Sea of Mountains

Sea of Mountains is the site-specific project created for the inaugural edition of 24020 Residenze – the artist residency programme of CAP24020 Contemporary Art Practices in Alta Valle Seriana, Lombardy, Italy.

Sea of Mountains is curated by Helsinki-based performing and visual arts curator Riikka Thitz and features works by Finnish artists Tatu Nenonen and Elina Vainio. In dialogue with the vast pre-Alpine upper part of the Seriana valley, the project approaches landscape as a product of overground and underground relations, a shared space constructed of long- and short-term encounters.  

The name Sea of Mountains comes from the English philosopher and Alpine enthusiast, John Ruskin, who, in the 19th century, wrote about the geology of the mountains, comparing the shapes of their masses to waves of water. The project interprets the concept of fluidity as a way to work with the human and more-than-human inhabitants and materials of the valley; as a constant flux of social, natural, and historical processes - a composition of their trajectories.

Sea of Mountains features the outcomes of the artists’ first, research-based residency in the valley in autumn 2023. Vainio utilises the residue of marble excavation as the basis for layered and fragmentary memorials of local everyday life. Working with landscapes as soundscapes, Nenonen approaches the geologic folds of the mountain range as malleable "soft material", an active and reactive mass.

Thanks to the collaboration with Finnish arts association i dolci, Sea of Mountains, 2023/2024 edition of 24020 Residenze, is partly funded by Finnish Cultural Foundation and Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

24020 Residenze

Sea of Mountains spring residency 24.4.-9.5.2024
Sea of Mountains autumn residency 2.-29.10.2023

Bios

CAP24020 Contemporary Art Practices is a platform dedicated to participatory and site-specific contemporary art practices in Alta Valle Seriana: a large pre-alpine valley of Lombardy region, Italy. Established in 2023 by a small team of native art professionals through the 24020 Residenze programme CAP24020 aims at bringing international artistic researches, perspectives and discourses in dialogue with the valley. Its first project, 24020 Racconti: Storie di Gromo, is a community-made audio-guide lead by Italian multimedia artist Sara Maino dedicated to the mediaeval town of Gromo, where CAP24020 has its headquarters.

Tatu Nenonen is a Helsinki-based sound designer working with contemporary performance and sound in various contexts. Nenonen focuses on shifting attention towards audible and vibrating materials, emphasising the physicality of sound. In Nenonen’s works, sound is both a corporeal and sculptural element.

Nenonen has worked in numerous theatres in Finland, as well as festivals, galleries, radio dramas, sound art, and film sound design. Recent works include Undress me, then (2023) at Takomo Theatre, The Lovely Daughter Erika - Notes on a Name (2023) at the Finnish Literary Archive, and As Time Goes By (2023) at Zodiak - Center for New Dance in Helsinki. 

Elina Vainio is a Helsinki-based visual artist working with a wide range of approaches to varying materials. Her works often draw attention to human-centred worldviews, questioning how and through what kinds of lenses we come to perceive things and ultimately our place among everything. Vainio regularly collaborates with other artists and is currently a member of an experimental art collective, Nomadic Kiln Group. 

Vainio has graduated from the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts and the Chelsea College of Art. Her works have been shown, among others, at Lappeenranta Art Museum (2023); HAM - Helsinki Art Museum (2021); Wäinö Aaltonen Museum (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (2019) and Gwangju Biennale (2018). 

Riikka Thitz is a Helsinki-based curator of contemporary performance and visual art. Her curatorial projects explore forms of public presentation of visual and performing arts as well as their overlaps, ranging from exhibitions and performances to site-responsive projects. Her practice is informed by dramaturgical tools and especially by the concept of landscape dramaturgy. 

Thitz currently works as the curator of Helsinki City Theatre’s Stage for Contemporary Performance. Her previous projects include the group exhibitions Solar Noon (Taattisten tila, Naantali 2023) and Ebb and flow (Kuva/Tila, Helsinki, 2021). In 2024, she is staying in the Helsinki International Artist Programme’s (HIAP) 11-month curatorial residency on Suomenlinna island. 

Thitz holds an MFA in Exhibition Studies from the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts as well as an MA in Euroculture from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Together with harpsichordist Marianna Henriksson and choreographer Anna Mustonen, she is a founding member of the artist-run arts association i dolci.