Teemu Kivikangas

Teemu Kivikangas is a media artist and designer based currently in Helsinki, Finland. His main artistic media are experimental cinema, VJing, interactive installations, photography and text. In addition, he works as a freelance art director and game designer.

Teemu's films and works have been shown in media and contemporary art festivals around the world (e.g. ANTI Festival, PixelACHE and major events like ISEA and Ars Electronica) and in gallery exhibitions around the Europe. Solo shows include Ruins at the Gallery of Finnish Academy of Fine Arts (2009) and The Permanent Tourist at Gallery Valivuosi (2007).

After studying for a BSc. at Helsinki School of Economics, focusing on design business management, Teemu has graduated as MA from University of Art and Design Helsinki Media lab in 2007. More recently, his focused has shifted on fine art, a subject he has studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Art and Slade School of Art in London. He participated the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Graduation Show in spring 2010.

"I often work through documentary and collaborative processes. I approach documentary film and photography from the angle of an experimenting visual artist. I take liberty of interpreting and re-staging reality, but my current body of works is firmly based on research and actual events.

Many of my works deal with political and social issues such as immigration and globalization, narrating the effects of these phenomena in individual human lives. My work tends to take place in an environment foreign to me and in this sense I seek to put myself in a displaced situation corresponding to that of my subjects.

Another central premise of my work is the exploration of contemporary media landscape: versioning, remixing and copying are important processes in my work. I draw inspiration from varied sources and artists of different media, among whom most important to me are Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett, Chris Marker and Bruce Nauman. I use the existing canon of art, film and literature as a raw material to be torn apart, reinterpreted and rebuilt. To this mixture I also try to add a pinch of pop culture and humour."

Right click on following link and choose "Save as..." to download CV in PDF-format:

Curriculum Vitae: Teemu Kivikangas

(CV last updated in September, 2010)