SOAP Art and Publishing

Kilometer Zero In 2015 she was invited to Vis A Vis artist in residence program in Limosano in Central Italy. It was a time of intense climate debate as the important Paris Summit COP21 was to take place later during this year.  Listening and reading world news while spending time in a very small community the work is reflecting on the circumstances of this community as well as the unlikely alliances that frequently happen in the global discussions. She produced a series of images and a text for the catalogue which is accessible on Issuu as well as in print from Limiti Inchiusi Arte Contemporana The residency was funded by Limiti Inchiusi Arte Contemporana.

NOTES Photography Journal: In  2016 she was instrumental in resurrecting and reconceptualizing the Scottish photographers association’s newsletter NOTES.  The journal is now published twice a year. Its aim is to provide a forum for Scottish photography thinkers, (practitioners, curators, graphic designers, and writers) to create a dialogue with important Scottish and international photography. The journal is artists led and produced by an editorial group. It features essays, portfolios, and book reviews.

TALK SEE PHOTOGRAPHY Since 2013 she has been running the event TalkSeePhotography at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow. The program facilitates interdisciplinary conversations with experts in different fields responding to photographic projects and initiatives to stimulate discourse on a grassroots level as a compliment and a challenge to institutional programming. In 2014/15 a series of lectures and workshops called TalkSeePhotography International were funded by FRAME contemporary art Finland and Creative Scotland.

Besides the above-mentioned NOTES which came as a progression to solidify the artist-led noninstitutional discourse which we were creating in our local/regional context TalkSeePhotography had several spinoff productions in collaborations with other artists and groups. In 2014 part of the group that formed came together to make a slideshow projection 2014FRAMES during Glasgow International at CCA–Glasgow, Streetlevel Photoworks, and at Merchant City Square. For this, we collaborated with 63 curators from around the world and showed over 300 photographers. At the environmental festival EFES 2015 we operated under the name FocoPhoco and erected a portable darkroom run on solar energy in a boothy and taught visitors how to develop/print and make cyanotypes. This project was conceptualized and project-led by Ben Rush The exhibition series MilkDiaries at MILK CAFE came out of Curatorial Slams
(Thanks to SummerHallTV for the clips in links)

A White Woman’s Photographic Travelogue 2005-2011 Nina completed her Ph.D. research producing A White Woman’s Photographic Travelogue which examines white privilege through a blend of landscape photography, portraiture, staged self-portraits, and Autour-style documentary made in collaboration with the people she photographs. The work cross-references cultural media (film, art, theory, and publication) to explore colonial practices and how narratives in contemporary culture reify exoticism and orientalism. Her interest in these subjects is without a doubt influenced by her background and life as a Swedish/American Greek with roots in what today is Turkey and the experience of white privilege. The portfolio was submitted as an exhibition and a 50/50 part image text document. GSA Flicker

In The Cracks of migration 2002-2004 is a photographic work, based on found and staged imagery to create a fragmented narrative about undocumented migrants movements in Europe. The work was spurned by Europe fortifying its borders to prevent refugees from entering its territory and by how the current circumstance connects to European colonial history and capitalist policies and economies. The project deals with how these policies made life untenable for so many people in large areas of the world and how European policies are formed to avoid responsibility for this historic activity and the human rights violations that have followed.

Until 2002, she drew exclusively from her immediate social circle to create her subjects and explore an extended biographical narrative; in Hotel Happiness. 1999 and 2000 While traveling between New York, Oslo and Gothenburg, she produced a series of works called Hotel Happiness which looked at human migration and mobility. The work was exhibited as a prolonged performance event at Gallery GUN in Oslo where Nina lived in the gallery room during the exhibition and kept a reception open 24 hours a day.  In the polaroid project Nearness (1996-99) she work explored intimacy in cross-cultural and ethnically diverse relationships: The images of her partner, their children, families and friends generated conversations about representation of victimhood, race and gender. This set Nina's focus on issues that are underlined by invisible privileges and how they operate tandem with economic inequality and identity based injustices are negotiated in relationships between families, friends and lovers.

Text: Anna Bokström

CV Nina Bacos

Qualifications

2013 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Practice-led Fine Art Photography, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK). Title of thesis: A White Woman’s Photographic Travel Journal. 

2001-2004  Master of Fine Art  in Photography, School of Film and Photography (now Institute Valand) Gothenburg University, Sweden. Title In The Cracks of Migration. (Dissertation, Moving Beyond The Post) 

1996-1999  Bachelor of Fine Art, in Photography, School of Film and Photography (now Institute Valand) Gothenburg University, Sweden. Title Near Photographic Pictures. 

Workshops and Teaching. 

2021 September-Jan Tutor Photography Department Cumbria University 2015-2019 Tutor at the third year autumn electoral photography module at Duncan and Jordanstone School of Art and Design 2016 Eskilstuna Municipality. Photography workshop with vulnerable children and teenagers from refugee communities. Many had arrived just months ago, some alone without parents. 2015 Workshop Halmstad Municipality Teenagers and young adults. 2014 Workshop with teenagers and young adults during area regeneration.  The focus laid on the participants taking ownership of their experiences and  defining their space in the areas. 2009 Guest Lecturer Environmental Art Glasgow School of Art 2008 Guest Lecturer Art Academy Umeå Sweden, 2007 Guest Lecturer Napier 2007 Guest Lecturer Critical Studies. 2001-2002 Head teacher Gestaltande Fotografi Fotoskolan Gamleby Sweden, 2000-2001 Oslo Fotokunstskole Oslo Norway 1999 Workshop Halmstad Municipality Teenagers and young adults.

Selected Publications, Conference papers and interventions and Talks

2016 Publisher of Nothing Is Impossible Under the Sun by Alice Myers,  2015 Publisher/editor/ /essayist for the book Sound of A Picture, The Photography of Elinor Westin, Catalogue Publication 2015 ‘VIS à VIS 2015’ ISBN: 978-88-905288-35 with essays by Deirdre MacKenna, Paolo Borelli and Fausto Colavecchia. 2015 ‘Et Dieu Crea La Fame’ edited by Photographer Tine Bek dedicated to looking at Women photographing Women. 2013 ‘The White Girl's Lament’, Doubt and Visual Representation,  Art Symposium, University College, Cork, Ireland. 2010 ‘A Self Assertive White Woman’s Diary’ Conference, Landscapes of the Self, Conference University of Evora, Evora, Portugal  2008 ‘A Self Assertive White Woman’s Diary’, Conference, University of the West Indies Mona Campus, Kingston Jamaica, 2008 Body, Location, Methodology: A Self-Assertive White Woman’s Diary’ Crossing Cultural Borders Workshop, Bangor University Bangor Wales UK , 2007 ‘A Self Assertive Woman’s Diary’ Artist talk at Goethe Institut, Lagos, Nigeria, 2006 ‘Moving Beyond the Post’, Estranged Realities, Visualizing Differences, University of Wales, Newport Wales UK, 2005 Moving Beyond the Post, Conference In, and through, the Arts, ELIA. Berlin Germany.

Selected Group Exhibitions.

2021 November Ecotone Towards the Water, Dunoon Burgh Hall. 2021 October Konstnärer tolkar AP fonderna 2021 Harvermagasinet Boden Sweden, 2021 October Konstnärer tolkar AP fonderna ( ongoing activist project to prompts pension funds to divest in fossil-fuel.) Galleri 54 Gothenburg Sweden, 2019 May NOTES Palimpsest AnnLantair Stornoway Scotland, 2019 May NOTES recycled envelope project at SSA’s Palimpsest AnnLantair, 2017 ‘When the Light Shifts, Glasgow Womens Library, Glasgow 2016 ‘Milk Diaries Impromptu’ (with Melanie Letore and John Farrell), Glasgow 2013 ‘Aspects of A White Woman's Photographic Travel journal  Glasgow, 2011 ‘The Summer Before Dark’ Photosensitive. One Church Street Gallery, Great Missenden 2011 ‘A Self Assertive White Woman’s Diary’, Bealtaine, The Glue Factory, Glasgow 2010 ‘Aspects’ Half Knowledge Half…’ Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery, Glasgow 2005 UNSTABLE’ New Directions in Swedish Photography 1990-2004, with Lotta Antonsson,Helena Blomqvist, Anna Bokström, Trinidad Carrillo, Mikael Olsson etc..  Bildmuseet Umeå Sweden. 2004 ‘In The Cracks of Migration‘ Swedish contemporary photography. Unstable: New Directions with Annika Von Hausswolff, Martin Sjoberg, Lars Tunbjork, Pernilla Zetterman… The Cultural House, Stockholm Sweden. 2004 ‘Salon Gothenburg’ with Katarina Elvén, Paul Forsberg, Evelina Gustavsson, Petter Magnusson Ann-Sofi Roxhage, Kristian From, Sarah Schmidt. Hall of Contemporary art The Gothenburg Art Museum Gothenburg Sweden. 2003 ‘Women 2003’, billboard exhibit published by Informations Forlag Copenhagen, Denmark. 2004 Salon Stockholm Group show Katarina Elvén, Paul Forsberg, Evelina Gustavsson, Petter Magnusson Ann-Sofi Roxhage Sarah Schmidt… CFF (Centre For Photography) Stockholm, Sweden.2003 ‘In the Cracks of Migration’ Presentation, Le Festival Voies Off des Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France. 2003 ‘The Ballad of Valor’ billboard exhibition www.women2003.dk with Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Lotta Antonson, Kristina Ask, Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, Icelandic Love Corporation, Nina Bondeson, Annika Ström, Maria Ylikoski. Copenhagen, Denmark. 2002 ‘My Summer Vacation’ with Virgil Dejarv and Björn Hellström Gallery SUBAU, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Selected Solo Exhibitions, Publication and Presentations of my artwork.

2021 August ′′ HOME SWEET HOME - Explorations of Living ′′ in the former Castle of Castrignano dé Greeci KORA - Center for Contemporary art .Puglia Italy 2021 June Konstnärer Tlkar AP fonderna Stockholm Sweden. 2015   ‘KM Zero at VIS à VIS’, Limosano. Molise. Italy  2013 ‘A White Woman’s Photographic Travel Journal’: Breadfield Gallery, Malmö, Sweden 2012 ‘A White Woman’s Photographic Travel Journal’. Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, 2007 ‘In The Cracks of Migration’, Black History Month, Artists in Exile, Glasgow, 2007 ‘Moving Beyond the Post’, Gallery Cosmopolitan The Jubilee Exhibit¸ Gothenburg, Sweden, 2001 ‘Near Photographic Pictures’ Stromstad Konsthall, Stromstad, Sweden, 2001 ‘Hotel Happiness’ Paletten Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2000 ‘Hotel Happiness’ Gallery G.U.N, Oslo, Norway, 2000 ‘Near Photographic Pictures’ Halmstad Art Museum, Halmstad, Sweden.

Other work experience Solo Catering for small weddings or other social occasions. Southside All Clean 2018 and present A self-started and managed cleaning business, working alongside fellow artists with an aim to enable us to sustain our practices. Carrying out professional weekly cleanings for commercial spaces, offices and homes, 2017 to 2019 Catering at a Couple of Cooks, preparing food, managing serving, cleaning and organising duties. 1987-2005 Intermittent work on ships in the Swedish Merchant Navy (Not to be confused with the military apparatus), Translator of films, support worker in youth home, intermittently substitute teacher in primary and secondary schools.