[spectre] Threshold artspace, Perth: New exhibition by Olle Essvik & Mare Tralla

[Iliyana Nedkova]

Horsecross invites you to an exhibition at Threshold artspace featuring 
two new art games as part of Players:

Sun Clock by Olle Essvik (Sweden)
Eurogame by Mare Tralla (Estonia/UK)

Exhibition runs 1 - 31 October 2006 at Threshold artspace, Perth 
Concert Hall, Horsecross, Mill Street, Perth, Scotland, UK
Open daily from 10 am for up to 14 hours. Admission Free.

Downloadable: Collect your mobile phone copy of Olle's Sun Clock from 
the artist's web site: www.jimpalt.org/sunclock

Related event: Olle Essvik: Artist’s Talk, 11 am, Wednesday 11 October 
2006, Dundee Contemporary Arts Cinema, 152 Nethergate, Dundee.  
Admission Free but ticketed.


Threshold artspace at Perth Concert Hall continues its year long 
exhibition Players, showcasing the best in art games and sound toys. 
This October, Horsecross introduces two new pieces, Mare Tralla's 
Eurogame and Olle Essvik's Sun Clock. Players has been running 
throughout 2006 to audience acclaim, showcasing different art games by 
international artists each month. Players has helped establish the 
Threshold artspace as the only public gallery in the UK with a 
consistent, year round programme dedicated to this emerging genre of 
contemporary art. The art games showcased as part of Players are 
interactive projects designed by independent artists who probe the 
possibilities created by digital platforms. The works introduce new 
meanings and messages; forge technical and aesthetic innovations and 
sometimes subvert the standards imposed by the mainstream gaming  
industry.

Dubbed "Estonia's Tracey Emin" by critics, Mare Tralla’s works often 
tackle issues of identity. For Players, Mare was invited to revisit and 
update her ongoing work Eurogame,  initially commissioned for the 
British Airways web site. With Europe continually changing and growing, 
her Eurogame takes on a new significance. Humorous and engaging, Mare's 
art game starts with an outline of the map of the European continent. 
Scattered around the edges are the shapes of the various countries, as 
defined by their international borders. Visitors to the artspace can 
drag these pieces and try them for fit, like in a jigsaw puzzle. If one 
successfully gets all the countries in the right place, the game moves 
to a new level. While partaking in the re-mapping of new Europe, 
visitors can reflect on the continued existence of nationalism and 
borders within Europe, both physical and cultural.

Threshold artspace's other new exhibition for October is Olle Essvik’s 
Sun Clock, which tracks the sun's movement in the sky. Sun Clock is a  
live Internet intervention which allows visitors to follow the sun as 
it rises and sets over Perth in real time, each day throughout October. 
The black and yellow bands of the work represent the sun’s presence in 
the sky as a slow motion abstraction. You can also download Sun Clock 
onto your mobile phone from the artist's web site: 
www.jimpalt.org/sunclock

Players is presented by Horsecross and curated by Iliyana Nedkova, 
Horsecross Creative Director New Media. Olle Essvik's Artist's Talk is 
organised by Horsecross in partnership with the University of Dundee 
and Dundee Contemporary Arts. This talk is fourth in a series of 
Threshold artspace off-site events in partnership with the University 
of Dundee. Previous talks featured artists Dan Perjovschi, Paul 
Farrington and Thomson+Craighead.

More about Mare Tralla
• Mare was born in 1967 in Tallinn,  Estonia. She lives and works in 
London.
• Currently she is studying for a PhD at CARTE, University of 
Westminster.
• Most recently she exhibited her interactive work satirising Soviet 
propaganda The Friendship of All Nations as part of Prologue group show 
at Cornerhouse, Manchester and presented it at ISEA2006, San Jose, USA.
• At present her works are also part of Collected Crises. Estonian Art 
in the 1990's exhibited at KUMU, the new Art Museum of Estonia in 
Tallinn.
• For further details about Mare and her practice please visit: 
www.tralladigital.co.uk

More about Olle Essvik
• Olle was born in 1976 in Gothenburg, Sweden where he lives and works.
• Over the summer 2006 Olle exhibited as part of Nord: new works by 
emerging Scottish and Swedish artists at Threshold artspace. His two 
channel video work When Robert Met Wolfgang (in collaboration with Joel 
Nordqvist) is now part of the Threshold artspace collection.
• Recently he exhibited at Istanbul Biennale 2005 as part of Lost in 
Translation.
• For further details about Olle and his practice please visit: 
www.jimpalt.org

More about Players
• Players' art games shown at the artspace included two exclusive 
Horsecross commissions and twelve Scottish premieres by as many 
international artists.
• The Threshold Stage – home to Players and one of the nine unique 
spaces at the artspace  – have been transformed into a digital 
playground for young and old to engage with and have fun. Artists and 
audiences use the state-of the art facilities including the huge 
projection walls, smart sensors, wireless gamepad, and under-floor 
speakers to bring the art games alive.

Threshold artspace, Perth Concert Hall, Horsecross, Mill Street, Perth, 
PH1 5HZ, 0044 (0) 845 612 6320  info at horsecross.co.uk  
www.horsecross.co.uk
Scotland’s first dedicated gallery for digital public art, with nine 
unique spaces presenting a varied programme of artists’ films, videos, 
games, text, photography, performance, light, sound and software art.

For further details please contact Iliyana Nedkova, Horsecross Creative 
Director New Media at inedkova at horsecross.co.uk