NORDIC-BALTIC A-I-R SPRING RESIDENCY  2018

Mondo was pleased to host artist and curator Paul Paper (Lithuania) as part of our Nordic-Baltic artist-in-residence program. He will present his current project 'A man with dark hair and a sunset in the background' and research on visual recognition technologies. Tracing the historical context of 19th century facial recognition discourse, several political aspects of machine seeing will be outlined. Today the technology of computer vision is in a critical stage of inception, allowing revealing inaccuracies. 'A man with dark hair and a sunset in the background' presents works that highlight a gap between human and machine seeing, resulting in combinations that are in turn poetic and humorous. These are not mistakes per se, but rather a differentiated perspective – a possibility to see and recognize things differently.

BIO

Paul Paper is an artist and curator working with photography (after photography). He is the editor of Too Good to be Photographed (Lugemik, 2017), a book exploring intricate relationship between photography and failure through the work of 47 artists. Paper’s publications are held in various collections including the MoMA and Met Museum libraries, Design Museum Denmark, Clark Art Institute, Oslo National Academy of the Arts and others.

The Nordic-Baltic A-i-R program at Troms fylkeskultursenter in Tromsø has since its start in 2010 hosted 26 artists from Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The program aims to strengthen the network between Tromsø’s growing art scene and artists from the Nordic and the Baltic countries. A-i-R program is rooted in the collaboration with the local art organizations - Tromsø kunstforening, RadArt (Tromsø Performing Arts Network) and artist-run initiatives Kurant visningsrom, Small Projects and MONDO.

Nordic-Baltic A-i-R is supported by Nordic Culture Point (Nordisk kulturkontakt) and Troms fylkeskommune.