Networking and Research Projects
Frame supports international collaboration within the Finnish art scene through versatile projects for networking and research.
Frame’s projects for research and networking aim to increase professional connections for Finnish and Finland-based curators and artists. They also offer international curators possibilities to gain insight and experiences from the Finnish contemporary art field.
Through research visits, projects, residencies and fellowships, the various projects make it possible to engage with the Finnish art scene at different lengths and intensities.
Additionally, we organise mentoring programs and study trips for curators and artists.
Representatives of different art institutions participating in the Islands of Kinship -project. Image: Natália Zajačiková.
From 2022 to 2024, Frame is involved in a joint project between seven European art institutions called Islands of Kinship: A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions. The project aims to instil more ecological and socially sustainable practices within contemporary art institutions. The goal is to deepen art institutions’ knowledge of practices that promote inclusivity and equity and to create new ways of considering ecological sustainability and climate justice in their actions.
The end result of the project will be a handbook that can be applied to the activities of various art institutions. The handbook and the results of the project will be published at an international seminar in spring 2024. Additionally, in conjunction with a programme for audiences, Frame will also organize a partner meeting in Finland in 2023.
The project is financed by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme. The other organizations involved in the project are the Jindřich Chalupecký Society (Prague, Czech Republic), the Faculty of Things that Can’t be Learned (Bitola/Skopje, Macedonia), the Július Koller Society (Bratislava, Slovakia), Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art – LCCA (Riga, Latvia), Temporary Gallery (Cologne, Germany) and Stroom Den Haag (The Hague, Netherlands).
The Frame Curatorial Research Fellowship is a four-year programme for contemporary art curators. The programme explores new forms of research that renew curatorial and institutional working habits.
The programme’s host, Frame Contemporary Art Finland and its partners Casco Art Institute and EVA International are now happy to present the two fellows selected for 2021 and 2022. They are Ama Josephine Budge and Nikolay Smirnov. The open call for the next two fellowships, and partnering institutions, will be published in spring 2023. The programme is supported by the Kone Foundation.
The programme offers support to develop new curatorial research methods and enliven curatorial research practices embedded in organisational frameworks. What kinds of curatorial work cultivates fresh ways of presenting and mediating contemporary art and cultural production in a form that is inseparable from artists’ and institutions’ daily life, politics, and policies?
The programme will host four fellows between 2020-2023 within the different frameworks related to Frame’s and its partners’ organisational work, research, and programming. It offers fellows the opportunity to dive into curatorial research through an environment comprising various agents around Frame and its international partners, including artists, researchers, other practitioners and institutional actors.
Research fellowships offer an opportunity to bolster and develop further the critical potential of curatorial research and rethink the utilisation and value of research within institutions and society at large. It is about energising new connections between artistic practices, institutions and research beyond the dichotomy of utilitarian value and autonomy.
Fellowships also offer an opportunity to rethink what internationality and mobility of curatorial research could mean in the future. Are there new ways in which travelling, physical mobility and presence in certain geographical contexts could support socially and ecologically sustainable research practices? The programme looks for research forms that can renew curatorial and institutional working habits and introduce new ideological frameworks for sustainable international mobility within the field.
The programme also aims to embed new forms of ethical curatorial thinking into the daily routines and actions of art organisations and foster new connections within curatorial research, artistic practice, and institutions to reimagine the role of a wide new range of curatorial knowledges within the field of contemporary art. Similarly, it is an opportunity to build new shared futures and alliances between institutions and individuals.
Frame hosts a curatorial residency programme in collaboration with HIAP – Helsinki International Artists Programme. The programme offers opportunities for a comprehensive look at Finnish contemporary art and an opportunity to research future exhibition or publication projects for four curators every year for one month duration.
HICP is currently on a hiatus.
Previously selected curators:
2022
- Sarah Abdu Bushra – Ethiopia
- Raluca Voinea – Romania
2021
- Kate Brehme – Australia
- Mary Conlon – Ireland
- Syaheedah Iskandar – Singapore
- Kathy-Ann Tan – Germany
2019
- Clelia Coussonnet – France
- Annie Jael Kwan – UK
- Tereza Jindrová – Prague
2018
- Ceci Moss – US
- Cory Scozzari – US / Spain
- Adwait Singh – India
- Asep Topan – Indonesia
2017
- Gina Buenfeld – UK
- Kris Dittel – Netherlands
- Blanca Victoria López – Cuba
- Carolina Ongaro – UK
2016
- Richard Birkett – US
- Marianne Mulvey – UK
- Xavier Acarín – US
- Adelaide Bannerman – UK
2015
- Ece Pazarbasi – Turkey
- Angela Jerardi – Netherlands / US
- Yasmina Reggad – France / UK
- Yameli Mera – Mexico
2014
- Laura McLean – Australia / UK
- Lian Ladia – Philippines
- Sasa Nabergoj – Slovenia
- Tobi Maier – Germany / Brasil
Frame organises regular research trips, where curators and artists get to know contemporary art scenes in different cultural contexts and countries. During the trips participants gain a comprehensive overview of the local art scene. They meet local artists, curators and institutions, and map out possible collaborations for future projects.
From 2019 onwards we have collaborated with the Mondriaan Fund, Danish Art Foundation and Pro Helvetia to organise a shared study trip. Trips are coordinated by the Mondriaan Fund.
Between 2016 and 2018 Frame collaborated with the Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP), AV-arkki and Baltic Circle Festival and organised study trips to Asia and Oceania. Participants visited Tokio, Soul, Shanghai, Hongkong, Melbourne and Sydney.