Mina Amiri Kalvøy ☄︎ Artist and writer based in Berlin
Currently teaching Visual & Experience Design MA at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences.
Previously Researcher (Meisterschüler) and alumni of Visual Communication MA at Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin (2020-23).
WARP, 2024
WARP (Act 1) premiered at the Pogo Bar, KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, April 2024. It takes us on the journeys of Ae and Em, who find themselves in worlds that are separate but joint, wandering from one place and time to another. Em, trapped in a digital mirror world is seeking a way back, while Ae navigates a disorienting reality resembling ours–only to become increasingly distorted. Through a shared narrative, they encounter various characters one might meet in online forums, on social media and IRL: The Imps, The Gatekeeper, The Guardian and the Jesters. Hidden portals act as gateways and barriers as they try to connect with their surroundings, and each other.
The performance is accompanied by a soundscape composed by Christopher Schmidt. Performance documentation photos by Zhiyuan Yang, image visual by Veronika Valtonen.
The Waiting Room, 2022–23
The Waiting Room is an interactive fiction series hosted online. The series takes inspiration from reality shifting, a phenomenon described as “transcending” or “shifting” one’s consciousness to a different, desired reality. While the desired realities within the shifting community typically centres around destinations borrowed from popular culture (Hogwarts being one of the most visited realities), The Waiting Room focuses on the spaces that exist within digital and physical realms.
Across two chapters, The Waiting Room and Quest for the Self, readers take control of a protagonist who, while exploring various methods of self-soothing both on- and offline, finds themselves speaking to grumpy receptionists, jumping off buildings, answering existential questions, and being introduced to a potential clone. Experienced like a transcendent dream, the series creates tension through colour, images, sound and an ambiguous atmosphere. Both chapters have elements of text being randomly generated, ensuring unique play-throughs. When exhibited, readers can bring home a version of their journey through the first chapter, printed on a thermal printer.
Web development by David Barriga Ruano, technical support by Nikola Marić and Julian Netzer.
⌻ Link to read The Waiting Room – desktop only
☍ Link to read Quest for the Self – desktop only
GAN Metal Logos, 2020
The GAN Metal Logos were inspired by the history and legacy of Norwegian black metal bands such as Darkthrone and Mayhem. Having grown up listening to and learning about the somewhat dark history of Norwegian black metal, and after watching the documentary series Helvete (“Hell”) which recounts this history, I collected about 300 existing black metal logos to use as a dataset. These were then used to train a generative adversarial network (GAN) model on the online platform for AI software, RunwayML. From this dataset, a series of new, abstract, and illegible logos were generated by the GAN, which were later hand embroidered onto clothing.
Available upon request and produced on-demand, each embroidered logo is generated by the GAN and chosen by the artist, making every piece unique.
Grand Opening!, 2021
Grand Opening! is a live-action role-play (LARP) inspired by the absurd history of the BER Airport. After years of delays, the long awaited airport finally opened in October 2020, 8 years after its initial opening date in 2012. The LARP draws from real anecdotes about what happened during the years before the opening, such as the many dress rehearsals held to simulate different scenarios, employees hired to run empty trains through tunnels and flush toilets to prevent mould, and the idea of using students as human fire alarms when the automated system failed.
Grand Opening! consists of 11 characters, a backstory (setting), campaigns, rules, and game artefacts. Each player receives a game package containing a boarding card assigning their character, an ID card, an official handbook with the backstory and general information, and a character handbook with personal campaigns and insights into their role.
502201 Magazine, 2018–19
502201is a digital anti-magazine engaging readers in discussions about contemporary societal issues. As curators of the magazine, we searched within and outside of our own networks to find creators, artists and writers whose work dealt with the topic we had chosen for the different issues.
Issue 1, 502201 SURVEILLANCE is designed in a square format PDF, forcing the reader to zoom in and out in order to read the texts and see the works. It includes interviews, photography, essays, and video work. Issue 1 was published on USBs, and released at an event at ACUD Macht Neu in Berlin, 2018.
Issue 2, 502201 PATRIARCHY is designed as a long, scrolling PDF. It includes an essays, interviews, illustration work, and photography, amongst other. Issue 2 was also published on USBs, and released with an all-day event at Plattenvereinigung in Tempelhof, Berlin with a programme of readings, screenings, and music.
AGI New Members, 2018
Showcases work and interviews from designers who joined the Alliance Graphique Internationale between 2007 and 2017. Assisted with typesetting and editorial work while interning at Berlin design studio hesign.
Irāne Māmān, 2017
Irāne Māmān is inspired by the past of my Iranian mother and born out of a number of conversations held with her. Her upbringing and past has always been a mystery to me, a non-linear narrative of anecdotes and stories she would share unexpectedly and unprompted. Because of this I always found them to sound magical and mythical, my fantasy filling in the blank spaces and trying to distinguish between memories, dreams and realities. Driven by this, I sat down with her to recount some of the things I had heard throughout the years.
The conversations were later categorised and divided into three main topics; the Iranian revolution and my mother’s part in this, the Iran-Iraq war, and my mother leaving her home country behind to come to Norway. The project consists of a series of carpets inspired by traditional Persian iconography, a series of videos with the recordings of our conversations, and flyers contextualising the project and the different events.
