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.â€
(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.
Worked hard, moved a lot, wrote a lot, felt sick at some point, enjoyed the space and peacefulness of having a long period alone in studio, did some crazy things and of course just as I was cleaning up my mess in underwear only, someone walked in to get a video projector. I thought it was funny but she was probably scared.
Really tired now, have to write my column as well.
Johanna
Came back from Norway last night and was happy that all flights were on time and luggage wasn’t lost once. It’s the simple things you start to appreciate when you are away from home. My meetings in Helsinki went really well and were meaningful to me. Managed to see the new works of Eeva Muilu and Jyrki Karttunen in Helsinki and got so happy about them. To visit the Performance Festival in Hamar was also inspiring and of course it was great to see new works by many wonderful artists. I think my talk was ok as well. But nothing beats ANTI. It’s just so different to watch works in the same location and pretty much the same space, one after the other, than to actually explore various situations and ways of engaging with the work.
After flying to different city every day and too short nights, I had to dash into the office in the morning to send some documents to Brussels and to work on ANTI’s funding applications. I’m also working on my own applications and trying to find time to go to the studio as well. The work never ends. But so it seems to be with everyone whether you are from Helsinki, Malmö, Stavanger or Kuopio…
Thanks to Ingrid for inviting me to Hamar and thanks to Pilvi, Maija, Essi, Virve, Anne-Marte, Roi, Irma, Elin, Petter, Annika and everyone for a companionship.
Johanna
I’m off to Helsinki tomorrow and to Hamar, Norway on Saturday. This week I’ve been working on the solo in the studio, having a luxurious time on my own, escaping the domestic issues. I have a lot of material and I’m still in the process of seeing into which direction it all is going to go… I’ve been also preparing my talk in Hamar, working on some grant applications and arranging meetings.
I’m so much looking forward to spending a day in Helsinki and the weekend seeing a lot of performances at Kunstbanken in Hamar. I’ll meet Anne-Marte from Stavanger in Hamar and Maija Hirvanen and Annika Tudeer, amongst others. Great! And tomorrow in Helsinki I’ll meet with Benoit from Brussels and Geir from Stavanger and I’ll stay with my producer Maija. I’m sure it will be a lot of work but also really good and inspiring. Today I got to know that I got a travel grant to visit Iceland next year and I’m so much looking forward to that as well!
Hopefully I’ll see you all in Hamar.
Johanna
ANTI-Festival was a huge success and I really enjoyed the festival, all the artists, works, visitors, the seminar – all of it. Working with Gregg has been really great and I’m so happy we are doing it and enjoying it. And our artists and visitors were having a great time. We make a good team with Maija. ANTI made it to the national news and yellow press – you can read more about it on ANTI’s website.
Somehow I managed to write my grant applications and a new column on the midst of all. But I don’t think I have recovered from the fact that I won’t have an artist grant from the Arts Council of Finland next year.
Now I’m into working with my solo with Maija Hirvanen and Pekka Mäkinen and I’m really looking forward into the darkening autumn and spending time in a studio, alone.
I saw my doctor on Monday and he said that the time of miracles is not over. My back is so much better that with a new exercise programme I should be fully back to normal physical work in two weeks. But to ashtanga he said no no no until 2008…
I’ll see.
I will hold an audition on Thursday 31st of May at 3 pm at Hermannin salit in Kuopio, Finland. I will choose three performers for my new work. The working period will be between August and November, premiere in November-December 2007 and they will be organized in Kuopio, Finland.
The audition is held for professional performers who work in the contexts of contemporary dance, live art and/or performance art.
Mandatory registration at johanna(at)tuukkanen.net or +358 40 742 9091 by Monday 28th of May.
Further information: Johanna Tuukkanen
Today was a busy but quite an interesting and good day in the end. First, I got a very exciting email asking if I was interested in one international project (which I was) and in the evening I got a text message from the regional arts council of North Savo saying that I have been given a one year artist grant for 2007. This is good news, but to be perfectly honest, I had applied a longer grant and was quite disappointed that I didn’t get one. It just makes the long term planning and commitments so much more difficult as I have again no idea how I will fund my work in 2008.
But now is now, and things are definitely moving to the right directions. I’m sipping champagne (the cheapest you can get in Alko), called my mom and just finished working. I sent my DVD to Norway today, talked with Emma Puikkonen on the phone about continuing to perform Cosmetics and green peas (yes!) and had a great Skype session with Gregg about the Talks & Deeds programme and ANTI 2007 artists etc. So yes, it was all inspiring and exciting.
Working with Jaana over the weekend was great, as usual. It is so much fun, crazy and reaching and referring to so many directions and issues and traditions. I just love working with her and I really do hope that audiences will find the work and pick up all the contradicting statements we make in it. And I hope they will forgive me my all but perfect figure! No matter how hard I practice ashtanga, it just stays the same…
But I’m not letting my body, my weight, my intelligence, my financial situation or my age to stop me. It’s all going to be out there and it is only through them, that I can resist, contradict and point out the issues I, we want.
I’ll be waiting for your congratulations and flowers and other possible gifts. You know how to reach me.
Johanna
