Category Archives: Art

Strange morning

… I woke up 5.20 am local time and just couldn’t sleep. So I decided to go for a jog by the seaside. It was quite windy but beautiful and although I haven’t been able to exercise for more than two weeks because of my flu, it felt ok. Somehow the seaside, its plants and the views remind me of Azores.
Yesterday was a full day. I met one actress, Thorey, and she has set up some meetings for me with local artists. I also went to two galleries, walked a lot around the city and went to Kringlan, a huge shopping mall outside city centre. Kringlan was a big disappointment to me, I guess I wasn’t at all into shopping at Topshop, Adidas or Puma stores, Next, Warehouse etc.! From there I continued to Laugardalslaug, one of the citys many geothermal pools. That was relaxing but a bit strange, too.
I ate a delicious vegetarian meal at the One Woman Restaurant and went to bed.

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Today I’m up for a couple of meetings and in the evening a get together at Thorey’s place with local artists. Great!

Johanna

On the way

At Stockholm Arlanda airport, on my way to Reykjavik, Iceland. Although it’s just afternoon, I’ve been traveling now for 9 hours and have a slight headache. I don’t know if it’s because of the short sleep or lack of coffee. And of course, I forgot my paracetamol at home.
I’m going to see some performances, exhibitions and have arranged meetings with people. I’m really looking forward to all that, and experiencing some of Iceland of course, but more importantly, I’m hoping this trip would somehow enlighten me in terms of my new work that I’m working on. As always, there isn’t enough money to do what I have set myself to do and I’m struggling where to cut. Drop one of the performers? The dramaturg? All the videos? I have already made a cut down budget but I somehow don’t know where to cut any more without changing the work completely.
So, I need to get a revelation concerning this matter and I’m hoping the time in Iceland would help me. I have of course packed my cameras and I’m open to get inspiration for my ongoing interest in the body/landscape.

Johanna

Down with the flu

I was looking forward to a useful weekend but on Thursday I got a sore throat and I’ve been feeling really ill and bad all weekend. Great. I don’t know how I’m going to manage all the work I have to do next week as at this point I don’t even know if I can go to work tomorrow. That’s the biggest challenge when you work on your own; if you cannot do the job, no-one else will.
Anyway, I’ve been just resting, cooking and eating healthy food and trying to get better. We have TALKS & DEEDS coming up next Friday, Gregg will be in Kuopio, along with Davida Hewlett, Pilvi Porkola and Hanna Pajala-Assefa.
There would be so much to do and look forward to. Hope I’m better tomorrow.

See you all at T&D!

Johanna

Hot days

We have been blessed – or cursed- by unusually warm and hot days. The children have had 4 days off and they have fully enjoyed the summer like weather including shorts, sandals, t-shirts and the like. We’ve also had exciting days watching the back yard slowly starting to turn from brown to green and some kind of green perennials pushing from he dirt, growing every day. Last autumn I planted some perennials, don’t really remember what they were. There were some tulips though and they are vigorously growing. It’s kind of amazing. I’ve never had a garden before and I don’t come from a family of gardening enthusiasts so this is all new and strange. But the kids are excited. It’s been almost too hot to work. We’ve done some work on the house though and I worked today setting up a place for the rhododendrons.
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Yesterday I felt really irritated and headed to the gym. It felt a bit ridiculous to work out in the gym when the weather was so great but I really needed it. This morning I went for a jog and ended up training for one and half hour. My calves are a bit achy now but otherwise I felt good and energetic. This was the first time I ran to Haapaniemi from our place via the Saaristokatu. And it was quite stunning. The road is not officially open yet but you actually can get all the way to town by it. The views are just beautiful and as the day was sunny, it was very idyllic. Saaristokatu will be such an incredible improvement for us and others who live in the neighbourhood. I’m already now looking forward to cycling and walking to the city centre. It’s also great for walking and jogging.
As I was a kind of super mom today, doing my exercise routine, cooking two delicious meals and being at home with the family, I was feeling guilty of not getting to do some work I wanted and needed to do. Well, I guess I’ll be more focused on that tomorrow but it’s so hard for me to relax when I know I have work waiting that could be doing now. This is silly, I know, but I cannot help it.
Luckily, in rained in the evening and now it seems a storm is approaching. The shower was needed and very welcome. And after it, an enormous rainbow. The image by Pekka.
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Last week I found out I didn’t get more production funding for my new group piece so I have to see how I manage to produce the work with the existing funding. Not easy. If at all possible. Will have to see.

Hope you are well,
Johanna

Invitation

I’m talking about ANTI Festival’s experiences of being involved in an international EU-project application in a seminar on Thursday the 24th of April organized by CIMO and the regional arts council of North Savo. You are warmly welcome! See the whole programme (in Finnish) here kutsu_kuopio240408.pdf and note that you should register today if you are intending to participate. The seminar is free.

Johanna

Sleepy days

I performed with Jaana & Jaap I don’t have anything to wear on Friday in Helsinki. Since then, I’ve been somehow really tired. I don’t know why I’m never able to estimate the amount of work and exhaustion caused by traveling, warming up a performance and working it out in another language, staying in some B&B or cheap hotel and in the end, performing? Yesterday I was determined to go to the gym after grocery shopping. But while I was in the supermarket trying to get my head together about what to buy and cook, I realised I was so tired that it didn’t make sense to force myself to exercise. And this really wasn’t about feeling lazy, just for once understanding that I actually was exhausted. But today I hit the gym, enjoyed my work out and although I feel good, I’m nowhere near recovered.
The performance went well although it was the first time we performed it in English and that caused some mixed feelings. But we got some very positive feedback so I guess we managed ok in the end. It would be just really important to perform the work more in English and of course, just to perform it more in general. We actually will perform in about a week again here in Kuopio, so that’s really good. As the work somehow deals with the pressures of looking good and success as well as the ridiculousness of it all, and as we constantly talk in it about good fats, body balance, styling, the appearance, trying to find something comfortable to wear etc., the work can easily pull you to the world of never feeling satisfied about yourself and the mundane reality of living with the imperfect aging body…
Next week seems really busy, lots of work to do and most of it is exciting. I’m planning to hold an audition for my new performance in the end of May or early June. At the moment I’m waiting to hear about one more grant as the budget of the work of course determines the amount of performers, length of rehearsals etc. in the end. So let’s see what happens with that.
Although my days in Helsinki were extremely busy, I ate with Jaana everyday in Silvoplee. It was just amazing to eat really good reasonably priced vegeterian food everyday. And what a variety of beautiful dishes they have! That, amongst others, is something I miss in Kuopio. But I made today a delicious salad with tofu, avocado and sesame seeds.

Johanna

TouWorks 1 starting today!

TW1 project is kicking off today in Stavanger, Norway. Our artists from Argentina, UK, Norway and Germany will be working for 10 days along Pedersgata to develope work that will be shown in June. We are having a dinner together every night and today I’m making the dinner with Anne-Marte for everyone. We’ll hope it’s going to be nice! We also have a little wine tasting tonight so that should be quite nice, too.

It’s beautifully snowy and sunny in Stavanger today and I’m so excited about finally seeing all the artists and getting to work with them.

Johanna

Thoughts from the swimming hall

I got a one-year artistic grant until the end of the year and in my mind I’m working on the new production. The challenge is the lack of production support so it’s kind of impossible to proceed with the plans in terms of the people involved. But I’m working on it and have to hand in another two funding applications next week. Besides working on the grant applications, next week I’m busy with completing the soft skin / harsh life & Festive work DVD, having some ANTI meetings and going through the submissions for ANTI 2008.
I’ve been going to the gym quite intensively lately in the near by swimming hall. After the work out, it’s great to have a sauna (which I don’t have at home – shamefully un-Finnish) and maybe a little swim although I don’t usually have time for it if I do a full workout. But the best part is to sit in the sauna and have a shower with all these wonderful women aging from small babies to something like 100 years. Where else is it possible to be naked among some many women from different ages and backgrounds? And see a wonderful selection of female bodies of all shapes and sizes! I just love it and have realised that I need to bring my daughter to the swimming hall more often. Of course the swimming itself is a great exercise but equally important I think is to realize that there are as many different bodies as there are people and everyone is equally beautiful and valuable.
When I was a young girl, I used to go to the swimming hall with my father. He worked in 3 shifts so every now and then he was at home during the day and that’s when we went to swim. I never really learned to love swimming halls and I’m kind uncomfortable with the conditions after the swimming and sauna in the halls. Not the nakedness but somehow I cannot really enjoy the changing, drying hair and trying to dress up after wards the way I can at home. Sometimes I’m also really annoyed with the screaming and loud teenagers as I’m kind of running away from all that to go to exercise and be with my own thoughts. But you cannot have it all, can you?
Tomorrow we are shooting for another Suomi express fro YLE 2 and our topic is the prize of food in Finland. Let’s see what comes up.

Johanna

Happy to be at home

Today I went to the office, first time after my oh-so-inspiring trip to Glasgow. The office felt dusty and dirty, which it also is… somehow I’m not inspired to clean it and all the paper and crap is just there to make the air bad. But it was a beautiful, sunny and bright day and I didn’t feel jealous of my friends in Thailand and Brazil. Not today.
In deed I felt so happy about visiting Glasgow, seeing all the great work, meeting colleagues and artists, having late night discussions with living legends of performance and live art, planning future festivals, panels and projects. What could be more inspiring?
I took one photo whilst in Glasgow. Maybe you know that image, but I still find it amusing. Peruna, a design label by Marks & Spencer, means potato in Finnish. It doesn’t really sound like the most attractive brand of clothing but rather funny.
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I bought a couple of books during my visit. One is Eat Pray Love and I must say, I really enjoy reading it. I’ve been missing having time to read and somehow strangely during my trip it again became possible as there was so much waiting around at airports etc. But I do love that book although I’m only in India, in the book I mean. At the moment I’m just happy to be at home.

Johanna

Traveling to Glasgow / NRLA

Travelling is such a hard job. During the last couple of years I’ve been making more journeys and been away from home and family and although I’m excited about the things I’m involved in and the places I go to, I am starting to feel how it eats up my energy – especially as I haven’t had a chance to take enough time off and recharge. The only really nice memories are about flights in Costa Rica. I guess, you can can imagine the beauty of this destination. Yesterday I woke up at 4.27am, an airport taxi picked me up at 5am, my first flight was at 6.15am and another at 8.20am. It was a great ride, I talked to the taxi man for awhile and told him how I was also a taxi driver and recently just had to compare cheap taxi insurance quotes at utilitysavingexpert.com. I hang out at Manchester International airport, tried to stay awake and spend the eight hours I had to wait until my last flight to Glasgow. Because of all the despair of not having slept enough, waking up so early and waiting around for so long, I decided to treat myself with a large cappuccino (not big like I tried to explain) and a blueberry muffin. That’s another thing about travelling; it’s so easy to end up eating really unhealthy stuff because I might not have the time to go to good restaurants to eat proper food, I cannot cook, I usually don’t have the money to go to best restaurants and if I’m not really careful, I end up eating too much salty and fatty snacks like crisps, creamy pastas, heavy sandwiches and drinking too much coffee. And then feeling tired and overwhelmed by the travelling, I reward myself with wine. I’m such a heroine.
Well, this time I’m trying to be optimistic and I took my gym gears and Polar F6 with me. I went to the hotel gym in the morning as I know it makes me feel better. I’m hesitating to say that as I have taken my yoga mat along on some trips where I haven’t really done much of it. Anyway, maybe it’s more of an emotional support, trying to stay healthy and happy although not at home.
And of course the crew at home just think I’m having the time of my life, you know, not being at home, not needing to worry about dirty dishes, cooking, children – just watching art, having meetings with artists, curators, programmers and colleges. And when I get back home they want to punish me for the time off from home, or ‘holiday’ as they see it. What as vicious circle!
Anyhow, I’m just trying to say that I admire people who travel a lot in their jobs. It’s not easy. Maybe it’s the age, my workload or the family situation, but I’m sure it’s never simple.

Well, over the next five days I’m at the National Review of Live Art, doing my job.

Johanna