Archive for March, 2009

breakfast

Published by
Johanna
at March 21, 2009 in Politics, Life, Design, Travelling, Live Art and Art. 4 Comments

breakfastWhat a sunny and beautiful and bright day. I’m enjoying an easy morning at home and having a luxury of reading the newspaper in peace, updating my blogs, commenting other people’s blogs, listening to radio, enjoying that the kids are outside playing. A good moment.
I went to Helsinki earlier this week to attend a reception hosted by Alexander Stubb, the foreign minister of Finland. He held the reception for remarkable Finnish artists & important people working in the arts and there were a lot of A-list celebrities and artists there -and me of course. Also the president of Finland, Tarja Halonen popped by. It was a really good party and I got to meet and talk to a lot of people including Minna Parikka whose fan I am. I was wearing the same handbag as Minna and her shoes as well. Anyway, artist Riiko Sakkinen was there and he had criticised the art works Alexander had bought recently. So today’s Helsingin Sanomat reported, that Alexander had admitted that he doesn’t know anything about contemporary art and asked Riiko to invite 12 artists for a dinner so that he can learn more about contemporary art. I think this is great but I’m concerned that Riiko’s knowledge of contemporary art is very limited to visual arts and artists. I think I have to send some material to Alexander or do something else. Ideas?

Yesterday I went to see a really awful performance Verigreippi. I really didn’t understand why the makers of the performance wanted me or anyone to witness what they were doing. I didn’t believe in anything they did or said. It was just so pretencious and false and there really wasn’t anything there to see or hear or to think. Oh god. What a waste of time.

I’m off to run now and enjoy the beautiful day. Would be great to hear what you think about Riiko Sakkinen introducing contemporary art to Alexander Stubb or Verigreippi for that matter…

Johanna

ps. in the image Bodium coffee maker, Polar FT60, painting by Mikko Valtonen, wall paper Larsen ‘winter tree’, table BoConcept ‘Amari’, chair Danerka, Iittala plate, KoKo coffee cup, Apple MacBook

an easy week

Published by
Johanna
at March 6, 2009 in Life, A Space for Live Art, Random, Travelling, Live Art and Art. 0 Comments

Last week I went to Helsinki to participate in the reception of Finnish Cultural Foundation which generously gave a grant for ANTI Festival for the self-financing part of A Space For Live Art, EU funded project. This week I’ve tried to take some time off from the ANTI Festival. Lately it has absorbed far too much of my energy and caused me the kind of stress I need to get rid of. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded very well this week but at least this has been an effort to get my mind off ANTI for a while.
So this week I’ve been enjoying being at home, seeing friends, exercising and running. Nothing special but the kind of stuff one should find time to do when working as well.
Actually, I’m very excited about my upcoming performances and projects during the spring. I’ll let you know about them soon. I’ll also participate in two running events this year – something I’ve never done before. I’ll run 10K in May and a half marathon in September. This week I’ve done some exercising on a cross trainer, functional training, running and walking. I’ll do a long run tomorrow and then get a massage. On Sunday I’ll do some functional training as well. So this looks like a pretty good week in terms of exercising. And my body feels great!
When I was in Helsinki, I ate some pretty good sushi and got all excited about learning more about it. So I’ve planned a kind of sushi evening at my place with a French cook who lives in Kuopio. He will teach us about the history of sushi, how to make it and in the end we’ll have a feast! I’m really looking forward to it. Now the challenge is to find a date that fits everyone who’s interested. It will be fun.

Johanna