The Archipelago Center’s program activities emphasize interaction and cooperation. We work closely with local artist residencies such as “AARK – Archipelago Artist Residency Korpo” and “Barefoot Path”. Representatives of these art organizations are involved in our program committee, where we plan exhibitions and other program events.
Archipelago Center Korpoström operated in 2019 as one of the “Saarten Välissä | AARK – Kökar – Örö” as the art stage of the residency collaboration.
Starting in 2021, we have hosted the Pro Artibus foundation’s new residency program in cooperation with the Turku Islands Archipelago Foundation and Åbo Akademi’s marine biological research station. The residency is a pilot project whose purpose is to combine environmental and marine research with art. The artist has a studio in the archipelago center and a residence in Lillstugan next to the center. The duration of the residency program is six months.
The first artist-in-residence was Sinna Virtanen, a multidisciplinary stage artist and dramaturg. Virtanen is part of the Honkasalo-Niemi-Virtanen artist collective, which works in border areas between different fields and in cooperation with researchers. In their comprehensive works, research data, myths, stories, different media and materiality go hand in hand.
In 2022, the artist-in-residence was Ninni Wager, whose artworks are based on interpretations of phenomena that develop through experiments with work methods and materials. He is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose main media are kinetic sculpture, video and drawing. Wager shares ideas with neomaterialist philosophy about matter as autonomous, and the interaction of material with its environment. He uses and abuses scientific methods and tools to find new perspectives. The work process is a serious game where visions and ideas turn into poetic works of art. Wager works both independently and together with other artists.
Artist-in-residence of the year Maria Ångerman’s half-year residency started in May 2023. Ångerman is a visual artist and filmmaker who currently works in the Vaasa region. He is known for his captivating moving images, in which he examines the human relationship with nature and the concept of nature. He moves in a delicate area between documentary fact and poetic fiction.
In Korpoström, Maria Ångerman works on the Troubled Landscapes project: “The project consists of several different sub-works that focus on the relationships that arise around the coastline – the borderland of the liminal space where land and sea meet. The work aims to convey the feeling of what was, and at the same time invite new beginnings. In Korpoström, I immerse myself in haptic photo and film studies that aim to create a cycle,” says Maria.