impressions & some iconic images of New York

The site-specific performance symposium in New York was very good and exciting and I thank Gulgun, Bertie & Frank for inviting me. It was very important for me to hear about several projects and festivals done by an exciting mix of curators, artists and venues. And in terms of curating and organizing the ANTI Festival, it was also great to feel that we are part of a whole field working site-specifically and sharing a lot of similar concerns, challenges and issues.
My schedule in New York was quite tight and my visit rather short, but here are some images I took during my walks. Many of them are very iconic and typical images of New York but I guess the same images have to be taken over and over again as New York is just amazing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any images of the symposium or my 10k run in the Central Park. I was supposed to participate in a running event here in Kuopio in May but then this trip came about and I couldn’t take part in it. So I promised to myself and my trainer, that I will run 10k on my own in the Central Park, my goal being that I run it in less than an hour. Well, I did it in 58 minutes and it was truly an amazing feeling to be running there. And I was pretty satisfied with my performance that went easily and smoothly.

Images from where I stayed – in the middle of Manhattan:
newyork10_pos.jpg

newyork14_pos.jpg

newyork9_pos.jpg

My hotel Carlton Arms which I can highly recommend:

newyork3_pos.jpg

My stop:
newyork11_pos.jpg

newyork8_pos.jpg

newyork12_pos.jpg newyork13_pos.jpg

The ruins of WTC:
newyork15_pos.jpg

A walk in Soho:
newyork6_pos.jpg

newyork4_pos.jpg

newyork7_pos.jpg

newyork5_pos.jpg

A boat trip to Staten Island:
newyork17_pos.jpg

newyork16_pos.jpg

newyork18_pos.jpg

newyork19_pos.jpg

Nighttime visit to the Empire State Building:newyork20_pos.jpg

newyork21_pos.jpg

newyork22_pos.jpg

newyork23_pos.jpg

newyork2_pos.jpg

symposium in New York

I’m just on my way to New York where I’ll be giving a talk in one of the panels of Site-specific Performance Symposium in CUNY. The whole symposium looks really exciting and I’m looking forward to participate in it -and of course to spend a couple of days in NY. If you are anywhere near, please come and here us discussing issues around site-specific performance!

Johanna

Happy Mother’s Day!

mother’s day

I’m happy I got to go for a run in the morning and to do a really good functional training session in the afternoon.

Tomorrow & Tuesday will be extremely busy as I’m off to New York on Wednesday!

Johanna

finally a weekend at home

Last weeks have been super busy for me as I was performing in Sweden, then went to Brussels and every chance I got, I was working on the new one-to-one performance BODY/HAIR which I premiered last Wednesday in Kuopio. It was a kind of work-in-progress day of performances but I’m pretty happy with it all. It was quite exciting as to get the soundscape, the costume, the stage equipment and all that together was a real challenge in terms of time and budget so I’m kind of proud that I was able to pull it together. The performance is quite tough for me to do –not so much one but to keep repeating it one after the other… I was really exhausted, friction burned and bruised afterwards. I was also very tired because it has been more than a month since I had a day off. Anyway, I survived it and have the weekend off now. What a luxury.
My performance shoes are the corset boots by Minna Parikka:
corset boot

Brussels was real nice and green. Kuopio was still very winter like when I left so it felt like a real luxury to see so much green (I stayed near Botanica) and walk in summer shoes. It was a lot of work though as I did a presentation with Gregg about ANTI Festival, then worked with Gregg on completing this year’s festival programme, saw as many performances as possible in the Trouble #5 Festival and also we had an audit of our A Space for Live Art EU project. Lot’s of work indeed! But it was great to see Gregg and some other artists there like Rosie Dennis, Essi Kausalainen, Guillermo Gomez Pena, the xxx group, Johanna Lecklin etc…. The nice thing also was that Kuopio had a kind of a heat wave whilst I was away so when I got back, practically all the snow was gone and the weather had really changed.
Brussels:
Botanica1               Botanica2

grand placa               Brussels01

mussles               in a cafe

Now I have a couple of days off and I’m just trying to relax and do stuff that at home. Then I’m staring to prepare my trip to New York. Lot’s of exciting things happening!

Happy Labour Day weekend to everyone! Hauskaa Vappu-viikonloppua kaikille!

munkkivuori

Johanna

on my way to TUPP

milk cartons

Busy busy days! I’m on my way to perform in Sweden as part of TUPP Internationell scenkonstfestival in Uppsala. Exciting! I heard that the milk cartons I sent to Uppsala have arrived safely so I’m all set and ready to Physical artistic deeds 1; Milk.

Last weeks I’ve been working on a new one-to-one performance BODY/HAIR of which I’ll show a first draft in just a couple of weeks. So I’ve had a lot of meetings related to that work and I think it’s now finding its shape and form.
Must hurry now.

See you in Uppsala!

breakfast

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

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

greetings from Glasgow

Visiting NRLA and Glasgow was great in many ways. It was good to see new work, catch up with artists and friends I haven’t seen for a while, work with Johanna and Gregg and of course, to have the A Space For Live Art meeting with all the European partners. A lot to digest.
As always, I feel disappointed I missed some works and performances that I really really would have liked to see, but then again, I also got so see a lot. I queued endlessly to see Dominic Johnson’s performance but that was kind of fun as I was lining up with Jennie Klein, Dee Heddon and Steven Hodge. So that wasn’t too bad. I also had to work hard to get to see Kate McIntosh who, despite all the hype around her, didn’t really do it for me. But I was really happy to see Alexis O’Hara whose work I’ve always missed before. And of course Ivana Müller and Raimund Hoghe whose work I absolutely loved.
But all my time in Glasgow I felt really stressed and slept very badly and restlessly. My plans to buy new underwear from Marks & Spencer failed as I was simply too tired to focus on looking for something nice and trying it on. Actually, I didn’t buy anything for myself, except some cosmetics from tax free, but I found a few nice things for the kids from TK Maxx. And some whisky for my partner – of course.
So it’s been great to be at home and sleep in my own bed! I’m finally catching up with sleep –and work.

Johanna

on my way…

…to Glasgow with Johanna, ANTI Festival’s new full time producer. I’m really looking forward to seeing a lot of interesting works at the NRLA but also meeting collegues, friends and collaborators. The last days have been just crazy as I’ve been trying to introduce Johanna to the organization and practicalities of the ANTI Festival but also I’ve worked my ass off with the last year’s accounts and EU reports –which are nowhere near finished…
Last weekend went with transcribing and translating the DVD of HUIPPUSUORITUS – OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE. I was hoping to have that finished by now but didn’t manage. It seems I never get rid of this feeling of not having time to do all the work at hand. I guess that’s because there’s simply too much work for me accomplish but I just don’t know how to change the situation.
In Glasgow we’ll have a whole day meeting with the partners of A Space for Live Art EU project but we also have ANTI Festival staff meeting with Johanna & Gregg, Edge of Europe meeting with Maija Hirvanen and I’ll meet artists like Marcia Farquhar, Kira O’Reilly, Frenchmottershead and writers like Jeannie Klein and Dee Heddon.
I took my trainers with me so I’m hoping to have the time, discipline and energy to go to the gym of the hotels more than once…

Johanna