7. – 29.10.2006

Tupakkamakasiini, Jaakonkatu 9, 68600 Pietarsaari

MONGREL is an internationally recognized artists group
specializing in digital media. They are at home in Southend-on-Sea, creating free-media at the mouth of the Thames in the MediaShed, but equally working around the world running pioneering art projects within centres of contemporary art and workshops with marginalised people.

Mongrel has an international reputation for their innovative arts projects, including the first online commission from the Tate Gallery, London and work in the permanent collections
of the Pompidou Centre, Paris and the Museum for Media Arts in Karlsruhe (ZKM).

Mongrel is humorous and playful in the field of politics and art. In spite of their most sophisticated and beautiful way of working in digital media, they make strong statements about society. They deny that stereotypes and traditional ways of thinking exist and ask questions that make media strange.

Combined with the projects in museums and galleries they usually work with marginalised peoples who are on low incomes, socially excluded and/or cultural minorities. Mongrel helps people to do things for themselves, creating social software and digital arts based projects that they then promote to a state of high visibility through their art world connections. They currently have projects running with the Congolese
community in London, the Container Project in Jamaica and they have helped groups in South African townships, the Sarai Centre in New Delhi and the Surinamer community of Amsterdam.

Mongrel is invited to Finland by the artist group VISU and the Nordic Art School in Kokkola for an exhibition in Tupakkamakasiini, Pietarsaari Art Museum with works from the series Netmonster and National Heritage. The exhibition is designed by Matsuko Yokokoji, a member of Mongrel.

There will be a Mongrel/MediaShed workshop run by David Valentine in Kokkola based around ¨Video Sniffin¨ working with a group of teenage immigrants and refugees and some students from the Nordic Art School. ¨Video Sniffin¨ is picking up public signals being broadcast by CCTV cameras and recording the footage to make a film that will be exhibited in the Tupakkamakasiini from the 14th October.

More information about Mongrel
http://www.mongrel.org.uk
http://www.mediashed.org
http://www.mediashed.org/?q=videosniffin

Video "minä olen" from the Video Sniffin workshop October 2006

Tupakkamakasiini is open every day 12 - 16, and on Wednesdays also 18- 20.