AVEK Award acceptance speech by Tuomas A. Laitinen
The recipient of the 2021 AVEK Award, artist Tuomas A. Laitinen, emphasises the role of art as part of society and in the midst of an ecological crisis in his speech.
Tuomas A. Laitinen’s work Protean Sap available on AVEK’s website for two weeks
Protean Sap consists of augmented reality filters and a single-channel video. The work creates a strange, dream-like reality where geometric formations encrust objects and bodies, paired with a mysterious seer’s text. The forms are simulated from protein chains of microbial life. These shapes are then changed through simulations into masks and ceremonial artefacts which are morphed in a hallucinatory way.
The AVEK Award of €15,000 is awarded this year to artist Tuomas A. Laitinen (b. 1976). In his art, Laitinen explores the cycles of matter and life through versatile use of moving image, sound, glass, algorithms and chemical processes. The winner of the award was selected by Italian Paolo Bertolin, festival programmer at the Venice Film Festival.
Support was granted to 34 projects in the summer: The dreamworlds of artists open up in virtual reality
From June to August, we granted a total of €219,844 to 34 projects. We received 29% more applications than during the same period last year. The works that received support include one that can be experienced in virtual reality: it immerses those who experience it in a dive into the creative subconscious.
Lately, media artist and film director Timo Wright has explored the avenues opened up by virtual reality in terms of creating and experiencing films. Could VR deepen our understanding of the lives and experiences of others?
Paolo Bertolin, programmer at the Venice Film Festival, to select the AVEK award winner in 2021
Italian Paolo Bertolin, festival programmer at the Venice Film Festival, will select the winner of the AVEK Award 2021 from shortlisted entries. Finland’s most significant media art award will be presented on September 30th.
Artist chosen for Kiasma’s and AVEK’s co-production project: Anna Estarriola to join ARS22 exhibition
Anna Estarriola has been chosen as the artist for the co-production project of AVEK and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma for the ARS22 exhibition. AVEK and Kiasma granted the selected work 24,500 euros in production support.
AVEK distributed EUR 3,4 million in 2020: more applications for film support
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, grants have been awarded normally and the number of applications has increased by 17% compared with the previous year. The grant application process has been developed to be more interactive and equal.
According to media artist Marikki Hakola, the interdisciplinary nature of media art has contributed to its rise from the margins to the mainstream. ‘Media art is currently attracting a lot of interest from the public. This can be seen in Kiasma’s audience figures, for example. Or when Amos Rex was opened with big media art works, people queued up in the sleet.’
The Mediarata grant is open for applications 1 October–7 December 2020
We distribute the Mediarata grant to projects that promote the production culture of media art. The Ministry of Education and Culture has allocated 200,000 euros of separate funding for the grant.
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