The Reunion
Sorbus
19 - 22 March 2020
Forma in partnership with AQNB present The Reunion, the UK premiere screening of 'Wild is the Wind' (2019) and curated performance programme by Sorbus Collective.
For 4 days and nights the Helsinki-based artist collective will welcome audiences aboard a vessel of sorts (it's actually an old customs office) moored within the shadows of London Bridge. Here they will screen their newest video work and along with the cast, host evenings of live music, arts performance, poetry and dance typical of their recently closed gallery space.
The programme of events includes free-to-attend film screenings taking place during the day and ticketed events of performances by the film’s select participants in the evenings, taking place from 19 March (evening preview), and 20 - 22 March daily from 12pm on The Harpy Houseboat, London, SE1 2BQ.
Find out more and book here.
—‘Wild is the Wind’ (2019) was commissioned by the Finnish Cultural Institute in London, as part of their Möbius Fellowship Program. Script development is further supported by AVEK. The UK premiere of ‘Wild is the Wind’ and specially arranged live programme is co-commissioned and co-produced by Forma Arts & Media and AQNB Productions, supported by Frame Contemporary Art Finland.
About the film
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Shot on location in Bude, Cornwall, 'Wild is the Wind' tells the story of a group of friends gathered at a remote house by the seashore to celebrate the wedding of the performance artist Rudie, to himself. As Rudie disappears, however, the friends are left with the task of living with a loss, which they must reconcile together. At the same time, the tide washes up a new member to the group...
‘Wild is the Wind’ asks questions of what we do with each other, how we do it and what the ‘we’ is, telling a story that can be both sad and sexy at the same time. Instead of seeking answers from predetermined aims, the characters create a life in common without destiny, exploring uncertainty whilst asserting agency.
About the collective
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Sorbus is a Helsinki-based artist collective and independent gallery. The collective is made up of 6 members; Otto Byström, Henna Hyvärinen, Jonna Karanka, Mika Palonen, Sakari Tervo and Tuomo Tuovinen; who each maintain a practice outside of the collective, working across film, performance and installation.
The collective chose its name in reference to the preferred beverage of the low-income alcoholics and hardcore punks as an assertion of the group’s anti-institutional position in the Helsinki art scene and a want to establish “the kind of space in which we ourselves would like to show work.”
Nestled in between the strip joints and dive bars of the former working-class district of Kallio, in January 2013 they launched Sorbus Galleria. For the next 6 years (2013-18) the collective played host to some 90 group and solo exhibitions and over 100 live events. Through which they brought together and galvanised a network of local and international multidisciplinary artists.
In January 2019, the collective transformed the gallery space into a private studio and began to turn their attention more fully to collaborative projects. In addition to their curatorial output, since 2015 the members have produced installation works, short films and performances. Their first experimental film and installation work, ‘Fucked Up in a Bad Way’ (2016) - made on the 40th anniversary of the birth of punk - Sorbus reflect upon the commodification of subcultures by the mainstream, and in their move away from operating a permanent gallery space, critique the role of art spaces in facilitating the gentrification of the local areas they inhabit.
Sorbus thus purport a mindset; an approach to making and presenting art and a point of reflection, a self-awareness of operating within and against a system of art.
It’s a bit DIY.
As a space, it’s a local host for like-minded others - multidisciplinary artists who network online and live in international hubs around Europe and beyond.
As a practice, it’s a place in which to reflect on the role of art in society - a regen facilitator mostly.
An absurd romp.
Having grown up’ and shown their ‘artworld credentials’ they now are moving away from the gallery, but where to? What’s next?
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Image Credit: 'Wild is the Wind' (2019) film still. Image courtesy the artists