ONLINE Contemporary Art Archipelago: Art-Science Collaborations with Taru Elfving

This is a Kaleidoscope event and it has been organised by Spike Associates (Spike Island, Bristol). It will take place online via Zoom with closed caption available, and it will also be recorded.

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Take part in an online talk and discussion with Finnish curator and writer Taru Elfving, exploring curatorial collective CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago, and their art-science collaborations on the shifting shorelines of the Baltic Sea.

Curatorial collective CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago has been initiating and leading long-term multidisciplinary projects in the Turku Archipelago, off the south-west coast of Finland in the Baltic Sea, since 2009 in collaboration with diverse scientific research organisations and other actors in the region.

CAA focuses on bringing local practitioners and experts into dialogue with international colleagues and peers, drawn together to address environmental and societal urgencies both in their local specificities and planetary resonances. Since 2017 CAA has been inviting artists and scientists to share methods, protocols and rituals of ecological enquiry on the island of Seili in the project Spectres in Change through residencies, retreats and public events.

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Taru Elfving is a curator and writer based in Finland focused on nurturing un-disciplinary and site-sensitive enquiries at the intersections of ecological, feminist and decolonial practices. She is artistic director and co-founder of CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago. Her previous curatorial research projects include Hours, Years, Aeons (Finnish Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2015), Frontiers in Retreat (HIAP Helsinki 2013-18), and Towards a Future Present (LIAF Lofoten 2008). Elfving has co-edited publications such as Contemporary Artist Residencies. Reclaiming Time and Space (Valiz 2019). She has a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London.

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This event is part of the Kaleidoscope Network, a collaboration between Spike Island (Bristol) Eastside Projects (Birmingham), Primary (Nottingham) and The NewBridge Project (Newcastle). Formed in response to a need for mutual support, the network has come together as a way to share resources, increase what each partner is able to offer and create new connections between communities of artists.