Capsula's cross-disciplinary expeditions, straddling the borderline between art and science, study and marvel at natural phenomena through personal experience. The first expedition was made in summer 2008 to Siberia, where the total eclipse of the Sun could be observed. The base of the expedition was set up at the Novosibirsk Zoo, from which it continued on to the Altai wilderness and all the way to the Moon. Travelling slow, using methods of transport that only moderately burden the environment, is a key aspect of the expeditions.
Expedition to the Total Eclipse was exhibited as an exhibition for the first time in Kiasma, Helsinki as a part of Pixelache 2009 -programme from March to June 2009. The finissage, Eclipse Happening was celebrated in Kiasma Theatre and Ursa Observatory in June 2009. The event formed part of the International Year of Astronomy.
Read Expedition to the Total Eclipse -blog here >>
See more pictures of the Expedition to the Total Eclipse >>
The Moon Goose Experiment (MGE) is based on an excerpt from the book The Man in the Moone, written by the English bishop Francis Godwin in 1603. Godwin was the first person ever to describe weightlessness - long before Newton's theory of gravity. The protagonist in the book flies to the moon in a chariot towed by gansas birds, more commonly known as geese. These special moon geese migrate every year from the Earth to the Moon. The artist equips the space expedition on a sand island in the Siberian river Ob and observes the effect of the total eclipse of the Sun on the behaviour of the moon geese.
[...] I found then by this Experience that which no Philosopher ever dreamed of, to wit, that those things which wee call heavie, do not sinke toward the Center of the Earth, [...]
Francis Godwin (1603), The Man in the Moone
Zoolar Eclipse is a research project in which the artist observes the behaviour of animals at the Novosibirsk Zoo during the week that ends with the total eclipse of the Sun.
The first stage of the artistic research project concentrates on the White-handed gibbon (Hybolates Lar) following their reactions when zoo visitors go wild and make noise when the Sun is eclipsed. The work draws attention to the artificial environment and marginal conditions of animals living in a zoo. It questions the roles of the object and subject, as well as those of human being and animal.
1 August 2008
After more than three weeks of travelling I suddenly end up in on this sandy beach near a small South-Siberian village. The locals are spending the sunny day picnicking, when the Finnish solar eclipse expedition who gave me the ride arrives at the scene. There are enough dark glasses to go round and the atmosphere gets thicker as the day-trippers watched the two celestial bodies meet in the sky.
Taipale biked, hiked, hitchhiked and took a train to witness the eclipse. The photographs of landscapes and incidents he took along the way create a narrative basis for a subjective travel experience.
HIAP Helsinki International Artist-in-Residence Programme, AVEK the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture, the Arts Council of Finland, FRAME the Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, AECID the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development, Goethe Institut and the Novosibirsk Zoo
