Black Box Genesis - Fine/Visual Arts, Cultural Events, Projects & Collaborations by B. Hasaj & V. Gelain
Translucid Skins~strands~of~us 2024-2027
Multidisciplinary project with focus on outdoor temporary interventions/installation and production of the art film 'Fall'
´... have we actually come this far, or in essence, nothing has really shifted? Perhaps we are stepping in same devious ways –spinning– ignoring where we stand, what is behind and what lies ahead...´
The project focuses on working with site-specific interventions and installations in the forests and scenery of Ostrobothnia, serving as visual material for the art film 'Fall'. The body of work will also include experimental poetry/writing, performance, mixed media art and sound works in collaboration with Stefan Backas and Annika Sillander.
A moment of personal reflection on the human condition and co-existence unfolds while investigating the land, transcending the self and drawing inspiration from the connection with the 'other', finding resonance and re-discovering oneself in beings and things.
Latencies coalescing at the liminal threshold of symbiosis find perspicuity in natural surroundings through a surreal-poetic-critical analysis. In the encountering of entities and eliciting awareness and expression via them, envisioning a true change rooted in our own will in the exploration of the inner sphere, and recognising that the holistic shift we desire must start from us, which does not happen without existential friction and personal resolve.
Introspections that lead to inner dynamics culminate in cathartic moments of active transformation: a constantly evolving state of consciousness, interpenetrating, or rather acknowledging the 'other' within ourselves, and redefining our conception of what it means to be human.
The project also includes a temporary exhibition in the forest, along a nature trail. Some installations will be re-proposed directly from the art film, others will be new. The artistic result will be an intersection of different artistic disciplines, such as painting, sculpture, textiles, resulting in mixed media visual installations.
This open-air exhibition is planned in the Öjen forest for spring 2027, and the new art film will be premiered at the end of 2026, in collaboration with the Vaasa Museums.
The project takes inspiration from the duo exhibition 'Dripping Cavities', and the projects 'The Grey Hour' by Valentina Gelain & 'Scanning Landscape' by Bekim Hasaj.
In the project are also used bioplastic and recycled paper.
The art project is supported by Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet, Arts Promotion Centre-Taike, Vaasa City, Bröderna Gröndahls Stiftelse, Finnish Cultural Foundation and Finnish Heritage Agency.
Collaborators in the project are the city of Vaasa and the Vaasa Museums.
Thank you to Bergö Öråd, Maalahti/Malax Municipality and Westerlunds Fils O Transport Ab.
Between 21-22 April 2025, Bekim Hasaj prepared and implemented the installation and performance related to the Translucid skins-strands-of-us project, dialoguing with a boulder in the forest in the municipality of Malax. The boulder was embedded in wet paper, shaping it gesture by gesture, and then removed after dry-impressing the surface of the element. Recycled pulp was used, previously prepared in the studio. The work is also related to the realisation of art in a nature trail in spring 2026.
Between 21-22 April 2025, Bekim Hasaj prepared and implemented the installation and performance related to the Translucid skins-strands-of-us project, dialoguing with a boulder in the forest in the municipality of Malax. The boulder was embedded in wet paper, shaping it gesture by gesture, and then removed after dry-impressing the surface of the element. Recycled pulp was used, previously prepared in the studio. The work is also related to the realisation of art in a nature trail in spring 2026.
Between 21-22 April 2025, Bekim Hasaj prepared and implemented the installation and performance related to the Translucid skins-strands-of-us project, dialoguing with a boulder in the forest in the municipality of Malax. The boulder was embedded in wet paper, shaping it gesture by gesture, and then removed after dry-impressing the surface of the element. Recycled pulp was used, previously prepared in the studio. The work is also related to the realisation of art in a nature trail in spring 2026.
Between 21-22 April 2025, Bekim Hasaj prepared and implemented the installation and performance related to the Translucid skins-strands-of-us project, dialoguing with a boulder in the forest in the municipality of Malax. The boulder was embedded in wet paper, shaping it gesture by gesture, and then removed after dry-impressing the surface of the element. Recycled pulp was used, previously prepared in the studio. The work is also related to the realisation of art in a nature trail in spring 2026.
Between 21-22 April 2025, Bekim prepared and implemented the installation and performance related to the ´Translucid Skins~strands~of~us´ project, dialoguing with a rock in the woods.
The boulder was embedded in wet handmade paper, shaping it gesture by gesture, and then removed after dry-impressing the surface of the element. Recycled pulp was used, previously prepared in the studio.
´Through a conscious artistic action Hasaj will cover, explore and feel the surface, incorporating it into the symbolic shell of metamorphosis. In a second moment, in a performative act the artist will peel back the shell, freeing the entity and share the knowledge-experience and reflecting the transformation in himself (...) Once the cover is removed, the shapes imprinted in the material will be preserved and included in the artistic production - the material becomes the object.´
This first paper sculpture is related to the realisation of art in a nature trail in spring 2026, by the Artist Duo. The work also connects to the artist's previous project ´Scanning Landscape´.
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