blue synnyt is a new site-specific public art project by Alex/Alexandra Sofie Jönsson.
blue synnyt is an performative audio-visual guide to posthuman relations exploring how infrastructures, practices, and colors mediate between bodies and the environment. The work draws on Karealian knowledge practices of synnyt - a mythical aetiology practiced by tietäjät, the ancient healers, working with care practices and spells connecting phenomena in their origin contexts. Presented as a temporary outdoor audio-visual installation, with swimming & sauna, and a collective listening moment, blue synnyt will reframe the public spaces of Vestre Fjordparken along Aalborg’s Limfjord in new ways.
The project examines the aesthetics of bodily (dis)comfort, in an attempt to dismantle numbness towards natural ecologies, and open up for new agencies as a temporary form of eco-surrender and solidarity. Can water - with its currents, coldness, ice, and waves - momentarily reorganize the body? blue synnyt focuses on care and temporality that centers practice-based forms of knowledge - such as hydro feminist and queerfeminist perspectives - in which knowledge is not to be uncovered, but relearned in bodily, material, and social contexts in which it can nurture new relations.
blue synnyt was created during two seasons of ice swimming in the Limfjord - the same location which is currently endangered by a planned motorway connection bridge. The project draws on a range of embodied knowledges co-created with local ice swimmers, activists, family members, and (more than human) friends - highlighting ecological bonding experiences in the nearby area through audiovisual material, underwater footage, and soundscapes.
Special thanks to Tanja Schlander, Nina Wöhlk, Caro Gervay, Liisa Annikki Jönsson, Katrina Louise Jönsson, Elisabeth Thomsen, Clara Dybbroe Viltoft, Helle Nygaard, Sara Hagins, Limfjorden, Nikolaj Kühn, Tine Steensgaard Bach, Käte Vestergaard Pedersen, Jens Bugay-Hougaard, Julianne Concepcion, Nikolaj Skjold, Simon Bendix Borregaard, Sackit, Isbjørnen and its iceswimmers for their contributions, and to The Danish Arts Foundation, Huset i Hasserisgade, Vestre Fjordparken, and Aalborg Streetfood for additional support.
blue synnyt is an performative audio-visual guide to posthuman relations exploring how infrastructures, practices, and colors mediate between bodies and the environment. The work draws on Karealian knowledge practices of synnyt - a mythical aetiology practiced by tietäjät, the ancient healers, working with care practices and spells connecting phenomena in their origin contexts. Presented as a temporary outdoor audio-visual installation, with swimming & sauna, and a collective listening moment, blue synnyt will reframe the public spaces of Vestre Fjordparken along Aalborg’s Limfjord in new ways.
The project examines the aesthetics of bodily (dis)comfort, in an attempt to dismantle numbness towards natural ecologies, and open up for new agencies as a temporary form of eco-surrender and solidarity. Can water - with its currents, coldness, ice, and waves - momentarily reorganize the body? blue synnyt focuses on care and temporality that centers practice-based forms of knowledge - such as hydro feminist and queerfeminist perspectives - in which knowledge is not to be uncovered, but relearned in bodily, material, and social contexts in which it can nurture new relations.
blue synnyt was created during two seasons of ice swimming in the Limfjord - the same location which is currently endangered by a planned motorway connection bridge. The project draws on a range of embodied knowledges co-created with local ice swimmers, activists, family members, and (more than human) friends - highlighting ecological bonding experiences in the nearby area through audiovisual material, underwater footage, and soundscapes.
Special thanks to Tanja Schlander, Nina Wöhlk, Caro Gervay, Liisa Annikki Jönsson, Katrina Louise Jönsson, Elisabeth Thomsen, Clara Dybbroe Viltoft, Helle Nygaard, Sara Hagins, Limfjorden, Nikolaj Kühn, Tine Steensgaard Bach, Käte Vestergaard Pedersen, Jens Bugay-Hougaard, Julianne Concepcion, Nikolaj Skjold, Simon Bendix Borregaard, Sackit, Isbjørnen and its iceswimmers for their contributions, and to The Danish Arts Foundation, Huset i Hasserisgade, Vestre Fjordparken, and Aalborg Streetfood for additional support.
Friday, March 22nd:
Outdoor Installation with Sound by Tanja Schlander, Ice Swimming & Sauna from 4:00 - 8:00 pm
Vestre Fjordpark, Skydebanevej 14, 9000 Aalborg
PROGRAM:
4:00 pm Ice Swimming & Sauna Session
6:00 pm Artist Talk with Karelian Refreshments
7:00 pm Listen & Viewing of blue synnyt
Note:
This is an outdoor event - please dress warmly.
Please bring whatever you feel comfortable swimming in and a towel if you wish to swim in the fjord and use the sauna. Isbjørnens iceswimmers will introduce ice swimming and assist with water safety. Changing locations at Vestre Fjordparken will be made available.
We will serve drinks and Karelian refreshments. The event will be in both Danish and English and is free of admission, no sign up is necessary.
Outdoor Installation with Sound by Tanja Schlander, Ice Swimming & Sauna from 4:00 - 8:00 pm
Vestre Fjordpark, Skydebanevej 14, 9000 Aalborg
PROGRAM:
4:00 pm Ice Swimming & Sauna Session
6:00 pm Artist Talk with Karelian Refreshments
7:00 pm Listen & Viewing of blue synnyt
Note:
This is an outdoor event - please dress warmly.
Please bring whatever you feel comfortable swimming in and a towel if you wish to swim in the fjord and use the sauna. Isbjørnens iceswimmers will introduce ice swimming and assist with water safety. Changing locations at Vestre Fjordparken will be made available.
We will serve drinks and Karelian refreshments. The event will be in both Danish and English and is free of admission, no sign up is necessary.
Alex/Alexandra Sofie Jönsson is a socially-engaged artist who works with theoretical and visual practices around the environment and ecofeminist knowledge to make open-source conceptual and emotional tools and useful infrastructures for everyday contexts. Jönsson has exhibited and created workshops internationally at Tate Modern (UK), Art Center Nabi (SKR), Roskilde Festival (DK), and Kunsthal NORD (DK); completed a residency with Art Hub Copenhagen (DK); and was awarded a working grant from The Danish Arts Foundation in 2022 as well as the Ars Electronica Prize in 2011. Jönsson is a co-founder and organizer of the experimental artistic platform Lím Collective and completed a practice-based PhD from Westminster University, London (UK) in 2020.