With the River – The Collective

Application summary

With the River - The Collective is a newly founded collective of eight Nordic established and professional artists based in Finland, Sweden and the Faroe Islands. It was founded by artist Eija Mäkivuoti, who for an extended amount of time has been working with the themes that the group focuses on, but now with seven additional perspectives. The result is a multidisciplinary and multidimensional collective endeavour to comprehend our general connection with fluid bodies, watery borders and border-crossings through artistic processes and production. The collective consists of artists that work in a variety of disciplines and artistic manifestations: painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, video, audio as well as performance, text based and ritualistic practices. These artists are: Eija Mäkivuoti (FI/SE), Jessica Franzén (SE), Jón Sonni Jensen (FO), Mari Keski-Korsu (FI), Matilda Löytty (FI), Jouko Alapartanen (FI), Alexandra Stroganova (FI/RU) and Dan Helgi í Gong (FO). The aim is to have short on-site periods of collaborative work in each of the three represented countries, as well as sustaining a continuous online discussion and building of partnerships over the period of four years and to have this work manifest in an exhibition and publication launch in Helsinki in the latter half of 2026, with possible additional touring of the work produced in other locations as well (read project description attached). Some of the more concise themes that the group is working with are: - Bodies of water as fluid borders and the meaning of this for human and non-human beings alike. - Water as an ever-moving, penetrating and cyclical force. - Water as a cleansing entity, conveying and retaining time, space, history and stories. - Water as a gestational, clean yet contaminated environment. - Hydrofeminism. - Different states and qualities of water and the implication of these, as well as our relationship to them.