Together Alone 2.0

To respond to the challenges caused by the continuous global COVID-19 epidemic, the network of Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes launched Together Alone 2.0, a second round of open call for artistic projects.

Together Alone 2.0 is a continuation of the Together Alone project that was executed in three open call rounds during 2020, which you can read more about here. The prolonged crisis is severely affecting the cultural sector. The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes exist to promote international mobility, visibility and collaboration of Finnish art, culture, and science. To that end the Institutes launched Together Alone 2.0; an open call for Finnish and Finland-based artists, artists groups and their international collaborators.

With the open call the institutes were seeking artistic proposals related to the themes of resilience in the face of the pandemic, radical change, societal innovation, inclusive and accessible art practice. Collective and socially responsible as well as collaborative projects that are developed with minorities and/or underrepresented communities were encouraged to apply.

The eight commissioned projects - each receiving a grant between 5000-9000 euros from the network of Finnish Institutes - represent varying disciplines and backgrounds. Themes and approaches range from an artificial intelligence chatbot to contemporary circus projects, and an investigative sound program for LGTBQ+ youth regarding the African diaspora and a cross-border microbe based short film. The commissioned projects will be shown in an exhibition at Hanasaari Cultural Centre in Espoo, Finland during the spring of 2022 and digitally.

Beatland (A Circus Dream) by Milena Oksanen and Diego Machado is an interdisciplinary contemporary circus project that explores different ways to keep creating arts and collaborating together with artists all over the world, even if we are physically apart. The project consists of several smaller artistic collaborations with artists overseas as well as a small interdisciplinary circus show that will be shared in the form of a demo video.

Inside eye, Mother compost is an online and in person exhibition by artists Anni Puolakka (Helsinki) and Ellie Hunter (New York City) hosted by Cordova, a Barcelona-based independent art space. The project includes a series of workshops in collaboration with Jokkoo; a collective of musicians investigating sounds from the African diaspora; and Sandia, a new art program for LGBTQ+ youth.

Safer Spaces for Unhad Conversations invites together 4 creatives from marginalized positions and underrepresented cultures to create audiovisual pieces based on various psychophysical experiences about the unhad conversations during the world wide pandemic with Pehmee collective. Project aims to create an international network of marginalized artists and a platform where these experiences can be displayed by the artists on their own terms.

Talk Me Tender by Minna Pöllänen and Bang Geul Han is a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot with a website interface where viewers can have conversations with an imaginary, anthropomorphised piece of space junk that’s slowly falling back into the earth’s atmosphere, after helping to launch a satellite. The project is durational, with a clock ticking down in seconds as part of the web interface.

The Middle Eastern Bloc is a podcast directed by David Kozma and written by people who belong to the cultural and/or linguistic minorities from all around the world. The aim of the podcast is to find out how the communities got through the pandemic and how the situation has affected their lives and families and how they see the future.

The Nature of Microbes is a collective short film project produced by BIO ART LAB. The project is a collective cross-border collaboration with people who work with microbes. The aim is to collect moving images and photographs from selected microbial projects all over the world and make this material into a collective short film.

Together Alone In Time is a project where contributors from different countries and backgrounds reflect on their feelings, experiences and thoughts in the time of the pandemic via art. The artwork created together consists of movement-based videos and a shifting sound landscape built from the contributions by the participants, edited by Jaana Pirskanen with sound design by Half A Map.

Veerkracht is a collective that has put forth The Veerkracht exhibition project which is based on creative dialogue and collaborations across borders. The Veerkracht exhibition presents 8 important sustainable denim development and design parameters, which matter most to our planet and to anyone who buys a pair of jeans. These parameters are also the topics of our seminars and workshops.

More info about all the selected projects here:
https://www.togetheralonefi.com/selected-projects-1