Johanna Tuukkanen » Festivals

ANTI SHOP

Johanna — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:40:41 +0000

At ANTI we are concerned of your well-being, health and your sexual health. For those in long-term relationship, we sell the ANTIVERSARY book which highlights our history of 10 years with beautifully documented imagery. It is a great example of growth and development and a fabulous study book for those still waiting for the first anniversary. For the more adventurous, we still have a few PUBLIC SPACE MY ASS hand made t-shirts left. Please visit the ANTI SHOP to get what you want. And remember, our mission is love, wellbeing, health and sexual health!

Have a great time shopping!

Johanna

ANTI at M2hz

Johanna — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:21:36 +0000

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

a typical Sunday?

Johanna — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:23:52 +0000

A bit confusing day. It started off very well, the weather was great – a really beautiful bright autumn day. I had a chance to read the newspaper sort of in peace, went for a longer walk with the dog and then for a short run. And I felt great! Because of ANTI, last week was just insane and I didn’t have a chance to exercise properly – I only cycled to work a few times but walked around the city a lot during the festival. Then on Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat and didn’t want to make it worse by exercising too much. On Thursday I had a small surgery, and wasn’t allowed to exercise for a couple of days. So today it just felt great to be able to run although my pulse was rather high. Hope I don’t feel worse tomorrow.

For the rest of the day I guess I had a bit too ambitious goals of what I would get done. Had to comment an article, write a short piece, read, work on my schedules for the autumn etc etc. I did get a lot done but not enough. I felt especially bad for not getting to read as much as I wanted – I found it really hard to concentrate.

But I kind of made the ANTI 2012 programme and sent it off to Gregg to comment. Felt a bit manic really. I also made some notes about the meaning of ANTI as some people have written rather stupid and also totally incorrect things about the festival to the local daily newspaper. So we need to comment on and correct those. I also tracked down a date when one photo was taken related to the accusations in the writings.

So anyway, I feel a bit muddy. I’ve been also working on my upcoming performance and have had some exciting thoughts about how to structure and shape the work. So yes, there have been good things and moments but also I’m very aware that I need to do so much more. Oh well. Well well well.

Johanna

post festival blues

Johanna — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:11:19 +0000

The 10^th 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

Johanna — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:12:39 +0000

All photos by Pekka Mäkinen.

meeting in Vienna

Johanna — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:42:56 +0000

Before the midsummer I was in a meeting in Vienna for a couple of days. We sat two intensive long days in this room discussing artists and works for the upcoming UP TO NATURE project. I was very inspired by the meeting but I think this has been the first time ever that I literally didn’t have a chance to do anything apart from going straight into the meeting from airport, going to the hotel at night, taking the tube into the meeting the next day, taxi back to the hotel and bus to the airport early next morning! So no time to have a walk anywhere, to see anything or to shop. I guess that might be a good thing…

A view from my hotel window:

Our meeting room with a balcony:

A view from the balcony, apparently a big tourist attraction in Vienna (related to classical music) – hundreads of tourists visiting it all day long…

Anyway, thanks Thomas, Olivia, Gregg, Helen, Hannah, Jon (and who did I forget…?) for a great meeting! See you soon,

Johanna

a week of sports

Johanna — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:15:18 +0000

Today I did a longer aerobic workout and went for a Nordic walk for about 95 mins. I took it very easy as I’ve been exercising a lot this week (about 10 hours including Zumba, functional training, Kinesis, cycling and Nordic Walking) and my body feels a bit tired. But I wanted to do one longer aerobic exercise so this afternoon was a good moment to do that. It was surprisingly warm and it was ok to just have a t-shirt on as I walked the Jynkänvuoren pururata twice. As I was Nordic walking and listening to music, I was thinking why I feel so tired. This week my body has physically felt tired because of rather hard exercise but I’ve also felt tired in relation to my work. Strange as this hasn’t been the busiest time ever. But I guess I have a few processes going on which always take more energy than expected. Two new works that I’m planning and working on, the ANTI Festival programme and our upcoming book…

I’m so excited about being invited to perform Acts of Clothing in the autumn in few festivals. I was so happy to get a phone call last week from one artistic director and to be invited to a festival I’ve never performed before. Great! And of course we have a show of Twirling World in June at the Paikallisliike event as part of the Kuopio Dance Festival.

Oh well, now it’s time for the ice hockey world championship final!

Johanna

a few more pictures from Brussels

Johanna — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:51:26 +0000

Will & Kate:

La Pré Sale:

Los Torreznos performing at the Trouble Festival:

Pictures by Laura & Johanna.

Oh, it was such a great trip!

Johanna

London & Brussels

Johanna — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:01:39 +0000

I had the luxury of visiting London and Brussels last week. First we worked two days in London with the ANTI Festival’s core team; me, Laura and Gregg. We are so used to Skype and email that it felt so luxurious to actually be in the same physical space. And we accomplished so much! There are a million big & small details to discuss and decide with the festival programme which we are hoping to launch in the end of the month or in the beginning on June. So I was so pleased with our meeting. Very useful. And it was great to see Gregg, sniff the air of London a little bit and see my friends’ house for the first time. Inspiring!

Gregg pointing out that he’s having tea while me & Laura are enjoying something else…

We were there just a day before the royal wedding so I had to buy a Will & Kate T-shirt. When I was buying it on Oxford Street, I got interviewed for French TV. They asked me why I bought it and I said because it’s so kitsch. Probably not the right answer! We also had a lovely dinner in a wonderful tapas place with Laura in Soho. By the way, if you are in London, check out FrenchMottershead’s photographic exhibition in the Photographers’ Gallery. Saw some images before they went to print and they looked very intriguing.

From London we took the Eurostar to Brussels. It was my first time on Eurostar and I was amazed how quick and easy it is! Less than two hours and you are in Brussels. It feels like a miracle comparing to Finland where it takes four hours for me to get even to Helsinki….

In Brussels we had A Space for Live Art project meeting with all the partners. The meeting was during the Trouble Festival so evenings we spent watching works. Rosie Dennis was doing her Downtown project there and it was great to see her working in a different context, different city and language. She performed in Les Halles but I must say that I really preferred her shows in Kuopio as they were not hidden in some art space. Also the work of Mitch & Parry was great.

We had a wonderful time with Laura. The weather was great, +23 degrees and we enjoyed the city a lot. On Saturday afternoon we had a little time to pop into the city centre for shopping. I brought Laura to the Pierre Marcolini chocolate shop… I didn’t remember how amazing the chocolate really is! It blows your mind. Laura will probably hate me forever for bringing her to the Cora Kemperman shop…where we both did some shopping. Again we had wonderful tapas and on Sunday just amazing mussels in La Pré Salé. Oooh. Unforgettable.

La Pré Salé:

1st of May:

Laura’s Belgian waffle:

This week has been hard trying to adjust to the normal rhythm. Every time I’m away and then come back home, I feel that so much work has piled up I don’t know where to start. But I’ve been happy cycling, going to Zumba and getting my energy flowing. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to Functional Training with Pipsa and on Saturday a Zumba marathon with Outi! Yeah.

Johanna

Back to work and exercise routines

Johanna — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:50:47 +0000

Last week has been so freezing in Kuopio, all over Finland I guess. The days are gorgeous though – bright, sunny and the landscape is covered by tons of snow but it’s sooooo cold. A couple of hours in the afternoon feel pretty ok after the sun has been shining all morning but as soon as it goes down again, the cold hits really hard. So it hasn’t been a real pleasure to spend much time exercising outdoors although I’ve done a few Nordic walks.

Since I came back from Australia, I’ve been getting back to my normal routines. The last three weeks I’ve exercised pretty intensively at the Functional studio and really enjoyed myself! Lots of Kinesis and Functional training but also Zumba, for the first time in my life! I’ve missed so much aerobic exercise that I was quite miserable until I realized that the Zumba classes work at least as well as a run. And it’s so much fun to dance and sweat to the holiday rhythms of calypso, salsa and reggae!

Do you remember when I wrote last autumn that I want a hybrid bicycle? Well, I’ve just bought one! Yes, it’s a bit crazy but I’ve thought about it so much that I’m convinced that this was a good investment. The sad thing is that it has been so cold that is has been practically impossible to ride much but I’ve done a few short tests and I love it! My bicycle is Merida S-Presso 700 with hydraulic disc brakes, beautiful matt black and sleek design.

Now that I have the bike, I realize that I also should have all kinds of gears to be able to take full advantage of it but I have to take it slow. I can’t possibly buy a whole set of wind stopper cloths, gloves, cycling bags and shoes etc. all at once! I’ve bought a helmet, for the first time in my life, and that’s pretty much what I can afford at the moment. But to be able to cycle to work on a regular basis, I need to get these Ortlieb panniers. I really love the white line!

About work

Some of you know that I’ve started to work with the support of the Arts Council of Finland’s three year artist grant in January. This year I will not be producing any new performances or shows but I’m doing a lot of research as well as touring and performing Twirling World and Acts of Clothing. I’m working on an international collaboration with Rebecca French from FrenchMottershead and I’m very very excited about it! The downfall has been that I haven’t been able to raise much funding for the project which is to premiere in 2012 and not this year. I find it rather disturbing and I’m not really sure how to proceed with the project. We’ve got 2 000 € from the Regional arts council of North Savo but you might be able to imagine that it isn’t much of anything for an international collaboration. So we’ll see how that goes and what the rest of the foundations say.

Tomorrow I start rehearsing Twirling World with Sonja and we have shows coming up in Kuopio in March. I’m a bit scared to return to that work which as a performer, was quite challenging for me. So I’ll see how I feel next week.

I’ve been also really really shocked by the City of Kuopio cutting ANTI Festival’s funding. We have a tenth anniversary of the festival and a lot of special programme planned to celebrate that in the city of Kuopio, a book coming up by a national publisher and the fourth year of A Space for Live Art project going on. So WTF???? I don’t really know what to think.

Johanna