TRAPP & OTHER WORKS:
IEXHIBITION BY ELIAN MIKKOLA
May 31 - June 2 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM | C'Cap
WUFF is excited to host Treaty 4 / Regina and Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal based artist Elian Mikkola to present an exhibition of their expanded cinema installation TRAPP at the Centre for Cultural and Artistic Practice (520 Hargrave St), alongside a selection of related works. Mikkola's practice embraces digital/analog hybridity, eco-processes, and queer embodiment, working with film, video, photography and sound.
May 31, 9:00 PM - Opening reception at C'Cap
June 2, 12:00 PM - Expanded Colour: Open Studio Artist Talk (free)
TRAPP
expanded cinema installation by Elian Mikkola
2023 | Canada | 35mm film, digital projection, stereo sound
TRAPP examines the impact of historic German film actor Ruth Leuwerik upon ideals of Western femininity. Leuwerik starred as Maria Von Trapp in the 1956 film Die Trapp-Familie (The Trapp Family), a precursor to the popular Hollywood version The Sound of Music. Working with remnants of this 35 mm film sourced from the Berlin archives in this time-based light and sound installation, the power of Leuwerik’s mediated identity is being dismantled and reconstructed. Through this transfeminist and counter-archival act, Ruth gets released from her celluloid construction, giving her dimension and boundless possibility. This work has been developed in the S.P.A.C.E Residency with LaborBerlin in Berlin, Germany and supported by SK Arts.
Presented alongside:
RELEASE I-V, ABSENCE (2023) - Series of photographic prints
REMAINS (2023) - Audio loop, stereo sound
BODY PIXELS (2023) - Video loop, stereo sound
EXPANDED COLOUR: How to Work with Analog Colour Film without Creating More Toxic Waste
Sunday, June 2 @ 12:00 PM (free to attend, registration not required)
Join us at C'Cap (520 Hargrave St) on Sunday, June 2, for an open studio talk and demonstration by Elian Mikkola, exploring TRAPP and their exhibition at WUFF. Informed by ongoing research into queer ecologies, Elian will discuss eco-processing alternatives and provide demonstrations on eco-tinting techniques, projection mapping and other methods and processes at play in their work.
*C'Cap is not an accessible space.
Elian Mikkola is a Finnish Moving Image Artist (of Karelian descent), and a white settler currently based between Treaty 4 / Regina and Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal. Originally from Turku, Finland, Mikkola holds a BA in Journalism from Tampere University. They completed their MFA in Media Production in 2019 at the University of Regina. Mikkola works closely with both analogue and digital images and explores themes such as memory, spatial dependencies and queer belonging. They’ve done extensive research in the field of eco-processed film since 2017.
Mikkola’s experimental work has been showcased in several film festivals in Canada and internationally including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Oberhausen and TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten. Mikkola has also showcased their Expanded Cinema work internationally in diverse exhibition environments. Mikkola has been a part of La Lumière Collective based in Montréal and is a current board member of the WNDX Festival of Moving Image.