Author Archives: Johanna

About Johanna

artist and curator

meeting in Vienna

Before the midsummer I was in a meeting in Vienna for a couple of days. We sat two intensive long days in this room discussing artists and works for the upcoming UP TO NATURE project. I was very inspired by the meeting but I think this has been the first time ever that I literally didn’t have a chance to do anything apart from going straight into the meeting from airport, going to the hotel at night, taking the tube into the meeting the next day, taxi back to the hotel and bus to the airport early  next morning! So no time to have a walk anywhere, to see anything or to shop. I guess that might be a good thing…

A view from my hotel window:


Our meeting room with a balcony:




A view from the balcony, apparently a big tourist attraction in Vienna (related to classical music) – hundreads of tourists visiting it all day long…

Anyway, thanks Thomas, Olivia, Gregg, Helen, Hannah, Jon (and who did I forget…?) for a great meeting! See you soon,

Johanna

Mandan ajatuksia Twirling World -teoksesta

Tässä ihanan avustajamme Manda Konttisen ajatuksia edellisen Twirling World -teoksen esitysperiodin jälkeen:

Viimeisestä kerrasta esitystä jäi niin koskettunut olo. Ystäväni Aulin rinnallesi asettaman sydämen tunsi yleisö myös omalla ihollaan ja sitä seurannut liikutus puhdisti katarttisesti. Esityksesi idean, vuosituhansina kasattujen roolien painosta vapautumisen, koki sisäisesti eikä pelkästään älyllisesti oivaltavana katsojana.

Tatu on kyllä tehnyt vaikuttavan äänitaustan teokseesi.  Mieleenpainuvinta oli alkupuolen ääni, joka oli ikäänkuin repeämäisillään tuleen millä hetkellä tahansa, valtava rajapinnan lataus.
Toinen kohta oli se, kun nainen laitettiin kypsymään omenoineen, se valmistumisen odotusta kuvaava ajan tikitys.
Kolmas oli lopun puhdas, painoton leijunta.
Iloitsen, että saan kuulla tämänkin vielä kerran.

Silmien kuvaksi haluan jättää selkäsi, kun hitaasti riisut naiseuteen liimattuja kerroksia.  Selkäsi on niin paljon puhuva, sisäisen tilan avartumisesta, levollisuudesta, voimasta – kaikki niin sisäistynyttä. Pakahduttavaa.

Manda

 

day 4 & 5

Unbearable heat. Walking and talking to people. Recording. Sweating. Creating an audio walk, recording it and testing it out. Some tears. Walking, cycling and also swimming a little bit.
Great week. Inspiring. Lots of thoughts. Many possibilities.

Johanna

day 3

Rebecca created “the free relief walk” for me. I followed her instructions and took these photos as instructed.

In the toilet of the city hall:

In the toilet of the main library:


In the toilet of the Hotel Puijonsarvi:

In the toilet of Intro:

The toilet of Minna shopping mall, which I didn’t get into:

I created an audio walk for Rebecca. I really enjoyed making it although I thought a lot about death.

The weather is kind of extreme at the moment. So hot! Cycling was great but Zumba maybe too hot.

Feeling excited, inspired and somehow exhausted. And very hot.

Johanna

second day

We set a task today to make a walk for each other. Rebecca made an autobiographical walk and I made a socially engaging participatory walk. I had a great time creating the walk in two hours, doing the audio walk Rebecca had created and doing my walk with Rebecca.
I had a really nice conversation with a chugger on the market square, talked for an hour with a woman who sells vintage Arabia porcelain and cookware, went to Merja’s shop Alli & Aino which sells Finnish design by Noolan and Lumi Accessories and we participated in the @kuopio.doc project by Anniina Aunola and Anu Rajala-Erkut.

Johanna

beginning of a new project

with FrenchMottershead!

Rebecca landed yesterday and today we started working at 10am.

We talked an walked.



We walked and talked about our work, the audience, our ideas, about walking and about maps. We went to the Kuopio tourist information and got some maps. We walked more and talked more about autobiography, participation, social engagement and tasks. We realized that we both wanted to be architects.

We had Hanna Partanen’s rice pies in the market square. I had the first strawberries of the year and a cup of coffee.

After dinner we took a walk to the beach and Rebecca swam. I got a sun burn.

Johanna

perception

I’ve been warming up Twirling World show with Sonja, working on the ANTI 2011 programme details and the upcoming book. I’ve been cycling, doing Kinesis and Zumba. Went for a day to Helsinki. And wondered about the flowers in the garden. You cannot imagine how much joy the rhododendrons bring me! And they are all going to bloom this year – very soon.



Johanna

Johanna is giving a talk at the Curators’ Seminar in Helsinki

Curators’ Seminar Helsinki
Liput/tickets: Vapaa Pääsy/Free Entry

12:00—16:15 • @ Ateneum-sali/Ateneum Hall, Kaivokatu 2 Helsinki

As a part of the festival two curators’ seminars will be taking place – the first one on Thursday May 26th in Ateneum Hall in Helsinki, and the second on Sunday May 29th in the Studio of Turku City Library.

The festival curators Christopher Hewitt, Kimmo Modig and Lois Keidan representing the Live Art Development Agency, and Nieves Correa, the artistic director of Acción!MAD performance art event and Johanna Tuukkanen, the artistic director of  ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will be taking part to the Helsinki seminar. Tuomas Laitinen from the Presentaatio – Performance and Live Art Information Center Finland will be the moderator of the seminar.

The topic of the curators’ seminar in Helsinki is “The Processes of Selection in Art”. The network of the world of the performance and the live art is relatively young, dense, conscientious and constantly in forming progress. The artists move more internationally nowadays and their networking is more and more extensive. Have the mechanisms of curating, by which the artists are selected to the festivals and corresponding events, changed essentially? Have the performance festivals changed, for instance, in the past ten years, and how? And what kind of changes are there to be expected in the future as far as festivals are concerned?

As a part of the seminar program Presentaatio – Performance and Live Art Information Center Finland will publish the winner of Presentaatio Award for a notable performance and live art act of the year 2010.

In addition Leena Kela, a regional artist of performance art at the Arts Council of South-West Finland will publish the Performance Art Bank database that presents current Finnish performance and Live Art at www.performanssi.com, and in a published catalogue. The database is maintained by Artists’ Association MUU and the Arts Council of South-West Finland.

The event is organised in collaboration with Ateneum Hall and Presentaatio – Performance and Live Art Information Center Finland.