Approach at Sea

Latest News 100728

[approach at sea] did not come through as planned this summer, unfortunately, due to lack of financing. Further decitions on how to carry on in the future will be made up soon.

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All partners have signed for co-operation and we have artists in the project from seven countries!

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Swedish, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian partners has joined the project

Full speed ahead! We have now agreement with Kalmar Art Museum in Sweden and with NOASS floating art platform in Riga/Latvia about presentation of [approach at sea]. In addition, we are arranging for residency with partners in Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden, and for support to participating artists.  More parners will be added. One artist from each Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden has been added for this summer´s expedition. Looking forward to add also Finnish, Russian and Polish artists.

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Seminar in the Swedish archipelago 27.th of february

The pilot project was ended and the continuation was fuelled, during a weekend in Dalarö, Stockholm. Particicipating artists from Germany, Latvia, Stockholm and Kalmar joined. Artwork, ideas and pilotproject results were presented. We invited Lena Kautsky, marine scientist/researcher for a lecture on the state and history of the Baltic Sea. We also took part of two earlier Baltic projects done by other artists, and a documentary film made by Birgitta about the pilot project. See more pictures from seminar here!

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Time to find out more about the future. Approach at sea is searcing for cooperation partner in Sweden and for a few more participants for this summer. Artists or scientists/environmentalists with a special interest  concerning the Baltic, and with an idea of how to explore the water from sailing with an international crew on 35 foot sailing boat Esmeralda II and skipper Birgitta from Sweden.

Also check participants blog: new sections from Albert Caspari and some more pictures from Tallin in Birgittas blog.

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I am in Tallin, with the ferry this time, to meet with artists and also people with knowledge and interest in the Baltic sea. Here is now close to christmas, darkness falls early,  time is one hour before swedish time. I learned that 80 % of all life on earth is in the seas. Do we care about the Baltic? I have today met an artist that cares, Neeme Külm and the architects at Salto has made 63 m of dummy of the Nordstream gas pipeline, shown at the architectural biennal in Venice 2008, as something very real to talk about before it vanishes under the surface. Take part of the project here. Estonia said no thanks to a gaspipe through their territorial waters. Why did everybody else say yes? How could this happen so easily?

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The pilot phase of [approach at sea] has now finished it´s sailing part around the south east Baltic sea and Gulf of Riga.

The goal of the pilot part was to make contacts on land for future cooperation and to try out a method of working for artists and environmentalists together on the boat.

This summer the crew consisted of two female artists from Sweden: Annette Felleson and Liv Strand (Liv has her origin in Norway), the project leader Birgitta Silfverhielm (artist and sailor), and a german ecologist, baltic specialist as well as photographer, Albert Caspari. This crew sailed and lived on the boat for 16 days.

The boat we have used is a Linjett 35, a swedish built very good and easy-to-sail boat, owned by the project leader, who is also an experienced sailor since many years. The project ideas comes very much out of Birgitta Silfverhielms believs in that a boat and the sea can unite people and act as a platform for intense and serious work. Being on a boat together means coming close into each other´s professional as well as personal life at the same time.

Another important driving force in this project is the curiosity to share different views on the Baltic sea, getting to know each other´s thoughts and discourses concerning the environment and future of the water connecting us. To be able to do this, the project has taken a lot of contacts with art- and environmental organisation as well as with some other people concerned with the sea, in the countries around the Baltic sea. Some of these contacts were visited during this summers´sailing tour.

Click to download pressrelease-eng0909

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Esmeralda II is back in Dalarö/Stockholm, Sweden. This summers´ sailing counts to about 1 200 nautical miles, going around the south-eastern Baltic and the Riga bay. We did the trip back from Riga with a crew consisting of three persons except me; one from Dalarö, one from Riga and one from Kaliningrad. Crossing the whole Baltic, including visiting Gotland on the way, ment a lot to them, and the contacts for Kaliningrad region that I got ment a lot to me and Approach project.

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Yesterday Esmeralda II sailed on the Daugava and out into the open sea - “as far as possible”, as one of the latvian artists put it. The crew consisted of Dzintars Zilgalvis, artist and head of the floating art space NOASS in Riga, Kirils Pantelejevs, artist and teacher at the Riga Art Academy, Ieva Jakusonoka, art student and part of the Bolderaja group and Genadijs, musician and also part of Bolderaja group. We sailed, had lunch and also investigated some spots only possible to reach from the seaside, like an old submarine base just close to Bolderaja. Bolderaja is an area close to the mouth of Daugava river, a suburb where a group of people are trying to save nature and environment. Next they will do a mail art project about learning to swim, as the water is rising in the Baltic sea. We have now met such a lot of lovely people here!

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We are in Riga, and have spent two very intense days meeting with Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, the floating art platform NOASS, art- and environment activists in the the suburb Bolderaja and we also visited the Art Academy of Riga and some artist´s studios. Altogether we get the impression of Riga being a place with a really interesting art scene.

Countdown has begun. Tonight the project crew will leave for Germany and Sweden. Tomorrow Birgitta will sail with local artists, curators and envionmental activists on the Daugava river, people that we met during these days.

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We have now visited two Latvian ports, Liepaja and Ventspils. Very different places. Tonight we will be in the local TV news after having held a press conference together with local greens and local artists. We got some wonderful contacts with people and also had them on board as visitors. We will for sure get back here and continue what can lead to a very exiting cooperation.

During our stay in Liepaja we were busy writing on our own pages, see “participants” for more info. This town is fantastic and we have made also there some really good contacts with people. We used one day to go by bicycle to the old naval harbour area called Karosta, where there were ´til recently an artist´s house, a gallery and a lot of international artists coming to work. All this artistic activity have now sadly ended, but the house is still there. Karosta consists of partly inhabited and partly abandoned houses, some from the soviet time, others from the end of the 19.th century.

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We have now arrived in Klaipeda, Lithuania, early this morning after 17 hours on a jumpy sea. Everybody are well. Tomorrow we are going to visit  the organisation Kulturpolis, and meet some artists there.

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We are now leaving for Klaipeda, in Lithuania. The wind is westerly, which will give us a good sailing towards the next country and while passing Russia, where we have to keep out 12 nautical miles from the coastline if we will not have trouble with the coastguard.

We have had a presentation at Wyspa Art Institute yesterday and met some polish artist, one of them took the nice photo of the group.

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After fighting a mosquito half the night we woke up at 7.00 cause Albert were going to join the crew early. Now we’ve had breakfast and a discussion about conditions in Poland and the Baltic countries and about the environmental awareness…

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We met Ola at WYSPA to have a look at the WYSPA working space and what was happening there right now. If you’re in Gdansk next Thursday then visit the opening of a new exhibition that a Swiss artist gently is preparing in the basement. On Saturday we’re hosting a meeting at WYSPA with artists from the region to tell about [approach at sea] it’s starting at 15.00.

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In the evening we had dinner with cultural geographer Mariusz Czepczynski in Sopot and he had a lot of ideas on how our project can be carried out in the future. He also thought that bridging artist and environmentalists working and inspiring each other is a challenge since the fields of professions are almost the most far apart he could imagine. Lets prove him wrong!! We also got a picture of the political situation and was fed some prejudice on the scientists and the academic system in the region south east of the Baltic Sea.

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The boat has now arrived in Gdansk, Poland! The sailing took a bit more than 30 hours, from the south of Gotland, and it was about 187 nautical miles - take it times 1,853 and you get kilometers. The weather was dramatic, with hard winds and thunders in the evening and at night. This thursday the “project crew” will arrive, and saturday 15.00 we will have a meeting in Wyspa art institute. Welcome to join if you are in Gdansk!

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[approach at sea] has got a new crewmember for this summer; Albert Caspari, ecologist, photograhper with experience from the Baltic countries and coasts since many years. We are happy to invite him on board.

Approach at Sea will take off from Sweden in mid July and start the journey with sailing to Poland, Gdansk.

Next we will sail up the coast of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and back to Sweden. The crew will, in 2009, consist of three swedish artists and a german ecologist.

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We are going to meet artists and envrionmental workers who are interested in taking part in the project next summer.

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We are going to make seminars about the Approach at Sea project in cooperation with our partners.

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We are going to display on this website the experiences and talks that takes part during the journey on the boat and in the visited places.

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We will establish contact with new partners in the countries that we will visit - partners from the art scene and from environmental organisations and activists.

It will be possible to meet us:

In Gdansk about 23-26.th of July

In Klaipeda about the 27.th to 30.th of July

In Liepaja about the 1 to 3 of August

one more port on the way not decided on - about the 4 th of august

In Riga about the 7.th to 8.th of august.

In each place we will have an information and a seminar in cooperation with one of our partners, or you can visit us on the boat. Information will be presented on this site during our tour on exact dates, time and places. The boat will wear a flag with the projects logotype, to be recognizable in the harbours. Welcome to visit us!