Online conversation: Merpersons: Disability, accessibility, gender and art 21st April

Burnout Mermaids (Iida Nissinen & Melanie Orenius), Danai Anagnostou & Marianne Savallampi, Pekka Koskinen & Reetta Mietola and Tuuli Malla & Rag Elnyg.

Hosted by Museum of Impossible Forms.

The event is part of Frame Contemporary Art Finland’s public programme Rehearsing Hospitalities.

Museum of Impossible Forms (m{if}) invites guests and audiences to discuss topics surrounding merpersoning, disability, accessibility, gender and art. The event features a screening of the film Merpersons exhibited in an installation at m{if}, which focuses on gender and accessibility in relation to swimming and dominant mermaid mythologies. In addition to presenting the project, invited speakers include researchers on disability, as well as artists who have been working on the topics surrounding water and mermaid mythology. 

Access: Online event. Presentations are a mixture of pre-recorded live talks and include captioning.

Language: English. The film Merpersons (7mins) is in English with English subtitles.

Programme Details:

4–5pm: Presenting Merpersons film (7 min) & installation Burnout Mermaids (Iida Nissinen & Melanie Orenius), Danai Anagnostou & Marianne Savallampi

Screening and conversation of the film produced in part of the Merpersons installation. The Merpersons project team will be presenting the concept and thoughts behind the film. Artist duo Iida Nissinen and Melanie Orenius aka Burnout Mermaids talk about their artistic practice in relation to mermaiding, whereas director Marianne Savallampi and editor Danai Anagnostou share their experiences on the film production.

5–6 pm: What counts as disability activism?

Pekka Koskinen & Reetta Mietola

This presentation is based on a recently started research project by the research group Performing disability activism: Acts and stories of activism and the Finnish disability movement funded by the Kone Foundation. Reetta Mietola, the project leader, is a university researcher at the University of Helsinki. Pekka Koskinen is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki.

6.15–7 pm: Water as artistic practice

Panel discussion with Marianne Savallampi, Tuuli Malla & Rag Elnyg

Curator Marianne Savallampi and artists Tuuli Malla and Rag Elnyg discuss their relationship with water as an inspiration for their work and practice. Can art be a way to bring forth compassion and awareness towards the environment? How can rethinking water mythologies be a starting point for social criticism? 

Merpersons: Disability, accessibility, gender and art Facebook event

Rehearsing hospitalities (frame-finland.fi)