Category Archives: Art

I do…

object marriage.

You do not need marriage to live a happy life, to be in a relationship, to commit, to have children or to nourish love. In fact, it’s an institution that discriminates people and increases inequality in society.

In Finland, for example, same sex couples can register their relationship but not marry. People living in a registered relationship do not have the same rights or duties as the people who are married. Registered couples do not have the right to adopt a child together, and it’s been possible only since 2009 to adopt within the family. Also, registered couples cannot take a common last name. These are just few examples, how same sex couples are not in an equal position in the Finnish law and one Finnish politician Oras Tynkkynen has written that it can be compared to a situation where we would have separate partnership laws for the Roma people, for Swedish speaking Finns or for different ethnic groups. Tynkkynen also points out that the current Finnish law leaves some sexual minorities in an inequal position, for example if you don’t identify as male or female.

But marriage does not only discriminate on the basis of gender. It is humiliating that all sorts of forms in Finland require you to state whether you are single, married, divorced, in a registered relationship or in common-law marriage. In all kinds of everyday situations you are treated differently and inequally, social benefits vary on the basis of marital status, couples who own something together but are not married do not inherit each other without special and often expensive special legal arrangements and so on and so on. And sadly, marital status does not have an impact only on your social benefits but in some cases also on your children’s benefits.

So all this, I cannot accept and I do not support.

This is Annie’s and Beth’s 15th wedding and of course I, like everyone else here, see and feel the love they have for each other, for Kallavesi, the Earth and for all of us. My friend Anniina who just got married this year, would argue that we need social rituals and gatherings where people publically declare their love and commitment to each other. This is probably true but instead of marriage, I would like to think that maybe we can imagine something new, something else and create something that spiritually unites and celebrates all forms of relationships and all kinds of bodies.

Like Barbara Carrellas wrote in Reasons “WHY MARRIAGE SHOULD BE ABOLISHED!!!”, I agree that the elimination of marriage would help create a fairer, more just society.

This was my wedding objection at the Blue Wedding to Lake Kallavesi by Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens on September 30th 2012.


This photo by Pekka Mäkinen was taken at the wedding which took place on Queen R on Lake Kallavesi in Kuopio.

Johanna

Montreal in pictures

As you can see, I had a short but intense visit to Montreal. Thanks for the invitation Les Escales Improbables de Montreal!
My morning run to Parc Mount Royal was also unforgettable and the view just stunning:

I met some great people, saw exciting works, traveled for days and ate some good foods! What else can you wish for?

Johanna

Brussels…

It was lovely to be in Brussels. I really enjoyed the Cifas Summer University “Urbi et Orbi – Living Art, City and City Dwellers”. I taught a workshop ‘Activation of sites and interventions in public spaces at ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival’ and participated in a panel discussion ‘Forbidden and Allowed: Art and Urban Law’. There was such a nice group of participants, interested, excited and inspired! I had a great time.
I also got to do my usual Brussels activities such as eating mussels at La Pré Salé, have breakfast at Cafe de Markten, pop in the Cora Kemperman shop and of course, Pierre Marcolini. The trip was short, intensive but also fun. I was also brought to the Chez Maman, THE dragshow gay bar in Brussels with late night shows, since being gay is something normal now a days, and you can even find gay porn if you go to certain sites online. It was a tiny but very busy place and Maman herself gorgeous!


Early morning in Brussels.

On my way to la bellone.

Benoit & Antoine.


My students working on a site specific task.

And another group busy with their task.

Panel discussion on Party or Mind.








I’m not a chocoholic but Pierre Marcolini’s chocolates are the best I’ve ever tasted. Truly amazing! And I just learned that they ship everywhere in Europe…

Johanna

in Kokko1721 residency

I spent four days at the Kokko1721 residency in Kangasniemi in the end of July. I was invited by the owners of the farm, Jukka and Saila and their son Roope. As part of the residency, I contributed to a video diary creating a performance in response to the site, the place and the activities there – being there, sensing and feeling the site and my own body in there. I do not have photos of the actual work I created but it turned out  to be very feminine, sensual, sensory…almost dream like and I did it in a greenhouse.

Here are some pictures from the farm and of some activities there….
I slept in ‘aitta’, a log house without electricity – what a great place to sleep in the summer. Cool and dark!




Performance material…


Strawberry pie…

Virma



I had a great time. Very inspiring. Thank you.

Johanna

in Stockholm

I have the luxury to spend a couple of days in Stockholm before traveling to Uppsala where I’ll perform on Thursday.

Last night I hardly got any sleep as I had so much work to finish before the trip that I was really late packing. I had maybe 1-2 hours sleep before getting up at 4am so was rather exhausted. Luckily my flights were on time and all went smoothly. I arrived in my hotel in Södermalm very early and was rather doubtful that they would have any rooms available but they did and gave me one at something like 10am. I was so happy and had a little nap before heading off to town for my business.

In the evening I went to visit Fotografiska and ended up walking a route that took me to completely new places in Stockholm. Here are a few pictures from the way.













Nicest thing today has been speaking Swedish – after my course in academic Swedish this spring I really really enjoy catching up with the language. And now it’s just lovely to be able to speak better Swedish and use the language. Great! You never know where life takes you.

Hope to see you in Uppsala on Thursday!

Johanna

Seuraa minua

I’ve been working with the gorgeous Rebecca French on our collaborative project Seuraa minua (Follow me) during the last week or so. And it has been very inspiring and exciting. What I really love about the project is that it’s something I would never do on my own. So I feel that it’s something that really has grown out of our collaboration and it’s still at this point a kind of a mystery what it will turn out to be like for the audience in the end.
But we’ve been walking, talking, recording and doing all this with our lovely volunteers who are people living in Kuopio, sharing moments of significance of their lives with us, with you, the audience.



So thank you to the lovely people we have been working with. You know who you are.

Johanna

milk load

I performed MILK last Friday in the Functional Studios in Kuopio. I had completely forgotten what a nightmare that show is to organize!!! It took 14 hours from me to pick up all the props and materials including the dance carpets, empty milk boxes, fresh milk, bags to pack the boxes into and the bucket in which I bathe and then to set up the space, tape the dance carpets, organize the milk boxes in chronological order and back them, then to get ready for the show, perform, shower, clean up and pack everything and transport all the gears into different storages and places. I WAS EXHAUSTED.

But of course the greatest thing was to perform and to experience once again that the work is strong and it really touches people, provokes ideas and somehow also connects. So yesterday when I went to the studio for my training, I got such a warm and lovely feedback which made me feel very happy and also more connected to that place and the people who work and train there. So it was a beautiful experience.

I need to thank my son Zulani and his friend Elina who help enormously before and after the show! And I couldn’t have survived without the help of my daughter Justiina with whom we taped the dance carpets earlier during the day! So it’s all like a family business except that it’s not a very good business… Well, call it collaboration then!

I’ve been deep into dialogical and relational aesthetics and I need to work on my article rather intensively this week… Lots of work still to do. And in fact I have so much work in May and July that I can only focus on one thing at a time otherwise I’ll go crazy. But if I’m still alive in the end of June, I know I can be very pleased and proud of myself and will really enjoy a proper holiday. But until then, back to work now! So probably not a very active blogging season ahead of me – but I’ll try my best.

Hauskaa vappua!

Johanna

getting ready for the upcoming MILK performance

Another busy week behind. Wanted to post some images from my trip to Paris & Lyon but haven’t had time. I’ve been rehearsing this weekend for my upcoming Milk performance in a private event in Kuopio. We also made some milk cartons to advertise the performance.

I’ve been busy with ANTI stuff, organising my own upcoming works and performances, exercising, writing, reading, thinking…I’m off to Jyväskylä at 5.15am tomorrow morning so good night now!

Johanna

Kuopio-Vienna-Kuopio

Last weekend I was in Vienna, Austria, in one of our EU project meetings, UP TO NATURE. I left of Friday which was the beginning of the skiing holiday in Kuopio. The Kuopio airport was packed at 5.30am with wealthy families travelling to skiing holidays either in Lapland or somewhere in the Alps. I have never ever been able to take my family on a skiing holiday and I must say, I felt a bit jealous. I realized, once again, very concretely, that there are all these people who can afford to take their whole family on holidays (and have all the expensive skiing gears along) – in fact, for them is normal to take family holidays at least once a year abroad. I also realized that instead of having a proper skiing holiday, I was on a work trip for the weekend. Never mind that, because I really, really, enjoyed our meeting. It was great, useful, inspiring and informative. So thank you so much Thomas, Olivia and Nicole at brut Vienna and Helen & co and Hedda, Philip & co for a great meeting. We have created a great project and I’m really looking forward to the outcome. Unfortunately, I’m not able to make it to the first festival in Vienna, but I am planning to visit Bristol in June and Oslo in August. How exciting!



I also went to the opening of Imagetanz and saw a very strange performance…

Like I said, we are having the skiing holiday here but Vienna was very summer like already. It’s so strange to be located literally on the edge of Europe and see weird middle European road signs like this way to Budapest and this way to Prague… This was my second time to stay in hotel Fürstenhof, the strange but nice old fashioned simple hotel. This time I had a nice & spacious room and I slept surprisingly well. We also had some lovely dinners & drank some gorgeous Riesling and Grüner Veltlieners so I had a great time in Vienna! And I spoke some German, feeling very proud of myself.

Although I just received excellent grades from the economics of culture course and exam, please have a look at this wonderful article (in Finnish) by theatre director Esa Leskinen about why art shouldn’t bring any economic benefits!

In general, I have felt rather depressed recently as I haven’t received any project funding to produce my upcoming works. So I’m facing the same old same old questions of what to do, if to do then how or not do at all. Very inspiring start for new productions!

For the sake of the international women’s day, I wore Minna Parikka’s fuchsia Women are dangerous animals boots and went with my daughter to see a wonderful dancer Tuovi Rantanen performing a solo by the wonderful choreographer Ervi Siren. Women rule!

Johanna