Patrik Söderlund

Writer and director Patrik Söderlund is the founding member of artist duo IC-98. With a background in visual arts and cultural studies, Söderlund’s and Visa Suonpää’s 25-year collaboration as IC-98 has produced artist publications, site and context specific projects and interventions, animated moving image installations and various public commissions. IC-98 received the Finnish State Art Prize in 2009 and represented Finland at the Venice Biennale in 2015 with Abendland (Hours, Years, Aeons), which was picked by Sundance Film Festival in 2016. Their work has been shown extensively at museums, biennials and festivals in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Though their practice is essentially conceptual, IC-98 is best known for animations, which combine classical drawing and digital effects, depicting landscapes shaped by long time durations, natural and human histories and climate. The landscapes are always devoid of humans but completely shaped by their actions. Mythical, material, factual and fictional elements are weaved together into visual narratives, which – though deeply political and meticulously researched, scripted and executed – are presented as open-ended poetic reveries, which leave room for the viewer to make her own conclusions.

IC-98’s work since 2010s addresses the environmental crisis and artistic-political methods of finding solutions to it. The projects seek to replace anthropocentric worldview with modes better suited to take into consideration the interrelationships, dependencies and myriad temporal rhythms of all animate and inanimate nature.