You can download the brochure of the new works soft skin / harsh life and Festive work here soft skin/harsh life & festive work pdf.

They will be premiered in Kuopio, Finland on January the 10th 2008. The performances run from the 10th to 13th of January at the Gallery Carree at 3 pm and 7 pm every day.

See you there!

Johanna

Today was tough but good. For the first time I showed my new work soft skin / harsh life to two people. Ohhh…. it’s always so scary and exciting! I mean terrible. But I survived and actually enjoyed it. It was really good to perform and I was so beautifully encouraged that it gave me new energy and confidence to go on. It’s strange how much I have been moving and somehow it does feel good and right for this work. But there are a lot of questions to be solved in terms of timing, the video and photography. For some reason I’m not worried and I have a good team to rely on. Maija showed some video clips and some of them I really really loved! It’s exciting to see what kind of shape this all finds together.

The day after tomorrow we’ll be shooting press photos for the group work, I’m full on working with the press material and the graphic designer is working on the brochure. And of course, there are several grant applications to send it this week.

Hope you are well.

Johanna

It was 45 minutes long. That’s ok. A bit long though, but ok. Can tighten up. There’s a lot of text, too much?

It feels as if I’m talking all the time. While moving, then reading using the microphone, then moving and talking again, then reading with the microphone again. I like the repetition though, what comes up when you repeat, when you look at this moving and talking, sensual body with stretching skin, then just standing and talking to the microphone (Good guide for skincare, why not try these out). Putting on the high heels (guess they should be higher?), bringing the cosmetic in. Now I’ve just laid it all on the floor, I like that it’s a mess, all these expensive luxurious treasures.

Questions:
1. Should the promises text be spoken out while moving?
2. Should the cosmetics be used more directly?: “This is my two years of moisturizing and rejuvenation. This is what I have been promised. That’s what I want, yes, that’s what we all need and want and desire…Heaven.”

(I guess I could also bring the cosmetics I’m using now, not only the empty ones? Could I ?)

Ehkä voisin laittaa esille useampia rasvoja, kuin paletille ja sitten valita niistä mitä laitan mihinkin?

I have this movement section in which I’m posing. I’m imagining it at the moment in relation to the video but this is very unclear as the video is not finished. But there’s one section where I lay on the ground on my belly on the video and I’m imagining doing the same in the performance. How is it to watch an image of a body and to watch the real body, the one holding in the thick red liquids and jams? The bleeding body?

I like the last section with a bench. I don’t understand it though, not yet, but it’s also a connection to the group piece, and my intention is to kind of slide from the solo to the group piece. There’s something about when I’m lying on the bench wearing a skirt and high heels that reminds me of Marilyn Monroe. That hasn’t been my conscious intention but I don’t mind it.

I have to bring a video camera tomorrow.

Something about the mundane, everyday appearance and the sensual moving body, a big body, which is not so often seen.

I feel I’m getting somewhere. I’m definitely going to abandon some of the text I’ve used. I have also been in touch with a costume designer and we’ll meet in Helsinki after I come back from Norway. I’ve spoken to a new graphic designer and send him some material and I hope we could work in the new project together. Let’s se what he says. I don’t know if it’s going to be about the money.

J

Keskiviikkona 7.11. klo 20.40, uusinta to 8.11. klo 16.40.

Kootut Askeleet on 15-osainen ohjelmasarja, joka esittelee suomalaisia eturivin nykytanssikoreografeja. Taiteilijahaastatteluissa pääosassa ovat tekijät ja teokset.

Sarjan jokaisessa jaksossa tutustutaan yhteen koreografiin, joka kertoo teoksensa taiteellisista lähtökohdista, valmistusprosessista sekä työskentelystä tanssijoiden ja muiden tanssiteoksen luomiseen osallistuvien taiteellisten yhteistyökumppaneiden kanssa.

Tässä jaksossa esitellään vuonna 1973 syntynyt tanssija, koreografi ja live-art -taiteilija Johanna Tuukkanen. Hänellä on BA -tutkinto Arnhemissa sijaitsevasta College for Arts, European Dance Development Centre -koulusta. Hän on toiminut ANTI – Contemporary Art Festivalin toisena taiteellisena johtajana vuodesta 2002 ja hänelle myönnettiin taiteen valtionpalkinto vuonna 2006.

Johanna Tuukkanen tunnetaan teoksistaan Lumoava horisontti (1999), Metamorphosis Perfervidus Osa 2: Body Freight (2001), Seinän takana (2004) sekä teossarjastaan Fyysillistaiteellisia tekoja 1-5.