).
For the exhibition Czyżyk has invited the media artist Torsten Zenas Burns to create two digital print projects related to the looped film and sculptural works. The 1st a reimagined collaborative graphic novel project called: THE BAMBOONAUT CLUSTER. A series of non-linear drawings that follows a bamboo entity and allies (both dead, alive and somewhere in-between) researching and manifesting tools from ecological fictions, sequential art history and experimental cinema all in the hopes of rewilding the planet. The 2nd is a photographic catalogue project documenting Czyżyk’s docufictional film project, I Want to Build a Rocket, from its origins in China through its most recent scenes created in Finland.
Support for all of the exhibition projects were provided by Kone Foundation. The residency at IFP / China was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Special thanks to the Finnish Astronautical Society, The staff at Ähtäri Zoo and all of the Chinese collaborators and residents who participated in the project located in Wanjian and Shangcun village.
*Special events during the exhibition include: An offsite fieldtrip launching custom made bamboo rockets with the Finnish Astronautical Society. An online tour of the exhibition on The Institute For Provocation’s WeChat platform, coordinated and hosted by Dakota Guo.
*For the duration of the exhibition film will be available on the Myymälä2 website and on Monika Czyzyk’s Vimeo. You can access the page via the QR code on the exhibition poster.
BIOGRAPHY
Monika Czyżyk (b.1989, PL) is a visual artist and filmmaker living and working in Helsinki, Finland. She is a graduate of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts and the Helsinki University of the Arts. She relocates and participates in hybrid socio institutional formations seeking out topics and materials created within these collaborative communities and later translates them into forms of moving image, installation, photographs, performance. Her research interrogates the changing face of alienation in contemporary society and global communities of women. She has been experimenting with various forms of moving image. Her experimentations with the camera tend to culminate in short films that oscillate between fiction and documentary. Since 2015 she has been working with Torsten Zenas Burns on the series of videos and performances called Monstersweet. She shown her work internationally in group and solo exhibitions, in Finland, Poland and China. Czyżyk was a resident of Institute For Provocation in Beijing, African Artist Foundation in Lagos/Nigeria and Signal Culture in Owego/NY. Her videos have been screened at WRO 2017 Biennale: DRAFT SYSTEMS, Wroclaw/Poland, Union Docs NYC/NY, November Film Festival, London/UK, EMAP 2016: The 9th Ewha International Media Art Presentation, Seoul/SK.