Inari Sandell selected as artist-in-residence for FIDA 2022

Inari Sandell is the visual artist selected for FIDA - residency program for visual artists in collaboration with FABRIKKEN in 2022.

Inari Sandell is a Helsinki based artist that works with installation, textile and sculptural objects with a background in photography. Sandell holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences, a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from the University of Turku and is currently completing their Master of Fine Arts studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki.

The selection for the FIDA residency was made by FABRIKKEN and an external jury consisting of artists and curators. The jury’s motivation for choosing Sandell reads as follows:

Inari Sandell (1991) is based in Helsinki and works with installation, textile, and sculptural objects with a background in photography. In their practice, Sandell moves away from the original photographic starting point and is heading in a more spatial as well as painterly direction. With works like Gravity Blanket from 2021, Sandell shows great potential. The work mimics a weight blanket but is transparent, and the filling, which would conventionally be cherry stone or glass beads, is replaced by shattered glass.

In addition to the work’s aesthetic qualities, it contains an elegant narrative about neurodivergent coping – about existing in the world with a sensory apparatus that is not neurotypical. This is how Sandell uses their autism diagnosis as a competence, where the sensory intensity with which they experience the world is conveyed in the works. Inari Sandell’s practice appears innovative, confident, and exploratory. As such, a residency in a new context and with FIDA’s resources and network will be conducive to the artist’s career and further opportunities.

FIDA is the Finnish Cultural Institute in Denmark’s residency program for visual artists, operated in collaboration with Fonden FABRIKKEN for Kunst of Design in Copenhagen. The purpose of the program is to build networks between professional artists on the contemporary Finnish and Danish art scenes, and to introduce Finnish or Finland-based artists to the Danish art market. In addition to an atelier at FABRIKKEN, a program will be built around networking activities locally in Copenhagen as well as across the country. The residency will take place in August - September, 2022.

Fonden FABRIKKEN for Kunst og Design 

FABRIKKEN is a not-for-profit art institution that provides studios and work spaces for around 70 professional Copenhagen-based artists and designers. FABRIKKEN is guided by the spirit of professionalism and exchange, which is nurtured through an event program and a weekly communal lunch. In addition to the studios, FABRIKKEN contains a 1.000 m2 space, which is used for artistic production, exhibitions, and events.