Category Archives: Events

images of Amsterdam

Before Christmas I spent five days in Amsterdam where I performed Twirling World as part of the Nordic Gold event.
I haven’t been to Holland since my graduation in 1997 (besides the Schiphol airport) so it was great to visit Amsterdam again. Walking down the canals and narrow streets of Amsterdam brought back so many memories and emotions that it was all a bit overwhelming. Amsterdam has such a special character and feeling and I must say that I’ve missed it!




Walking on Nine Streets, I came across this pop-up party:

And I swear I wasn’t looking for and didn’t even know where the Marlies Dekkers‘ shops are, but this came on my way:





In one of the vintage shops I saw the exact glittery top that I bought in the 1980’s from London and which has been stolen from the performance I don’t have anything to wear.


I had a wonderful Saturday morning at the Farmers’ Market in Nordmarkt and the most delicious apple pie and coffee in Cafe Winkel. I bought tons of Dutch cheeses for Christmas – they are the best. I’m a very big fan of old gouda, especially the ones made of goat’s milk.






We performed Twirling World in Rabozaal, a new space between the city theatre and Melkweg. The space was great, a huge stage with a big seated audience. We just used the stage, cutting of the seating with a metallic wall.



The performance itself went ok, I think, but the day building up the show, trying to do a run through, warm-up, prepare and to get all the necessary stuff was very stressful. Two things I learned: Twirling World cannot be toured without my own technician and I need to have my own private accommodation.
This is the painting of the Amsterdam show:

I’m sorry I haven’t been a very active blogger recently. I’ve been extremely busy and therefor a bit too tired and stressed at times. But now I’m trying to relax and take it easy. A party with a group of girlfriends today – really looking forward to it!

Johanna

Twirling World tonight in Amsterdam! Welcome.

I’m performing Twirling World tonight with Sonja in Melkweg, Amsterdam at 9pm. So if you happen to be here, you are most welcome to the show. The space is great, Melkweg’s crew is fantastic and we are soon heading to Melkweg to start building the set up. Long day ahead of us. But tonight should be fun!

We were rehearsing yesterday in a studio in DasArts but Twirling World is very difficult to rehearse without the set up and the right space.  But I think we are ready and prepared and at least for me, the logic of the performance is very clear.
Ooh, and it’s so nice to be in Amsterdam! What nostaligia, what memories. It’s all a bit too much really.
And yesterday it was so great to see Maija and Jyrki and Tuovi and Pia…

Well, hope to see you tonight!

Johanna

ANTI at M2hz

If you weren’t at ANTI, here’s a documentary of the 2011 festival in two parts done by M2hz.net. And if you were there, here’s your chance to refresh your memories and remember how great it was! And it was great. I miss it all so much.

Johanna

post festival blues

The 10th ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival happened last week in Kuopio and it was just amazing. The atmosphere was great through out the festival, the artists were all wonderful and so professional and I felt so proud of what I and others have created together. So thank you! I want to thank all the artists, our producer Laura for her devotion, the volunteers and our wonderful audience that had gathered to Kuopio from around Finland, the States, UK, Australia, Indonesia, Iceland, Belgium, Sweden, Canada… It’s all worth the hard work, the sleepless nights, the stress, the tears, the sweat…
If you have something (positive) to say or comment about the ANTI Festival, please email to me or leave your comment on our website here.

I’m listening to the new album of Chisu, drinking cheap cava and eating tiramisu. The autumn has been very busy and I need to catch up with sleep. I’m excited about the upcoming performances, my studies in cultural policy, developing my work and planning the next edition of ANTI. I’m also aware that I need to see some new work, somehow, somewhere.

I had a small gum surgery a couple of days ago and I’ve been pretty ill. Unfortunately, I cannot do any proper training until I’m a bit better, so that’s a bit frustrating.

Looking forward to the weekend at home!

Johanna

 

images from the 10th ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival

All photos by Pekka Mäkinen.

pics & clips

Here are a few pictures from last week. Unfortunately, not from the Visio show – not yet anyway. But here are two short clips of Antti Rissanen, a very talented bmx cyclist who performed in the show last night. My clips are not from the most amazing tricks he performed but you get the idea…

I think I’ve told that my daughter takes her ice-skating quite seriously. After the ice, they have a training session ‘on the ground’ where they practice the jumps and slides etc. without the skates. I followed a little bit of it… and she is pretty good. You’ll figure out who she is…
And once again, getting back to my love for design and architecture (I should have been an architect, remember!). In Kuopio’s Saaristokaupunki, where I also live, a lot of houses are constantly built. Most of them look so horrible, disgusting and boring that I don’t want to spend a minute writing about them. Well now, people who bought these very very expensive pieces of land directly by the lake in the island of Käränkä, have started to build their houses. Some of them look kind of interesting or at least decent, but this one… I mean, who spends hundreads of thousand of euros on the piece of land and then decides to build this????
No offence, but in the first place I would like to ask the city of Kuopio why on earth they give permission to build something like this on a such an amazing and visible spot? I mean… What’s going on? I do not understand the builders either but what can you do if you don’t have any sense of contemporary style or design or architecture? And what is the responsibility of Kannustalo, the company who’s made the house? The whole Saaristokaupunki is damaged by this company and their terribly old fashioned traditional houses which I just hate! In the worst case, you can see 5 exactly same houses from their catalogue on one street. I mean, it’s just disgusting! It’s exactly this kind of building that makes me vomit and I’m not sure how long I want to live in Saaristokaupunki if it’s this kind of environment that I have to look at every bloody day.

Johanna

Kuopio, a lively city?

What an intensive week I had. Spent a day in Jyväskylä and another one in Helsinki. Had a lot of thoughts about cultural policy, arts funding and arts management. In Helsinki I saw a performance by a graduating MA student – a very highly educated dancer entering into this insecure, unstable, problematic and debated field and business. Maybe it’s because I’m evaluating her final work that I’m somehow very conscious of all these rather negative issues in our field. And I’m not sure what I think about it. Part of me of course wants to encourage her and everyone and a part of me is really sad because it will be hard. On the other hand, it might not be hard for her at all and what is hard for each person varies so much anyway…

I gave a talk about ANTI in a seminar on Wednesday and it was kind of inspiring to hear and learn about other festivals and events in the city of Kuopio. The city is finally making or renewing its marketing strategy and festivals and events are of course a big part of the brand and image of the city. And if Kuopio wants to be a lively city, I think ANTI is doing the best job in the cultural sector.

So I was in Helsinki on Friday and realized that I wasn’t at all interested in going to the Habitare fair. This is a bit strange as I’m usually very interested in design. I’m not even sure when it was that I last visited Habitare (maybe last year?) but it was a bit of a disappointment so this year I didn’t really even consider it. But my desires were fulfilled last night in the 20th anniversary birthday party of Visio which was an inspiring event combining style, fashion, design and gourmet. I was so happy to participate and very, very proud of Kari and Sari. The venue was great, the old VR-makasiini factory building, which could be this amazing venue for all kinds of events, parties and performances in Kuopio but is hardly ever used. I know they had a lot of problems to get all the necessary permissions to organize this event there but I’m so proud they did and I really hope more people would start doing the same. Kuopio needs something like that! And Kuopio wouldn’t be the same without Visio = Kari & Sari. Think about this: these two very inspirational people who didn’t have to do anything wanted to organize this event which included a fantastic hair/fashion show, very well designed and organized venue with music, lights, BMX performer, lots of sparkling wine and gourmet deserts. And they invited about 500 people to enjoy all this for free! All I can say is thank you. And I love you!
With Kari & Sari

And I got to wear my golden Finsk shoes! Lovely.

We took a lot of pictures from the show…hopefully I’ll get to post a few later.

Johanna

A few places left for Mulla ei oo mitään päälle pantavaa –performances!

If you haven’t made a reservation yet and want to see the new work premiering tonight, there are still a few places left for Saturdays performances at 5 pm and 9 pm. Email or text me for reservations.
See you!
Johanna