Third Space Video Art / Short Film Screening with the theme of CONTROL
18.11-29.11 2020
See the films and details below or visit our Vimeo
The program begins on Wednesday 18 November 2020
Each set of films will be available for 2 days from 10am to 10pm of the second day EEST onwards
One could claim that everything within the realities we produce, experience, narrate, perform, research, and imagine, is inevitably an interactional matter; matter of power and thus, also, of control. Control is a means of limiting or regulating something, and in vernacular use, the term has a slightly negative echo. Nevertheless, like many such concepts, control is not a negative nor positive term per se, but its quality is bound to the context: to particular perspectives and circumstances. By dictionary, control defines not only as "the ability to restrain one's own emotions or actions," but also as "the power to influence or direct people's behaviour or the course of events. The concept of control contains the idea of an attempt to influence or restrict an activity, tendency, phenomenon, or situation in a determinative manner. Then again, also the risk of losing control is inevitably and indivisibly encapsulated by the notion. What kinds of scenes might the theme of control cover in the contemporary?
The event is curated and produced by the Third Space collective members Elina Nissinen and Sepideh Rahaa and kindly supported by the centre for the promotion of audio-visual culture AVEK.
First Set of streaming 18-19 November
Charlotte Thiis-Evensen: The moment of truth, 2004 (7:30 min)
The woman Astri, has had the same long, curly hair for fifty years, old-fashioned style like in the 1890’s. After her mother died she decided to finally get rid of it. The short film is trying to ask some questions about the possibility of freeing oneself from the past and the ties to the family.
Igor Furtado: There's No Sin To The South of Ecuador, 2019 (6:30 min)
Two boys meet during the festivities of Círio de Nazaré, the largest procession in Latin America, gathering more than 3 million pilgrims in Belém do Pará, Amazon, Brasil. // The construction of hegemonic masculinity is intrinsically linked to a colonizing and violent inheritance. The sadistic and erotic nuances present in Christianity are fundamental for the strengthening and maintenance of social normativity. We explore the potential of the body as a catalyst for sensitive and transcendental experiences, in contact with others, with nature, but mainly with the individual construction of spirituality and sexuality. We hope to stimulate discussion about the future possibilities of being a man, that do not go through the same compulsory paths, and to re-signify the sexual policies that inhabit us, in search of another geography of feeling and expression.
Veera Launonen and Ilkka Martti Kivelä: OLD SCHOOL, 2019 (2:10 min)
The video deals with humiliation, punishing methods and explores what is like to have an objectionable experience.
Sara Não Tem Nome: I robot, 2017 (10:27 min)
In the video performance 'I Robot', Sara Não Tem Nome performs actions that deconstruct and resignify her daily life, discussing issues such as the objectification of the female body and the body-machine relationship. The performances are based on poems from her eponymous book, in which a software reconfigures the writings that Sara published on her Facebook. The book discusses authorship and algorithm, with a facet of dadaist nonsense poetry.
Second Set of Streaming 20-21 November
Jaakko Ruuska & Juha Salminen: My name is Laura Viljander, 2018 (20:23 min)
In the end of the Finnish Civil War in 1918 the White Terror wiped off more than 18000 victims. These war crimes were soon systematically silenced from the public memory. One of the hotspots of the mass executions was the factory site of Kuusankoski, where more than 270 victims were shot. Along with 12 others, Laura Viljander was executed in the 10th of May in 1918 in Stöörinkangas, Kuusankoski. On the 3 kilometers’ walk to the place of their execution, a prisoner called Werner Granqvist escaped. His testimony of the event is the only known evidence of the killing of those 13 victims.
Edna Huotari (Edna Pulla): An effective Workout for Body and Mind, 2019 (2:17 min)
An effective Workout for Body and Mind is a closer look to the reasons why we want to stay in control, and also why we have to. It tries to ask us what are the effects of being always efficient and describes a situation where the aspects of body and mind overlap. Can this division of body and mind also be a form of control that we put on ourselves? What would happen if we would let go?
Sam Conlon: Exalted, 2019 (10:39min)
Exalted is an attempt at exploring the power structures that intersect with gender conditioning: the family, the church, class, sexuality. Working with my hometown and family history within a very Catholic, and therefore, patriarchal country I am trying to realize a conversation between two bodies: the bodies that have left and the bodies that stay. What does trauma look like carried to another space? What does a liberated body look like? Is there such thing? How does class affect the body? How do trauma and hope co-exist, if at all?
Third Set of streaming 22-23 November
Nils Agdler & Timo Menke: Made in Denmark, 2013 (15:11 min)
A donation is often regarded as a selfless good deed and is expected to be voluntary, free and anonymous, although it may raise sensitive ethical questions. The short film “Made in Denmark” is a cinematic study focusing on the commercially organized distribution of sperm in Denmark, from the anonymous donor's perspective and point-of-view. Danish legislation (unlike most European countries) allows for anonymous sperm donations, leading to an increasing fertility tourism. Sperm Banks operate in a complex gray area on several levels, marketing human sperm as a processed product. Special focus was given to issues related to masculinity and fatherhood, and how masculinity is manifested at the clinics.
Dagobert Macib: Day 34, 2017 (3:41 min)
Crack the whip crack the pack crack the cat, spill the guts and let’s get fat. Nearly missed now lost the kiss, guns keep toting, young men start smoking. As long as there’s a toothbrush let's keep the bluff. As long as there are engines let's catch the train. Referral unnecessary.
Balázs Varju Tóth: Untitled (Manus Manum Quatit), 2018 (7:55 min)
The handshake is one of the most ancient but also one of the most ordinary human gestures. We shake hands to welcome somebody, to introduce our- selves, to congratulate, or to express our gratitude. And yet, the handshake for the photo, for the tv-camera, for the infinity, the still image for the reader is frightening, because it makes the illusion that we know what they know, while it is only a front for macho cinisim, an act only for the pretence, the metaphor of the secret.
Nina Lassila: Woman, 2009 (00:58)
Declaration of the real woman. Supposedly a wish to be a "fucking" real woman, in the most beautiful city of the world, Paris.
Fourth Set of streaming 24-25 November
Maria Valkeavuolle: S E O M / I W N M, 2019 (11 min)
A poem for the broken and to those who find order in disarray. S E O M / I W N M is an experimental video work about shame and control. Runoteos runnelluille ja niille, jotka löytävät järjettömyydestä järjestyksen. S E O M / I W N M on kokeellinen videoteos häpeästä ja kontrollista.
Jean-Michel Rolland: Acommunication, 2011 (5:30 min)
Five arms are struggling to silence three telephones, an alarm clock and a timer without success. This rejection of communication and more generally of what connects us to time is a pretext for a new experimentation where you "hear what you see" and vice versa.These simple gestures, intended to break an unwanted process, are repeated in a quasi-schizophrenic way.The result is a choreographic and musical fight that will end with some effort.
Mirjami Nyman: Ctrl+Delete, 2019 (4:11 min)
In the video I am exploring the relations between control and losing it from a personal perspective. The material was filmed by attaching the camera and the flash in front of my eyes, so that they were partially blocking my vision but releasing both of my hands free for my use. This way the viewer gets to see the events through my eyes. Attaching these electronics as a part of my body I do not look or feel as human anymore. Google translator is trying to interpret my thoughts by reading them out loud as everything is spilling on the ground and falling apart. Does the humans need to have control create chaos?
Vidha Saumya: Soyabean Biryani (for Junaid), 2019 (11:17 min)
On June 22, 2017, 15 years old, Junaid Khan was stabbed to death on a Delhi-Mathura train after an argument over seats turned ugly. Junaid was returning home from Eid shopping with his cousin Hashim and two of his friends Moin and Mohsin. In 2019, two years after his death, the video reflects on the political debate around beef-eating, what it means to be visibly Muslim in India and the current hostility of the state towards the ‘other’. The video pieces together a recipe laced with development claims and false calls for togetherness, amidst a poignant remembrance of Junaid Khan whose favourite food was Soyabean Biryani. While amnesia grips the Secular Democratic Republic of India, this video makes a case to pause, reflect and take note.
Fifth Set of streaming 26-27 November
Alisa Javits: SEEING, 2018 (8:53 min)
Seeing speaks about aging, revealing the person under the wrinkled, old skin. It can be hard to see the human behind it, because age is such a strong category. How to see the kid, the young, the adult hiding beneath? They are never gone, just often so invisible. The work is a combination of different memories, separate images, flashbacks and the voice-over. It is not a pure portrait of one person, rather a thought about looking, seeing and identification.
John C. Kelley: Guster, 2019 (4:23 min)
Through brief conversations with an adaptive chatbot, a professor sees more clearly his own creativity and depression in this animated short. "GUSTER" is based on actual messages and poetry written by the app.
Joacélio Batista: If I surrender, why do I keep my head against the wall? / Se me rendo, por quê sigo com a cabeça em direção ao muro? (Original Portuguese title), 2019 (4:21 min)
Presented the question, man will always speculate answers.
Paula Saraste: The sleeping man, 2014 (11:06 min)
The sleeping man is a narrative short film, a parable in pictures that takes place in a world where dream and reality intersect. It tells the story of melancholy that is actively striven after yet out of control. The protagonist finds an almost dead, shipwrecked man that delivers him a huge perfect pearl in the end. But now, possessing something precious: it all has no meaning anymore.
Sixth Set of streaming 28-29 November
Laura Benavides: 4:48 / Animation, 2016 (2:11 min)
Based on the play written by Sarah Kane 4:48. This video recreates sensations of psychosis through the black and white drawing showing the physical and mental impairment of a body and its relation to space.
Đejmi Hadrović: SILENT OBSERVER, 2017 (9:12 min)
The video performance is conducted as a monologue confession of a woman in the early ’30s and obstacles she is dealing with. It is touching problematics such as gender, identity, migration, and ethnicity. Performance is not only personal; it is sharing common threads of nowadays world and is appealing public to identify with the performer and vice versa.
Band of Weeds (Kalle Hamm, Olli Aarni, Lauri Ainala, Hermanni Keko): Like a Polar Bear, 2019 (9:57 min)
Glacier buttercup (Ranunculus glacialis) is the polar bear of the plant kingdom – it is the world’s northernmost flowering vascular plant. If mountain and Arctic glaciers melt, the glacier buttercup will no longer be able to retreat to higher or more northerly habitats. This is particularly obvious for species living in the mountains and fells. Suitable habitats for them will simply disappear. All of the sounds on the film were produced from biodata recorded from the glacier buttercup in the plants’ natural habitat in Norway on the Mugnetinden mountain slopes.
Khalil Charif : Celebrity, 2017 (1:53 min)
Experimental work that presents an environment where a crowd of people are pointing their cameras at the viewer – the celebrity – and are continually taking flash photos.
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Third Space is a cross border transcultural collective that seeks to erase the invisible lines that separate us. Our collective identity and goals are shaped by diverse geopolitical views and backgrounds. Our aim is to observe from both ‘the outside in’ and ‘the inside out’ in order to create new ways of understanding what marginal and central are in Finnish society, and how to bridge them through dialogue. Third Space emerged as a response to the lack of inclusivity and diversity in the Finnish art scene. Inclusivity is not a fixed concept but a changing one. Our role is to identify its different forms and to respond to them.
Third Space is an incubator for generating ideas, a space for encounters, a space for people, art and its production. We endeavour to translate theories into actions. As the art field is becoming more and more capitalized and art practices are becoming increasingly individualized, we aim to accentuate collaborative practices over competitive ones. To support these ideas, Third Space is a space free of charge.
Our current location is chosen to be in the center of Helsinki where it has become a meeting point that brings diverse cultural and artistic practices together. We remain there as an influential platform that aims to explore different ways of collaborating, curating, thinking and being.
Third Space was founded the 13th of December 2013, hosting the first Sound Room as the beginning of all our activities.
