Author Archives: Johanna

About Johanna

artist and curator

We have moved!

I have three days of moving behind me. It’s been more than exhausting this time. We’ve dragged all our belongings from the third floor apartment (no elevator) to the Blue House which pretty much still a building site. But we now have a toilet in use (hooray!), water coming to the kitchen, oven, induction cooker and fridge working!
I’ve strained my back quite badly and it’s almost impossible to walk at the moment, let alone sort out and carry all stuff around.
Tired now but it will be all fine. One day…

Johanna

I guess the Mid Summer passed

Reading the Finnish newspapers after the Mid Summer national holiday is always depressing. Many people have drowned, died in a car crash or choked in their own vomit. My concentration has been totally in my work and the so called spare time I’ve spent 100 % on building the Blue House that I haven’t been able to participate in any kind of activities like celebrating the Mid Summer or attending festivals or performances. The whole family is pretty exhausted at the moment and occationally I get panicked about moving next week and so many, and I mean MANY, things still needing to be done and fixed. It seems it’s impossible to do what we are supposed to do before next Monday. Especially now, that my partner got ill and is asleep in high fever! I have no idea how we are going to get through all this…

Performances last week during the Kuopio Dance Festival went really well and they were completely sold out. It was great to perform the piece again and there were some of my old friends and very important people in the audience which made me very happy. I’ve been talking with my producer Maija a lot about organising the producing and marketing side of my work better and today we had a good session with a consult about what it is that we really want to and how best achieve that. It was really good and inspiring. So thank you Jari and Maija. Maija also helped us yesterday at the house which was so nice.

I still haven’t decided about the performers for my new work. I didn’t quite imagine it being this hard. I have now three in mind that I could imagine to do the piece with but I have to make we can make all the schedules meet. I’ll have a film shooting session  next week for the solo piece with Maija Hirvanen. It’s interesting how the focus shifts from previous or current works into the new processes and they really start to have a life of their own. Let’s see what comes up with this one.

Hope all of you are well.

Johanna

Performances in the Gallery Carree

I don’t have anything to wear

I’m having two performances tomorrow as part of the Kuopio Dance Festival and Paikallisliike 07. I know they are pretty fully booked but you might be able to get in from the door but I can’t promise that.
We had a good rehearsal today with Jaana and Jaap and I’m looking forward to doing the show again. The gallery makes the performance very intimate which I really enjoy.
I also had a meeting with Maija and Pirjetta today. It was good to introduce Maija to Pirjetta and talk about managing my work and international networking etc. I’m very happy about the arrangement now but we definitely have to work hard to get it all working the way we plan.
Hope to see you all tomorrow.

Johanna

Extremes

Sorry. I know I haven’t been here for ages.
It has all been more than hectic with work and the personal life, i.e. the house. I don’t know where to begin actually as so many things have been going on and happened.
We had a great period of performances in Helsinki in the end of May with Jaana and Jaap and they all went very well. I had imagined that I would have time to do all kinds of things while I stayed in Helsinki but it turned out that the performances pretty much took all my energy.
Next week we’ll have two more performances in Kuopio in the Gallery Carree as part of the Kuopio Dance Festival. For booking go to www.paikallisliike.net or email aluekeskus@elisanet.fi. The gallery is quite small so I strongly advice you to make a reservation if you intend to see the work.
I held the audition and it was really good to see people working, i.e. moving and talking and doing little presentations. I haven’t decided yet who are the three people I want to work with but I really need to make up my mind soon.
In between everything, I also have visited Stavanger, Norway, again. Had two great days of meetings and spent time with Anne-Marte. Besides the inspiring workdays, I fell in love with the Rhododendrons of Stavanger. Amazing! Wonderful colours, everything blooming – just beautiful and inspiring.
With ANTI-Festival there are pretty busy times going on as well, as we are working on the catalogue. I’m so happy that Maija started working for us in June so that eases the workload for me. Gregg has also been just fantastic, so involved, so active, so supportive. We definitely have a great crew now.
The Blue House would require my work as much as possible at the moment as well. We will be moving in the end of the month so I tell you, there’s more work to do than anyone can imagine. I have kind of known this, but at the moment it’s just extreme… beyond the capacity of imagination. The hours we are working, what needs to be done before we are able to move in, it’s just crazy but the only thing that keeps me going is the thought of being able to move in three weeks.
Now the whole downstairs is cleared and cleaned out for the linoleum flooring to be installed. That starts tomorrow and it was so rewarding to clear out all the mess and tools etc. and to be able to just look at the space. It will be great, once we get to move in. Quality family cleaners Brisbane offer the best professional cleaning cervices, guess, I will decide on them.
Exhausted now.
Johanna

I’m looking for three women to perform in my new work

I will hold an audition on Thursday 31st of May at 3 pm at Hermannin salit in Kuopio, Finland. I will choose three performers for my new work. The working period will be between August and November,  premiere in November-December 2007 and they will be organized in Kuopio,  Finland.

The audition is held for professional performers who work in the contexts of contemporary dance, live art and/or performance art.
Mandatory registration at johanna(at)tuukkanen.net or +358 40 742 9091 by Monday 28th of May.

Further information: Johanna Tuukkanen


					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				Yoga bliss
			

								


				

			



	




Anne was in Kuopio for five days and gave a beautiful and such an inspiring ashtanga workshop. It was a pure miracle that I could practice the full primary series without any pain. After struggling so long with the practice, having so much pain and frustration in it, it was just bliss. I also have discovered that the early morning practice is not such a torture anymore which I could not have believed a few years ago.

I’m off to Helsinki on Wednesday as we are performing I don’t have anything to wear with Jaana as part of Z in Motion –festival in Zodiak. I’m really looking forward to the performances which will be somewhat different and new compared to the previous ones. We need to get some clothes to replace the stolen ones and I have to go through the performance wardrobe archive to see if I find something new and exciting. Jaana has luckily found a replacement for her lime coloured I love my body –scene, but in orange! I’m sure I’ll look just fabulous in that orange linen creation…

I’m thinking about going to the mysore classes in Helsinki but I’m not sure yet. The balance between practicing alone and in Anne’s assistance is very fine and I’m not sure if I want someone new interfering my practice.

In terms of my new performances, I’ve decided to hold the audition on the 31st of May. I’ve also asked a producer to work with me on the productions and general management of my work. I really hope this will solve a couple of crucial issues that I‘ve been struggling with for the past few years.


Need to get some sleep now.

Warm regards to you all.

Johanna

					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				Crushed tomatoes
			

								


				

			



	




Another day of work at the Blue House. Treating the panels was kind of meditative today; was focusing on my breath and the movement, tried not to strain my back too much. There was a beautiful, peaceful and silent moment when the children were inside drawing and playing and I was working on the back yard with Pekka. There wasn’t anything else, no visions of the future, no memories from the past, just us working in silence together. The weather forecast promised rain showers for today but it didn’t rain in the end. A few snowflakes were falling from the sky every now and then but they didn’t bother us.


I just put a dinner into the oven. I realised that it’s three days in a row that I’ve used crushed tomatoes in the dinner. This is not the first time I pay attention to this but every now and then I get really irritated by this. As you probably know, tomatoes are ‘plants of darkness’ and one should not eat any of them. According to macrobiotics anyway. I’m not macrobiotic but I used to be into all those things much more than I’m now. So the day before yesterday, my son hoped for a pasta with shrimps in tomato sauce and as he had been ill, I fulfilled his wish. Yesterday I made a kind of soy crush for the kids to go with rice. Today I’m doing this eggplant, potato (another ‘plants of darkness’!), zucchini and goat cheese dish baked in the oven, with a little bit of tomato sauce in between the vegies. Well, there might be worst things in life, I don’t know.


I thought about my new works today a lot. Maybe I do the performances in a gallery, so that the video/photographic material from the solo work could be shown as an installation and the group piece still could be performed in the same space. I could maybe get the space for a week or so. The number or audiences that can fit into the space is very limited, which I don’t mind, but I will need to think about that a little more.


Maybe it all starts to fall into its place.


I’m back to listening music, I realize. Fun, inspiring.


Johanna

					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				It’s going just bloody great
			

								


				

			



	




I’ve spent a lot of time with budgets and schedules for my new works. On Thursday I was so fed up as I had spent almost the whole night figuring out the budget or my new group piece. I have some production support from the Arts Council of Finland and the Regional dance centre Kuopio, but as I once again learned, it’s nowhere near the level of a proper budget with proper fees etc. I had kind of decided I will hold an audition for the performers but it feels impossible to ask people to work for me for at least two months and say that I’m able to pay you 1 500 €. How can I expect a full time commitment and dedication from anyone? I didn’t get support from the regional foundation of SKR, which really upset me. So again, after having done this I don’t know with 15 works, I’m in a situation where I just have to count cents; who can be paid less, who can work for me for free, what can the work do without? Without any publicity? Without documentation? Without sound? Light? Any technical equipment? Space?

Sometimes it seems the most creativity is deeded in organizing the whole production.

I’ve asked Maija to work with me on the producing side of matters and I hope that will somehow be possible. I just need help.

So at the moment I’m not sure about the audition. Maybe you can see why.

I’ve tried to take a few days off all the work and I’ve spent some time at the Blue House straining my back. On Friday I ordered the staircase for the house from Helsinki as well as the front door and the door to where all the technical stuff of the house is situated. We’ll get them in 3-4 weeks. We couldn’t agree about the fireplace yet, so that’s still waiting. On Friday Jenny Alfthan from Sisustus Picaso visited the house as I have asked her advice on some materials, colours and furniture we need to get to the house. It was really nice. First time I went to Sisustus Picaso after Jenny and her husband had bought it, and I met Juho and Jenny, I felt they were the nicest people that I had ever met in Kuopio. I just wanted to invite them for a dinner straight away! Well, I didn’t, mainly because we live in this horrible rented apartment at the moment, but I sure will once we live in the Blue House.

Yesterday we started to treat the wooden panel that will cover the house. We use ‘rautavihtrilli’, I’m not sure what you call it in English (iron sulphate or something) which makes the wood turn grey in a couple of years. So the panel is not going to painted after this treatment. We have almost 7 kilometres of that panel on our front yard so I can see it’s a hell of a job to treat all of that with the rautavihtrilli. I’ve done it for two days now and maybe one tenth of that panel is ready…. Well, today the weather wasn’t very good and I had to stop as it was dribbling. But yes, there’s so much work to do at the house before we can move in that it’s just too scary to think about.

Day after tomorrow is the first of May, Vappu, the Labour Day. Have to get some sparkling wine tomorrow but most of the day we’ll spend at the Blue House, working.

Busy week coming after the Vappu. I’ll have a yoga course and I have to prepare myself for the performances in Helsinki by for example getting new clothes to replace the ones that were stolen. What a fucking pain… Not the performances or rehearsals, just the stolen clothes.

Hope you all well.

Johanna

					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				Stavanger
			

								


				

			



	




I spent a couple of days in Stavanger, Norway last weekend. My schedule was really tight so I didn’t get to spend so much time getting to know the city but I did make a walk from the city centre to TouScene with Anne-Marte and Teresa. Teresa was at the residency at TouScene so we were both new to the city. Anne-Marte, who lives in Stavanger, gave me a kind of a lecture about the city, its history and current situation. Here are some images of our walk from the main church to TouScene along Pedersgata.


 The flowermarket.


Two hundread and something days to look forward to Stavanger 2008, the European Capital of Culture, a project I’m involved in. I’ll let you know more soon.


Poor old houses. In a small city the way to create more (parking) space is to dig further down.


One of the two places to buy wine or spirits in Stavanger. Is there a way you could somehow know this from outside?


A bar.


Some kind of artists organisation and space.


Old and new.


Gallery 21m2 and Teresa.


A ferry to take you to Bergen, for example.


Sta3


Sta11


Anne-Marte in her garden.


Houses made of containers by architects whose name I cannot remember.


Huh. The new pretty agressive bridge built over the old houses on Pedersgata.


The view from TouScene.


And here’s a few images taken on my walk to my B&B.


Old houses in the city centre. The colours were just amazing.


A nice wooden house, don’t you think?


Yeah, you would think so, but actually it’s ‘renovated’ by using the plastic panel on top of the old wood.