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Johanna Hällsten’s work focuses on translation and on the perpetual cycle of mediation that occurs between words and speech, speech and visual, visual and audible, audible and words and so on; as a consequence, the artist is interested in the durational aspects that involve the actions created in these flows of information, both physical and immaterial. The artist focuses on the interrelation between sounds and environments; and about the transience of sounds/spaces created through movement. Johanna often works in a space-sensitive way and collaborates with organizations, institutions and professionals from other areas.
The project sought to investigate aspects of the reciprocal relationship and the performative act of which the participant and a space are part. Through this “not choosing”, a temporary sound environment will be created, which permeates the borders of that space. Provisional sonic kinetic sculptures were developed and informed by local methods of material manipulation / reuse: these formed part of a walk around Covas do Monte. Emphasis was placed on the path around the village and how its inhabitants moved, worked and socialized within this space, creating an intricate relationship between architecture, environment and inhabitants (both human and animal). What follows is a walk through the work and experience of the residency.
Johanna Hällsten’s work has recently been included in the “Hoopla“ part of CREATE, at Sugerhouse Studios, London (2012), commissioned by Royal Pavilions Brighton to produce A Regency Utopia for the White Nights Festival (2011), Everyday Opera for the ANTI festival , Kuopio, Finland (2010), part of EV+A, Limerick, Ireland (2010), and some of his writings can be found in Celestial Aesthetics: the aesthetics of Sky, Space and Heaven edited by Y. Sepänmaa, Finland, ( 2012), and in n.Paradoxa (2007).