Current Residents Jean-Lorin Sterian
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A performative exploration of the decisional paradox, this show investigates the paralysis of the will when faced with mutually unfavorable options. The performance analyzes the psychological mechanisms and the tension that arise when the subject is caught in a 'Double Bind' structure, where any decision made leads to a negative outcome.
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A project that rehabilitates 'spam'—the universally loathed digital junk mail—by transforming it into intimate, hand-written correspondence.
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A dual-residency project conducted between London and Bucharest. While I was 'colonizing' a public institutional space at the Romanian Cultural Institute in London (The Attic), my own private apartment - lorgean theatre - was consecutively inhabited by 14 people for 48 hours each. Each resident recorded their stay, resulting in 7 hours of footage that explored the reciprocal influence between an authentic private space and its temporary inhabitants. The final video work, CADASTRE, investigates how privacy is negotiated, how absence is manifested, and the transformation of a domestic home into a public, 'colonized' territory.
Jean-Lorin Sterian is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and researcher holding a PhD in anthropology. His practice spans performance, literature, video, and site-specific interventions that interrogate the architecture of identity, memory, and the thresholds between domestic intimacy and public display. A pioneer in theorizing independent domestic art spaces, he coined the term “homemade culture”—a framework solidified through his doctoral thesis, the subsequent book, and his long-term curatorial project, lorgean theatre. Sterian’s work frequently explores the “in-between” spaces of human interaction, utilizing biographical elements, performative lectures, and text to dismantle institutional boundaries.
During my residency, I will create a wearable poetic archive that maps the personal geography of Suomenlinna. By engaging with residents, workers, and visitors through informal conversations, I will collect short stories tied to meaningful local objects or places. These narratives and their photographic counterparts will be printed onto T-shirts, culminating in a participatory, performative exhibition where visitors wear and share these stories face-to-face. This project activates the “in-between” spaces of human interaction, transforming intimate memories into a public, living archive. It offers a unique reflection on how communities survive and adapt through the stories they carry across generations.
Jean-Lorin Sterian’s residency at HIAP is part of ARES – Arts on the Edge Spaces. Partners of the project are WASP – Working Art Space & Production in Romania, SCIAENA in Portugal, and HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme in Finland.
ARES – Arts on the Edge Spaces is funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.