Alejandra and Aeron

Alejandra and Aeron (also known as Bergman and Salinas) are Alejandra Salinas (Spanish: born 1977 in La Rioja) and Aeron Bergman (American: born 1971 in Detroit), artists based in Seattle, Washington. They are an artist duo producing media, performance, internet, sound and sculptural works and objects in an interdisciplinary, conceptual yet socially engaged practice.

Barcelona, Spain in 2004

Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas’ work has been exhibited extensively internationally including the 4th Athens Biennale;[1] Bergen Assembly Triennial;[2] Steirischer Herbst in Graz;[3] Eastside Projects in Birmingham,[4] UK; Serralves Museum in Porto; ICC Tokyo; DAC in New York;[5] Taipei Fine Art Museum; Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven,[6] The Netherlands; Centre George Pompidou[7] and Palais de Tokyo in Paris; IMO and Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen;[8] Henie Onstad Art Center, Kunstnernes Hus[9] and 0047[10] in Oslo, among many others.

Their video work has been screened at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City; e-flux Berlin; CCA Glasgow and Dundee Contemporary Arts in Scotland; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina Novi Sad and many others. They have also performed in venues around the world such as the Knitting Factory in New York; Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Art in Copenhagen; Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo and MUDAM Luxembourg.[11]

Kanazawa, Japan in 2003. Photo was taken by Asuna during Japanese tour.

In experimental sound the pair won an award of distinction in digital music at the Prix Ars Electronica in Linz,[12] Austria. Bergman/Salinas have been commissioned to produce sound works by institutions such as WDR West German radio and Swedish National Radio. Since 2011 Bergman/Salinas co-direct INCA, an artist-run space and artist in residency in Detroit, USA and in 2013 they opened INCA Seattle.[13]

INCA

Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas founded Institute for New Connotative Action (INCA) in Detroit in 2010 and in Seattle in 2013. Artist-run initiative focuses on language within art field as well as language as art, particularly emphasizing issues of transformation and translation. As described by co-founder Alejandra Salinas: "the idea was always to frame INCA the 'institute' as a parody that was also sincere in our mission." [14] Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas have curated over 40 exhibitions and events at INCA. They have hosted artist's talks, lectures and poetry readings. Some of the artists who have exhibited at INCA include Sondra Perry, Chris Kraus, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Cia Rinne, Mikko Kuorinki and Andreas Bunte.

Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas say in Temporary Art Review about their motivation for running INCA: We like working with great people. Also, we want to focus attention on the social life of art rather than the objects themselves. In Spain and South America, the "tertulia" tradition draws attention to the social life of art and literature without institutional regulation. Our motivation was to produce an independent, quasi-institution that would burn itself out before becoming a self-replicating zombie.[15]

In October 2015, INCA was a part of symposium "Alternative Currencies: Tactics for Staying Relevant and Radical" that was held at The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia. The forum gathered independent contemporary art groups and spaces from around USA in a collective exploration of what it means to be (and stay) "alternative".[16]

Teaching

Aeron Bergman was a professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway and both Bergman and Salinas are currently artists in residence at the University of Washington Bothell[17]

Sound works

Their 2005 album Be Mine consists of interviews of people talking about love, and the 1999 Children's Record was made by asking people to sing songs they can remember from their childhood. Alejandra and Aeron's early works are among the first experiments with folk and laptop electronic music. This is especially noted in Ruinas Encantadas (winner of an honorary mention in Prix Ars Electronica 2001) and Porto: Folklore Fragments Volume 2. The track Water Jota in 1213442 from the former consists almost entirely of water drop sounds, arranged according to the structure of a folk dance; the artists themselves comment on such concepts that the record "considers the past, while not repeating it."[18]

In 2002 the duo won an Award of Distinction in Digital Music for their audio installation "Revisionland" from the Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. They have released 12 critically acclaimed full length audio CDs on labels such as Orthlorng Musork, Fat Cat, Tomlab and their own label, Lucky Kitchen.

Visual art

Alejandra and Aeron have shown in solo and group exhibitions in museums and art centers around the world such as the NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) in Tokyo, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto,[19] VanAbbe Museum in Eindhoven,[20] Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) in New York, Kunstnernes Hus, Henie Onstad Art Center and 0047 Gallery in Oslo, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) and Centro de Arte Contemporaneo Santa Monica, both in Barcelona. "Wildflowers" was shown in the Shrinking Cities exhibition in Detroit MOCAD 2007 and in Gothenburg, Sweden, also 2007, and features interviews with individuals working in grassroots organizations in Detroit. They have recently done performances and installations at U.K.S. art center and Kunstnernes hus art center both in Oslo, Norway. They have also conceived and curated a controversial website at http://www.nobelprize.no, with international artists such as Marjetica Potrc, Michel Auder, Peter Campus, Kenneth Goldsmith, Momus, Sharmila Samant and others. They run Institute for Neo Connotative Action (INCA), an artist in residency and exhibition/lecture space in Detroit, MI, since 2010.

Lucky Kitchen

In addition to their own work, Alejandra and Aeron have run the independent audio publisher Lucky Kitchen since 1997. Some of the artists published on Lucky Kitchen are Stephen Vitiello, Tetsu Inoue, Matmos, Joshua Abrams and Liz Payne (from Town and Country) Stephan Mathieu, and Halvorson Pavone.

Discography

See also

References

  1. ↑ "AGORA | e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  2. ↑ "Bergen Assembly 2013". Bergen Assembly 2013. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  3. ↑ "steirischer herbst 2013 · Calendar". www.steirischerherbst.at. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  4. ↑ "Eastside Projects | Abstract Possible". eastsideprojects.org. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  5. ↑ "OCA: Press Releases : Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman solo exhibition at Dumbo Arts Center, NY". www.oca.no. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  6. ↑ "Van Abbemuseum: Your-space: Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas (event)". vanabbemuseum.nl. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  7. ↑ "Audiolab". www.centrepompidou.fr. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  8. ↑ "Either / Or | www.nikolajkunsthal.dk". www.nikolajkunsthal.dk. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  9. ↑ "Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas - BILLIONAIRE BEAR". kultoslo.no. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  10. ↑ "Artnews.org: Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas at 0047 Oslo". artnews.org. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  11. ↑ "Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, v3.0". archive.mudam.lu. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  12. ↑ "Ars Electronica | Prix Ars Electronica". www.aec.at. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  13. ↑ "Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas | HIAP". www.hiap.fi. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  14. ↑ "With Its New Show, Unstoppable, INCA Strives to Expand the Lexicon of Seattle's Art Conversation". The Stranger. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  15. ↑ "Institute for New Connotative Action | Temporary Art Review". Temporary Art Review. 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  16. ↑ "Moore College of Art & Design – ALTERNATIVE CURRENCIES: TACTICS FOR STAYING RELEVANT AND RADICAL". moore.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  17. ↑ "Faculty and Staff: University of Washington Bothell".
  18. ↑ Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schöpf, Christian Schrenk. Cyberarts 2001, p. 179. Birkhäuser, 2001. ISBN 3-211-83628-4
  19. ↑ "Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas exhibit in Portugal - July 2015 - IAS News - UW Bothell". www.uwb.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  20. ↑ "Van Abbemuseum: Gathering Gathering (event)". vanabbemuseum.nl. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
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