Category Archives: Travelling

Melbourne day 2

Jetlag.
An early morning run/walk to St. Kilda. 11 km.
Strength training at the studio. Alexander technique and stretching. Music and a short improvisation.
Smoked salmon and feta salad.
Emails.
Facetime with my son.
Fireplace lit.
Non-representational theory.
A sleeping pill.

After a rather restless and sleepless night I went for an early morning walk/run/jog around Albert Park and St. Kilda. It was windy and raining on and off but I really enjoyed it. I was carrying my camera, iPhone and keys.

greetings from Melbourne

So here I am, in Melbourne, Australia!
Clarendon St, South MelbourneMy journey Kuopio-Helsinki-Singapore-Melbourne went very well. I had a few hours in Helsinki and managed to briefly see my son who very kindly came to meet me at the airport. I had planned to buy him a hoverboard as a gift after researching the best one from https://sprousebros.com/best-hoverboard/ but as time was not on my side, thus will be going back and ordering it from back home for him. I also purchased a few necessities…I always buy my cosmetic products duty free and Helsinki airport is actually a very good place both in terms of selection and price to do that. I was out of Chanel Mousse Douceur which is my absolute favourite cleanser so I got that and a new BB cream. I think I’ve only ever used one BB cream, can’t even remember the brand now, so I don’t have much experience of them. Recently I’ve been using either the Chanel CC cream or Armani Maestro and since I’m running out of my Maestro, I wanted a lighter foundation for the summer. So I got Guerlain’s Lingerie De Peau BB Cream and I must say that it feels pretty amazing…! It has a lovely coverage, it blends into skin beautifully, the finish is luminous and it has SPF30. I think this will be my number one product for the upcoming months!

The flight from Helsinki to Singapore was about 11 hours but I got some sleep and felt pretty ok at the Changi airport. It was my first time there, so it was great to be able to go outdoors. It was so strange to sit in the Cactus Garden – totally dark but hot and humid night. I also wanted to check some cosmetic items at Changi as some are available only in Asia – like the Chanel Jardin de Camelia exclusive spring 2014 collection. The Jardin Zen eye shadow collection was just so beautiful and perfect that I had to get that. I had also run out of blush… Unfortunately, the Sakura powder blush of the collection wasn’t available anymore but I got the Pink explosion, which is also a really beautiful shade. It’s a bit lighter and ‘pinkier’ than the Rose initial which I had previously. Nice for the summer, I think! And to accompany my new BB cream, I got Chanel’s Les Beiges Healthy glow sheer powder… So I’m all sorted at least for a year with my new BB cream, powder, blush and eye shadow! Great.

The flight from Singapore to Melbourne was just under 7 hours and also went pretty smoothly. I slept a little and watched a movie. My host Helen picked me up from the airport which was really nice as although I was feeling fine, I was and am quite tired. Helen drove me to my apartment in South Melbourne and showed me around a little bit. I’ve been settling in, had a nap (grrr, the building site next door….), a shower and a little walk in the neighborhood. Bought some food at the supermarket, had some Barracuda for dinner at Honey Bar and Restaurant on Clarendon St and now I will skype home and then go to bed!

Johanna

So I’m about to travel to Australia…

 

Hectic weeks and days! I will be in residency in Australia for a month and have so much work and all kinds of stuff to complete before I travel! Starting from various ANTI Festival related things to tax papers, my son’s graduation party, research stuff, grant applications…and what does one need to pack for Melbourne in April-May??? C’mon! I don’t have anything to wear…

So over the Easter, I’ve been working on mine and Live Umbrella’s tax papers, doing laundry, packing winter clothes away and trying to find summer clothes from storage. And since my son’s graduation is in the end of May and I’m going to be away for a month right before (good timing!), we’ve been cleaning the house, planning the party from making guest lists to planning the menu and making checklists of what we need to buy, borrow and rent! Sounds like a huge party but really is not – but still there’s a lot to do.

Our Yorkie Pimu has probably an infection in her eyes so I’m taking her to vet on Wednesday…
pim 13 piPimu photographed by Pekka.

But I’ve enjoyed the days as well; being with the whole family, weather has been really nice & I’ve made some nice kale drinks, smoothies and cocktails…

Johanna

Network meeting in Milan

I’m part of the Space2 Destination project and the last meeting of the current network was last week in Milan. I’ve never visited Milan before so it was really inspiring to get to know the city a little bit, visit different areas and sites and of course to meet with my collegues. The meeting was organized during Uovo performing arts festival so I also saw performances each night.

An afternoon walk in the city centre around Duomo:

P1070985
P1070987
P1070990
A visit to Museo delle Culture which is still being built and under construction. Can you see the Alvar Aalto shapes or is it just me?

P1080002
P1080003
P1080004
P1080006
Near the Liveinslums Headquarters:

P1080013
P1080014
A visit to HangarBicocca:
P1080020
P1080022
P1080025
P1080026
P1080031
HangarBicocca‘s exhibition spaces were just insanely massive… Insane, indescribable…

Milan offered lovely risottos and pastas, amazing ice-cream, good wine and Spritz and of course the weather in Southern Europe is just really nice in the spring… And style… I’m not sure any city in the world can beat Milan!

Johanna

IETM in Athens

I just arrived yesterday in Athens to participate in the IETM meeting. I’m really looking forward to all the events and talks but also to get to know this city that I haven’t visited before!
Yesterday happened to be my birthday as well and I had a great walk around Plaka and Psyrri, gorgeous dinner on Iron Square and fun with my collegue Maija.



See you in Athens!

Johanna

update

I have been so inactive with my blog because I’ve been so busy otherwise. I’ve had so many things going on that posting short notes here hasn’t felt right nor that important. And then as time goes by, it becomes more and more difficult to write anything…

I have been involved and will be sharing my experience at the Writing Movement project which is an exciting initiative to consider writing practices around contemporary dance. I was part of the seminar in Kuopio in June and will continue now in  the end of September in Helsinki.

In June I attended the amazing Performance Studies International conference at Stanford University and was one of the panelist in ‘Eco Art Performance: Deep Time and the Now of Environmental Performance‘ panel with just an amazing group of women! I talked about my performance work along with our chair Jennie Klein, Natalie Loveless, Dee Heddon and Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens… The whole PSI#19 experience was incredible and I heard so many exciting panels and lectures and met inspiring friends and collegues. Here I am with Jennie:


After the PSI#19 in Stanford, I got to spend a couple of days in the Redwoods with Annie & Beth and then almost a week In San Francisco. I was feeling incredibly lucky but also very guilty of not working on my thesis when I was in California. So I actually spent some time reading and I guess having had that time to think and reflect my thesis and its problems helped me to gather the energy and direction I desperately needed to carry on.

In the Redwoods:

In SF:

So when I came back home, I continued my thesis and spent my entire summer holiday working on it, 7 days a week as many hours per day that I possibly could think straight. But it is done and I have completed my studies, hurray! So I’m a very proud holder of MA in Cultural Policy. If you are interested, here’s the link to my thesis “Vedet seisahtuu, liikenteet pysähtyy”: kokemuksia uuden julkisen taiteen kohtaamisesta ANTI – Contemporary Art Festivalilla. It’s in Finnish.


I felt so bad spending the entire summer at my desk that after the final version of the thesis was sent off, I went to Helsinki with the kids for a couple of days. And we had such a wonderful time! I haven’t been ‘on holiday’ in Helsinki for ages so it was just so great hang around with the kids, eat in nice restaurants, swim in the sea in Mustikkamaa, visit Korkeasaari, Heureka, Linnanmäki, URB Festival and Flow Festival…




Last week I was in Brussels where we had a first meeting of Destinations project. Destinations is a project for curators who curate works in and for public spaces. So we had inspiring but intensive days sharing our practices and presenting our festivals or organizations, discussing public space, art & activism and audience participation. And I got to meet some friends like Rebecca French! Lovely.

Since spring I’ve been working on my new work which is going to premiere in Kuopio in November. It’s an exciting project but also very complicated in new and different ways for me so I’m not yet talking about it very much… But I will soon, I promise!

And the 12th ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival starts next week! Have a look at the programme and get ready for unexpected encounters in the city centre of Kuopio!!! And don’t forget the Exploring the city and the everyday life International seminar on Thursday the 26th of  September. I’m so much looking forward to it.

Anyhow, sorry for not having been active here. But as you can see, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been active elsewhere. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook…

Johanna

Spaces, places and journeys

Insanely busy days filled with thinking and writing about place, space and urban planning (finally sent off the essay!), trying to finalize the ANTI 2013 programme, the CEO course, my upcoming new work, applying travel grants to be able to be on a seriously exciting panel at PSI#19 in Stanford, US in the summer and getting ready for my Iisalmi-Helsinki-Brussels-Chigaco-New York-Kuopio journey that starts tomorrow!

So it’s all about work, day and night, 7 days a week.
It’s about art, research, places and spaces.
Packing and unpacking.

I feel tired but inspired.

I don’t think I can ever travel anywhere without thinking of Doreen Massey and Panu Lehtovuori.

Is it too much to travel with four pairs of shoes and three handbags?

Johanna

IETM Dublin


So I’m in Dublin in my first ever IETM meeting. Actually, I’m not sure if that’s entirely true as I might have attended a session or two years ago in Helsinki, but this feels like my first IETM and is definitely one outside Finland. I’ve never been to Ireland before and it’s quite puzzling to come to a new city and country and to feel that one does not have any time to engage with the place. So to just walk from the hotel to a venue, and then to another venue and then to find a reasonable place to eat and then to go back to a venue you visited earlier. So my first superficial impressions of Dublin are that the stereotypes of Ireland are not just stereotypes… The pubs, the music, the dialect actually are very visible and strong part of the urban culture. Of course, I’m aware that I’ve been mostly walking around the area of Temple Bar with tons of bars, pubs and cafes but still. I wasn’t really expecting to be so surrounded by Irish music and Guinness!







So visiting a town for the first time and being busy with IETM session and the artistic programme, I really appreciate that the organizers have programmed quite a lot of site-specific activities. So far I haven’t attended any of them, but tomorrow morning at 8am I’m heading for a swim in the Irish sea Jen Coppinger. She’s taking a group of people for a swim by James Joyce’s Martello tower at Seapoint. It’s going to be early and probably terribly cold, but I want to sense the sea so this is a perfect opportunity.

Then tomorrow I’m also seeing two site-specific works. One is a walking piece and in the other one audiences are driven around in cabs. I’m really looking forward to those and to experience the city a bit more, a bit differently, as the local artists have wanted people to experience it.

Can hardly wait.

Johanna

Markedet for scenekunst

Greetings from Sandefjord in Norway! Jag har tittat på barn och ungdom teater för två dagar på norska och också lite på engelska på det här Markedet for scenekonst. Eftersom jag inte pratar norska, kan det vara lite svårt ibland att förstå skådespel. Men det har varit roligt ännu! Och jag har sett många mycket intressanta verk. Och jag har pratat lite svenska. Imorgon ska vi resa till Oslo för en dag och till hem för veckoslutet!




Har det bra!

Johanna

Thoughts for the week

I will be working all week in Kuopio. I’m doing EU admin and stuff like that, so during the day time pretty much sitting in the office. Being in Kuopio allows a good exercise rhythm at the Element Studio (today indoor cycling and dynamic stretching) which is great. I will be doing some more indoor cycling this week, as well as cross training, Kinesis and kettle bell. I passed today the newly opened restaurant Urban and I think I have to go and have lunch there this week. It wasn’t open as I walked by early in the morning but it surely looked great. It’s definitely the only restaurant in Kuopio with Eames DSW chairs with wooden legs! Hey, it’s about time…

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about space, place, urban planning and cities (for example Massey and Lehtovuori). It’s so inspiring and exciting. I still have to complete a chapter of Massey’s For Space and then read some articles for my next essay. I recently received support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation for my upcoming work and all this reading is very important for that piece, too. I also need to get going with the process of the upcoming work but it’s always such a big step for me to start pinning down ideas… I rather leave things open and undecided as long as possible – but that’s not so great always.

The spring is approaching quickly and days are filled with more light and sun. The week before last I cycled to work a few times but now we again have more snow and it’s again colder. But I’m so much looking forward to the ice free roads, runs and cycling to work!

My spring looks very busy and challenging. Lots of work, several trips abroad and a lot to read and write. But I’m really looking forward to my trips to Oslo, Dublin, Brussels, Chicago and New York. Of course exercise is going to be a great challenge because of the traveling. For me it’s really difficult to maintain a balanced work out routine when I’m traveling and away for home a lot. I wonder if it’s ever going to get any easier… Probably just more difficult! But oh how much I’m looking forward to the Marcolini chocolates in Brussels! And what to do and get from New York? I’m so happy to be revisiting Chicago and New York – it’s almost embarrassing.

My adopted sister Maija is currently in Australia. Earlier this year I found out about the Chanel CC cream but unfortunately, it’s not available in Europe or North America – at least not yet. But Maija flew via Singapore and I asked her to check out if the CC cream would be available there… So yesterday she texted me saying that she’s got the CC cream for me! Isn’t it weird how excited one can get about make up and cosmetics..? I bought the Armani Maestro make up fluid from Berlin earlier this year (with Maija) but I haven’t been 100% happy with that product… Maybe the Chanel CC cream is the solution, especially for the summer…

Are you a fan of the HBO series Girls? I’m going to watch a few episodes now.

Happy belated international women’s day!

Johanna