ic-98 Introduction Founded in 1998, consists of ic-98 is an exception on the Finnish art scene, in that their starting points lie, not in currents within art, but in social, cultural and philosophical discourse. The collaboration between the artists in the group, Patrik Söderlund Visa Suonpää and Patrik Söderlund, began, not at art school, but on humanist studies at the University (b. 1974, Turku, Finland) of Turku. They began to expand on the modes of thinking offered by their alma mater and ended up as Lives and works in Turku, Finland visual artists in a field that, during its post-1960s history, has been open to new and experimental forms [email protected] of expression. ic-98’s situation-specific and site-specific art applies critical social theories to the almost unlimited array of methods of post-medium art. Out of these diverse ingredients has emerged an incisive Visa Suonpää social thinking that offers acute interpretations of the realm of nature that inhabits the planet. (b. 1968, Tampere, Finland) ic-98 first made a name for themselves at the end of the 1990s with interventions in public space and Lives and works in Turku, Finland their Iconoclast Publications, which combined graphically refined drawing and text. Works based on real [email protected] places and events are mingled with fictive elements that emphasize possible other or alternative histories. ic-98 take their viewers on urban-geography excursions into Turku that delve deep into history, and into Contact poignant insights that dissect global systems of oppression. Post-1960s French thinking permeates their [email protected] various publications, and in accordance with this the artists avoid any totalizing final conclusions, empha- socialtoolbox.com sizing the simultaneity of a number of viewpoints and the incompleteness of things. They, nevertheless, vimeo.com/ic98 try to dismantle apparent truths about society and to point out how embodied individuals have adapted testifilmi.fi themselves to fit arbitrary corporate production processes. av-arkki.fi Over their sixteen years, ic-98’s art has seen several changes of direction, or paradigm shifts. The most fundamental of these was in the mid-2000s, when the group made its first animation films. In parallel Monograph ic-98: Hours, Years, Aeons. Moving Images and Other Projects 1998–2015 with the Iconoclast publications we began to see increasingly visually ambitious, pencil-drawing-based, http://issuu.com/framefinland/docs/ic98_hoursyearsaeons_1_ black-and-white animation films. The Theses on the Body Politic works, which appeared as part of the publications, were first followed by the release of the Theses on the Body Politic animation trilogy, with the subheading Vicious Circles 1–3 (2006–2007). The series depicts human productive activities in relation to nature’s elements: forest, earth and water. Since then, the duo have been associated specifically with these drawn animations. The corporeal disciplining and surveillance of human communities, and the machinery that maintains them, have had to retreat to the margins, with the community of nature and a global scale now dominating the imagery. At the same time as planet Earth has come to the fore, the human being has left IC-98’s stage. From one viewpoint, one main actor in the animations is hard-to envisage time. In order to make time perceptible Suonpää and Söderlund deal with the past, the present and the future as being mutually interpenetrating, almost simultaneous, forces of change. The slow-motion image registers indiscernible transformations in the environment, which nevertheless become perceptible within the film’s timescale. The animations thus penetrate inside time, as in A View from the Other Side (2011), in which time takes control of the violent acts in human history and returns them to nature. Hanna Johansson Public Works and Site-specific Installations A World in Waiting (78°14’08.4”n 15°29’28.7”e) (2017) A collaboration with Kustaa Saksi Site-specific installation (jacquard weave carpet, encapsulated seeds) Weaved at TextielLab, Tilburg, The Netherlands 553 x 302 cm First shown at Collecting Europe, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, uk, 2017 As part of Collecting Europe Festival Victoria & Albert Museum and the Goethe-Institut in London com- missioned 12 international artists to imagine what Europe might look like 2 000 years from now. ic-98 collaborated with artist and designer Kustaa Saksi to create a contemporary millefleurs tapestry (a pattern of thousands of flowers) that transports us into the future. The medium was chosen for it’s links to the v&a collections (Devonshire Hunting Tapestries etc.) The idea was to bring nature, traditionally seen as the backdrop of the human activity, to the foreground. In the scenario, sea levels have risen and the human race is long gone, but its effects are everywhere. The tapestry imagines the site where the Svalbard Global Seed Vault once stood. Here, seeds from around the world, forecasted to thrive in the considerably warmer climate of the future, have sprouted into lush meadows. The actual seeds of depicted plants are woven into the fabric of the carpet, thus becoming pregnant with the future inhabitants of Europe. During the research for the work, ic-98 discussed Arctic climate scenarios and viable plants with scientists from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Natural Resources Institute Finland and Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden in Norway. Research into medieval Tapestries was conducted in London, the met Col- lections in New York and in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Plants depicted in the carpet: agrostis capillaris (common bent), angelica archangelica (garden angelica), brassica rapa ssp. campestris (wild turnip), chamae- nerion angustifolium (rosebay willowherb), deschampsia flexuosa (wavy hair-grass), elymus mutabilis (wildrye), festuca rubra (red fescue), hordeum jubatum (foxtail barley), phleum alpinum (alpine cat’s-tail), poa pratensis (common meadow-grass), polemonium boreale (boreal Jacobs-ladder), rheum rhabarbarum (rhubarb), rhodiola rosea (rose root), ribes rubrum (redcur- rant), rubus chamaemorus (cloudberry), solanum tuberosum (potato), taraxacum officinale (common dandelion), trifolium pratense ssp. pratense (red clover), trifolium repens var. repens (white clover), vaccinium vitis-idaea (lingonberry), vicia cracca (tufted vetch), vicia sepium (bush vetch) Facing page: Installation view, Norfolk House Music Room, Visctoria and Albert Museum, February 2017 Above, top: Installation view, Norfolk House Music Room, Victoria and Albert Museum, February 2017 Above, bottom: Pouching the seeds and weaving them into the carpet Facing page: Details House of Khronos (2016/2017–)(2016–) SiteHouse specific of Khronos long-durationlong duration (2016/2017–) environmentalenvironmental artwork,artwork, Pöytyä,Finland Finland abandonedSite specific house long andandduration garden,garden, environmental surrounding surrounding fence artwork,fence Finland Lönnströmabandoned houseArt Museum and garden, ProjectsProjects surrounding #1#1 fence (completed in 2016) virtualStatus of reality the project: environment ongoing (in (seeking development the property during during 2017) 2016, implementing the plan in 2017) Lönnström Art Museum Projects #1 House of Khronos (Khronoksen talo in original Finnish) is a property where time itself dwells. 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