The feminist Wallpaper

Community art project by the artist group Megafån, Heidi Lunabba, Freja Bäckman and Fredrika Biström.
Wallpaper, photography, installations and events.

A political artwork and a intervention in the politics of public space. Travelling around finland we invited anyone defining themselves as feminists to be fhotographed for the Feminist Wallpaper. 800 people turned up to our photostudio. We made a wallpaper of the photographs of feminists and their ovn statements about feminism. The wallpaper was sent out to all the persons participating, We asked to put the wallpaper in return we recieved hundreds of photographs of the wallpaper covering the walls of public and private spaces.

Stigma

Heidi Lunabba in collaboration with Anne Pietarinen
 
Who invites cockroaches over for a sleepover? Who wants to go on a date with a monkey or be a rat’s friend?
 
This series of pictures entitled Stigma visualizes different prejudices through animal characters. The pictures create relationships or situations that are common in our culture but that the norms prevent us from having with “the wrong kind of people”. The animal characters are models wearing masks. The main material used for making the masks is second-hand clothes that give the characters a distinctive look.
 
A discriminatory mindset is made possible through dehumanization and grouping, division into us and them, into different groups with different characteristics and behavioral models. Individuals are labeled with the group’s stigma. There are racists but very few of us want to be considered one of them. Most people know what kind of prejudices there are against different groups in society. We may not accept them, but is it possible to not let them influence our perceptions?
 
Stigma is part of a larger project in which Heidi Lunabba, in collaboration with people from outside of the art world and based on their experiences, creates pictures that examine and challenge the norms of society. The Stigma series has been produced in collaboration with Anne Pietarinen who also appears in all the pictures.
 
“My starting point was the idea that we all group our knowledge and experiences. We talk about artists, Christians, women, men, heterosexuals, homosexuals, winners, athletes, losers etc. This is what we do in order to be able to interact with each other. We build concepts and channels through which we perceive the life around us and its phenomena. I believe that this grouping is also sometimes stigmatizing, in which case it turns against people. This is the phenomenon I wanted to address.” This is how Anne describes the starting point for the series of pictures.
 
“During the project I became curious about how universal the characteristics are that we link with different animals. I asked an open question on Facebook and it sparked off a lively discussion as to which animals have different characteristics, while someone stated that people prefer not to link prejudices with a specific group,” Heidi Lunabba says. The difficulty with the theme is to highlight the norm and the prejudice without reinforcing it. “Through the animal characters we are able to access the prejudice itself instead of reinforcing the prejudice by pointing to a specific group. Foxes, rats and snakes can symbolize different things for different people. The pictures are based on the prejudices we think we see in our society,” Lunabba says about the pictures.
 
The exhibition is produced with the support of Svenska Kulturfonden, Kordelin foundation and Konstsamfundet.

Say It

The city you inhabit is filled with messages, images and texts that tell you to buy, feel or think something specific. All surfaces where different messages are presented are owned by someone and it’s the owner who decides which messages   get presented. The only surface which is completely yours to decide over is your own body and the clothes you are wearing.

In the ’Say it!’ project I printed T-shirts for people giving them a chance to put forward their own message. I was making the t-shirts in public places for anyone that wanted them. The T-shirts were free of charge and I was photographing the people wearing their text t-shirts.

Because a lot of people wanted the T-shirts, I continued with a Do-It-Yourself version of the project. One could take part in the project by ordering a stencil and black textile color to print up a T-shirt. The stencil and textile color were free. I asked everyone that ordered the stencils to photograph themselves wearing the T-shirt. The photo was to be taken in a public place.

the Girls Castle

Community art project with a group of teenage girs.

Exhibition, installation, caféteria and a place for events.
27.6-6.9 2009 at Ramsholmen, Tammisaari, Finland

The Womens Football Team of Istanbul

I was watching the football game between Turkey and Denmark on a big screen television in a cafe in Istanbul. The cafe was crowded but I was the only woman there. I was wondering wether there is a womans football team in Istanbul.
 
I wanted to make t-shirts for a womans football team, asking each player to choose a text for their own t-shirt. My plan was to exhibit photographs of the players wearing the t-shirt with their chosen text.
 
I asked around a bit and found that there has been a womens leauge, but they don’t play anymore. I decided to try to find the people who used to play in the womens leauge, and make the t-shirts for them anyway.
 
I was given the name of a company that used to have a team, I phoned to ask about who was in thir team, the person ansvering didn’t know, and claimed it was impossible to find out .
 
I talked to the journalist of amateur sports at Aksam newspaper, who told me to talk to the football association.
 
On the web page of UEFA, the european football association I found ot that Turkeys national womens team played their last game in 2002. They played against Hungary and lost 4:1, there were no upcoming games.
 
I phoned their office in Switzerland to ask for more information abot the Turkish womens national team, after beeing politely told, in five different languages, to wait until someone has the time to talk to me a person named Michael told me to call the Football association of Turkey.
 
At the football association of Turkey I was told that there is not a team at the moment and that they are looking for a coach and aiming at having a new team for the 19th european championship.
 
I was given the phonenumber of the man in charge of forming a new team, hoping to get in contact with some of the potential players in the team. He said he don’t know any players and asked me to phone Besiktas, Galtasaray and Istanbul Sport football clubs.
 
A lady at Besiktas club told me that their club doesn’t have a womens team and neither does any of the other big football clubs. Women in Turkey are not very interested in football unfortunately, she told me. There might be some smaller club having a womens team but not in Istanbul, she said.
 
Phoneing Turkish football association again, I asked for names of the players in the Turkish national team of 2002, they faxed me a list, but none of them were from an Istanbul club.
 
Finally on the last day before the exhibition, thanks to my friend Gözde, I found Ceren Togay. She used to play football with her rowing club and wants to be a football player but she doesn’t have team to play in.
 
On the day of the opening of the exhibition, she had a exam to get in to Marmara University because it has a football team and the university she is in now doesn’t.
 
I made the t-shirt for Ceren and after the exam, two hours before the opening of the exhibition she came to meet me. I gave her the t-shirt, took her photograph and ran to the lab, arriving just as they closed for the day.
 
Left for me to show at the exhibition was only the clotheshanger of her T-shirt.
 
The text on her T-shirt is her family name Togay.

Dresscode

Helsinki 2012 and New York City 2013
 
A community based art project in collaboration with the artist duo Nutty Tarts (Katriina Haikala and Vilma Metteri). Our goal was to investige how people construct their social image and how it correlates with their socioeconomical status in society. We had several drop-in photo studios in different places Helsinki and New York City. People from the streets were photographed and interwieved by us. Based on the interviev ansvers and the way people in each place dressed we made a fashion picture inspiered by each place. Dresscode is exhibited as a installation wih fittingrooms, photographs, sound and text.
 
The project was first shown as Cultural Dresscode in Helsinki 2012 at Amos Anderson Art Museum as part of the Exhibition Boutique, the New york edition of the project is first shown at Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design in New York as part of the Fashion Interactions exhibition. Both exhibitions are curated by Annamari Vänskä.