CURATED EXPEDITIONS nº 1

Siberia, Novosibirsk ZooTotal Solar Eclipse, 1st August, 2008

agnes meyer-brandis mireia c. saldrigues tommi taipale

agnes meyer-brandis, The Moon Goose Experiment, 2008

ulla@capsula.org.estel:653795456

Capsula`s cross-disciplinary expeditions, straddling the borderline between art and science, study and marvel at natural phenomena

through personal experience. The first expedition was made in summer 2008 to Siberia, where the total eclipse of the Sun could be

observed. The base of the expedition was set up at the Novosibirsk Zoo, from which it continued on to the Altai wilderness and all

the way to the Moon. Travelling slow, using methods of transport that only moderately burden the environment, is a key aspect of

the expeditions. The question is: Could natural phenomena and the beauty of nature still fascinate a major quantity of people in the

modern world, saturated by entertainment such as video games and action movies? Could these splendid and thrilling emotions lived

within the nature, shift the attitude of people to be more respectful and caring of their environment?

The premiere of the artworks created during the Expedition to the Total Eclipse to Siberia was exhibited in Kiasma, the Museum of

Contemporary Art of Helsinki from 6th March until 7th June, 2009.

Tommi Taipale :

A Journey to the Total Eclipse

Agnes Meyer-Brandis :

The Moon Goose Experiment

Mireia C. Saladrigues :

Zoolar Eclipse

[...] I found then by this Experience that which no Philosopher ever dreamed of, to wit, that those things which wee call heavie, do not sinke toward the Center of the Earth, [...]

Francis Godwin (1603), The Man in the Moone

The Moon Goose Experiment (MGE) is based on an

excerpt from the book The Man in the Moone, written

by the English bishop Francis Godwin in 1603. Godwin

was the first person ever to describe weightlessness -

long before Newton´s theory of gravity. The protagonist

in the book flies to the moon in a chariot towed by gansas

birds, more commonly known as geese. These special

moon geese migrate every year from the Earth to the

Moon. The artist equips the space expedition on a sand

island in the Siberian river Ob and observes the effect

of the total eclipse of the Sun on the behaviour of the

moon geese.

Agnes Meyer-Brandis I The Moon Goose Experiment I a bio-poetic investigation

Please find enclosed a dossier with technical details

+info and short film of the experiment: http://www.blubblubb.net/the-moon-goose-experiment/moongoose1.html

Mireia C. Saladrigues | Zoolar Eclipse

Zoolar Eclipse is a research project in which the artist observes

the behaviour of animals at the Novosibirsk Zoo during the week

that ends with the total eclipse of the Sun. The first stage of the

artistic research project concentrates on the White-handed gibbon

(Hylobates Lar) following their reactions when zoo visitors go

wild and make noise when the Sun is eclipsed. The work draws

attention to the artificial environment and marginal conditions of

animals living in a zoo. It questions the roles of the object and

subject, as well as those of human being and animal.

Technical data:

framed drawings x 7 (297x 215 mm)

original and translated postcards

hand bound book with drawings and texts

sound recordings of gibbons

Tommi Taipale | A Journey to the Total Eclipse

1st August 2008

“After more than three weeks of travelling I suddenly end up

in on this sandy beach near a small South-Siberian village.

The locals are spending the sunny day picnicking, when the

Finnish solar eclipse expedition who gave me the ride arrives

at the scene. There are enough dark glasses to go round

and the atmosphere gets thicker as the day-trippers watched

the two celestial bodies meet in the sky.”

Taipale biked, hiked, hitchhiked and took a train from Helsinki

to Altai mountains to witness the eclipse. The photographs

of landscapes and incidents he took along the way create a

narrative basis for a subjective travel experience.

Technical data:

lambda prints and texts

Agnes Meyer-Brandis ( Aachen, 1973) studied mineralogy for a year, then transfered to the Art Academy in Maastricht, the Düsseldorf Art

Academy and the Cologne Media Art Academy. She comes from a background of both sculpture and new media art. Her work, exhibited worldwide,

is at the experimental edge of art and science, exploring the zone between fact and fiction, fantasy and technology. Her current focus is on

"fantastic" augmented reality and other participatory urban interventions. She has received various grants and awards: Goethe Institute, Porto

Alegre, grant, 2006/Brazil, transmediale06 winner first price 2006/Germany, Japan Media Arts Festival, honourable mention, 2006/Japan, Kunstraum

Aarau, Science & Cite Award / 2005/Switzerland, Kunststiftung NRW, grant, Prix Ars Electronica, honorary mention, 2007 & 2003/Austria. She

currently holds a teaching position at the university of applied sciences Düsseldorf/Germany and is frequently lecturing at other universities and

conferences. She is the founder of the ”Forschungsfloss FFUR / Research Raft for Subterranean Reefology”, a small institute whose chief aim is

to explore and confirm subterranean phenomena and unknown lifeforms.

www.ffur.de

Mireia C.Saldrigues (Barcelona, 1978) is a Catalonian / Spanish artist that has MA in Fine Arts in Barcelona. She participated in the MACBA

(Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum) Postgraduate Program during 2005-2007. Saladrigues works on understanding the context where she

lives and works, questioning clichés - through conversation, interviews, theory and a variety of practical acts, including normally the audience

within her working processes. In 2006 she received the Guasch Coranty price and the same year she was invited as an artist-in-residence in

HIAP in Helsinki as a part of exchange programme of CAN (Centre of Art & Nature in Farrera). This year she was artist-in - residence in Pori

TAIK in Finland from February to July. She has given lectures and seminars in various universities. Saldrigues has exhibited in numerous solo

and group shows in Spain, Finland, United States and Denmark.

Tommi Taipale (Valkeakoski, 1977) is finnish photographer and artist. He graduated in 2007 in Lahti Insitutue of Art and Design. He has been

working for several magazines as a freelance photographer mainly concentrating to photoreportages dealing periferic Finland. He has special

interest As photodocumentarist he has special interest in slow intuitive travelling in areas where the distinction between nature and culture is not

obvious. Taipale has made extensive trips to Russia, which he calls experimental adventures. They are expeditions to unknown coincidental

places. Taipales interest for self-sufficient living and inventiveness in everyday life are subjects which are also present in Floating Residence -

project that he made with Teemu Takatalo (http://raft.travel.to/). Taipales photographs from the adventures has been exhibitited in solo- and joint

exhibitions in Germany, Finland, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia.

Ulla Taipale I CAPSULA (Tampere, Finland, 1971) is independent curator, photographer and cultural producer. Taipale holds B.Sc. degree in

environmental engineering and communications and a postgraduate degree in Curating and Cultural Practices in Art and New Media. In between

the years 1993 - 2005 she works in cultural production, press communications and photography in Finland, Spain, Malasia, Guatemala, South

Africa and Trinidad & Tobago. She is co-founder of Capsula platform together with Mónica Bello. Capsula is a curatorial research group whose

interests focus on the meeting point between art, science and nature and collaborates with art and culture institutions internationally.

http://capsulaexpeditions.com

www.capsula.org.es

cvs

WIth kind support of:

EXPEDITION TO THE TOTAL ECLIPSE: Zoo of Novosibirsk, FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, VR (Finnish Railways), Venäjän ja Itä-Euroopan Instituutti (The Institute for Russia and Eastern Europe), Finnish Embassy in Moscow, Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Nowosibirsk (General Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany in Novosibirsk), AECID (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo), A MINIMA magazine Agrupación Astronómica de Sabadell (Spain), AirBerlin, Helsinki University - Kilpisjärvi Biological Station (Finland), University of Art & Design, Pori Derpartment (Finland) , ARPI - professional photostore (Barcelona), NCCA Ekaterinburg (National Centre for Contemporanean Art, Russia), Collection Sabater Pi (Barcelona), Korkeasaari Zoo (Helsinki), SAS Royal Hotel (Helsinki), Sodexo Oy / Hostel Satakuntatalo (Helsinki), Antares Ltd (Barcelona), AirBerlin, Fire Department Cologne, Tesimax (Germany)

EXHIBITION IN KIASMA: PIXELACHE09, HIAP (production residence in Suomenlinna/Helsinki, AVEK, Finnish Art Council, Kiasma Mediatheque, HMKV, Goethe Institut, Galería Angels Barcelona, Agrupación Astronómica de Sabadell (Spain), Anneli Ojala / The Institute for Russia and Eastern Europe, Ramon Llull Institute

+INFO:http://capsulaexpeditions.com

Interview in We Make Money Not Art:http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2009/01/can-you-present-us-capsula.php

The Moon Goose Experiment: www.ffur.de/the-moon-goose-experiment/moongoose1.html

Project of:

Ulla Taipaleulla@capsula.org.estel: 653795456

in collaboration with: Forms part of the activities of:Zoo de Novosibirsk