Artists-run film collective Baltic Analog Lab (Riga,LV) in collaboration with Filmwerkstaden (Vaasa/FI) and WHS Theater presents second expanded cinema performance evening “SPECTRAL Expanded” with four artists presenting four audio-visual works using 16mm film projectors and live sound. This year we present works from a member of Filmwerkstaden - Natalia Kozieł-Kalliomäki with her work that was created during her residency in LIFT (Canada), a member from Baltic Analog Lab – Ieva Balode (LV) together with sound artist and violinist Biliana Voutchkova (BG/DE) with a work that was created during SHAPE platform and Skaņu Mežs music festival residency in Riga and as the third guest of the evening – Canadian filmmaker Alex MacKenzie who will be performing two performances for single 16mm film projector.

Event is happening with the support of Creative Europe’s funded project SPECTRAL,Nordic Culture Point’s funded project “Expanding North”, Latvian Ministry of Culture, Baltic Analog Lab and Filmverkstaden.

Program

The Room Gets Small When I Stay Still

By Natalia Kozieł-Kalliomäki (FI), 3x 16mm film projectors, 25 mins

"I stumbled upon my first lonely shoe on College Street, and from that point on, they seemed to multiply. A lawnmower sat patiently at the bus stop, as though it had been left there only briefly. On bustling Spadina Street, a pot of soup cooled next to a lamppost. I passed by a plastic dog that was barking and a wooden booth filled with books perched above the gas meter. Then, a Coca-Cola truck, an everything bagel, and a theatre  with a sign that read “Welcome to Paradise” came into view. “

This performance came as a result of a residency in LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto) in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki and the Saastamoinen Foundation. 

It Took A Long Time For It To Open Its Leaves

by Ieva Balode (LV) and Biliana Voutchkova (BG/DE), 3x 16mm film projectors, violin, 35 mins 

Audio-visual performance by Latvian filmmaker Ieva Balode and Berlin based Bulgrian sound artist Biliana’s Voutchkova’s collaboration engages in a multifaceted dialogue between their artistic tools and the environment they reflect upon. They are responding to the stimulus found in the processes of transformation in nature, applied to human psychological states which informs their real-time audio-visual composition. A tree documented throughout winter, spring and summertime reflects on the time passing and inevitable transformation

involved in it.

16mm abstract film loops alongside a textural sonic mix of field recordings of machines used by Ieva whilst producing the work using contact printer, steenbeck and other sounds together with violin and voice by Biliana, create a complex artistic ecology, subtly changing the perception of the natural world.

Work was made during SHAPE Platform residency in collaboration with Skanu Mezs festival in Riga.

Phosphene

By Alex MacKenzie (CA), 1x 16mm film projector, 12 mins

A single painted film loop in tandem with carefully orchestrated lens interference induces a variation on closed-eye vision and non-light hallucination: a subtly immersive and sublime

sculpting of light.

One in Five

By Alex MacKenzie (CA),1x 16mm film projector, 10 mins

A repurposing of the opening moments of an NFB classic addressing poverty in Canada: faces explode, melt, blur and flash; dreams and nightmares unravel, eyes look but can’t see, lives are ruptured.