On Shyness: A Finnish/Pan-African Approach
A cooperation between Uniarts Helsinki and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos as part of the Finland Africa Platform for Innovation.
Introduction
This series of six public workshops, exploring the aesthetics of shyness, span a two-week period from August 11–24, 2024 and are produced in collaboration with selected arts organisations in the Helsinki area. The workshops consist of a series of facilitating artist/curator-initiated exercises that open and explore varied dimensions of the concept of shyness.
Participants are invited to reflect on their own cultural and personal perceptions of what ‘shyness’ is/might be and to develop sketches towards artistic works, in collaborative groups, that explore these emerging understandings. The workshops are open to the public and to a wide-range of material practices and modes of working. More information on precise dates and times will be available closer to the date.
On Shyness began as a workshop, hosted in Lagos, Nigeria, that a small group of Finland-based and Africa-based colleagues will now carry to Helsinki. In Lagos, we began our investigation of shyness from the ecological phenomenon known as crown shyness, whereby trees of similar and differing species, under certain conditions, exhibit an awareness of each other, restricting their own growth to allow space for light to travel between them. Shyness is an often maligned contemporary character trait, when used with reference to humans, and yet one that is commonly found in art and artists. In a presentation society, we gather to wonder, what ways of knowing, and not knowing, might we find trapped in the resistant posture of shyness?
This series of public workshops grows out of an ongoing, multi-year collaboration around experimental artist pedagogies between Uniarts Helsinki and the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, part of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Finland-Africa Platform for Innovation.
Research group and workshop facilitation team (tentative list)
- Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Painting and Sculpture, Art and the Built Environment, KNUST, Ghana
- Nontobeko Ntombela, Curatorial, Publics and Visual Cultures, Wits University, South Africa
- Odun Orimolade, Fine Art and Curatorial in the Yaba Art Museum Yaba Tech, Nigeria
- Meri Linna, Sculptor and Performance Artist, Academy of Fine Arts
- Gesa Piper, Dancer and Dance Pedagogue, Theatre Academy
- Daniel Peltz, Time and Space Arts, Site and Situation Specific Practices, Academy of Fine Arts
- Oyindamola Fakeye, CCA Lagos, Nigeria
- Mary Omoregie, CCA Lagos, Nigeria
- Taru Elfving, Writer and Curator, PRAXIS, Academy of Fine Arts
Project name
On Shyness
Time
08/2024-08/2024
Contact
For more information on the program, please contact Daniel Peltz, Uniarts Finland Africa Platform for Innovation Project Lead.
+358503289565
daniel.peltz@uniarts.fi
Introduction
This series of six public workshops, exploring the aesthetics of shyness, span a two-week period from August 11–24, 2024 and are produced in collaboration with selected arts organisations in the Helsinki area. The workshops consist of a series of facilitating artist/curator-initiated exercises that open and explore varied dimensions of the concept of shyness.
Participants are invited to reflect on their own cultural and personal perceptions of what ‘shyness’ is/might be and to develop sketches towards artistic works, in collaborative groups, that explore these emerging understandings. The workshops are open to the public and to a wide-range of material practices and modes of working. More information on precise dates and times will be available closer to the date.
On Shyness began as a workshop, hosted in Lagos, Nigeria, that a small group of Finland-based and Africa-based colleagues will now carry to Helsinki. In Lagos, we began our investigation of shyness from the ecological phenomenon known as crown shyness, whereby trees of similar and differing species, under certain conditions, exhibit an awareness of each other, restricting their own growth to allow space for light to travel between them. Shyness is an often maligned contemporary character trait, when used with reference to humans, and yet one that is commonly found in art and artists. In a presentation society, we gather to wonder, what ways of knowing, and not knowing, might we find trapped in the resistant posture of shyness?
This series of public workshops grows out of an ongoing, multi-year collaboration around experimental artist pedagogies between Uniarts Helsinki and the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, part of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Finland-Africa Platform for Innovation.
Research group and workshop facilitation team (tentative list)
- Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Painting and Sculpture, Art and the Built Environment, KNUST, Ghana
- Nontobeko Ntombela, Curatorial, Publics and Visual Cultures, Wits University, South Africa
- Odun Orimolade, Fine Art and Curatorial in the Yaba Art Museum Yaba Tech, Nigeria
- Meri Linna, Sculptor and Performance Artist, Academy of Fine Arts
- Gesa Piper, Dancer and Dance Pedagogue, Theatre Academy
- Daniel Peltz, Time and Space Arts, Site and Situation Specific Practices, Academy of Fine Arts
- Oyindamola Fakeye, CCA Lagos, Nigeria
- Mary Omoregie, CCA Lagos, Nigeria
- Taru Elfving, Writer and Curator, PRAXIS, Academy of Fine Arts