BaseNorth is an artist collective consisting of Anna Puhakka, Nicola Smith and Sarah Stamp. We do not limit ourselves to working in the white cube, and work in response to the context of our surroundings. Our personal areas of interest in Berlin are specific aspects of regeneration, in particular how it has affected the architecture and public art. A collective interest in regeneration from a fine art point of view has come through our experience of working in Sunniside, Sunderland where we had witnessed the exchange of old buildings for new to accommodate luxury apartments.

 

During our 10-day Berlin research period we participated in The Sandwich Box Project, New Life Berlin Festival facilitated by WOOLOO. This involved collecting a gazebo to use, which gave us a mobile studio to meet and start making new work. From this we created the ‘BaseNorth International Studio’ and we felt it made a statement about the lack of art/studio spaces in Sunderland that we had recently lost due to regeneration. We documented this intervention in a postcard that we sent to contacts back in the UK. The work also questions how effective a traditional studio is when making site related work.

 

On our return to the UK we disseminated our experience using social media, and created an audio artist talk for students in the North East. This work was supported by Arts Council England, Douglas Clasper Award, sLab, University of Sunderland, and Rednile Projects.