I’m just on my way to New York where I’ll be giving a talk in one of the panels of Site-specific Performance Symposium in CUNY. The whole symposium looks really exciting and I’m looking forward to participate in it -and of course to spend a couple of days in NY. If you are anywhere near, please come and here us discussing issues around site-specific performance!
Johanna
Last weeks have been super busy for me as I was performing in Sweden, then went to Brussels and every chance I got, I was working on the new one-to-one performance BODY/HAIR which I premiered last Wednesday in Kuopio. It was a kind of work-in-progress day of performances but I’m pretty happy with it all. It was quite exciting as to get the soundscape, the costume, the stage equipment and all that together was a real challenge in terms of time and budget so I’m kind of proud that I was able to pull it together. The performance is quite tough for me to do –not so much one but to keep repeating it one after the other… I was really exhausted, friction burned and bruised afterwards. I was also very tired because it has been more than a month since I had a day off. Anyway, I survived it and have the weekend off now. What a luxury.
My performance shoes are the corset boots by Minna Parikka:
Brussels was real nice and green. Kuopio was still very winter like when I left so it felt like a real luxury to see so much green (I stayed near Botanica) and walk in summer shoes. It was a lot of work though as I did a presentation with Gregg about ANTI Festival, then worked with Gregg on completing this year’s festival programme, saw as many performances as possible in the Trouble #5 Festival and also we had an audit of our A Space for Live Art EU project. Lot’s of work indeed! But it was great to see Gregg and some other artists there like Rosie Dennis, Essi Kausalainen, Guillermo Gomez Pena, the xxx group, Johanna Lecklin etc…. The nice thing also was that Kuopio had a kind of a heat wave whilst I was away so when I got back, practically all the snow was gone and the weather had really changed.
Brussels:
        
       
              
Now I have a couple of days off and I’m just trying to relax and do stuff that at home. Then I’m staring to prepare my trip to New York. Lot’s of exciting things happening!
Happy Labour Day weekend to everyone! Hauskaa Vappu-viikonloppua kaikille!
Johanna
My performance at the TUPP-festival went well, I think. I had a great time and had a chance to walk around the beautiful town on Sunday before heading off to the airport.
Tomorrow I’m rehearsing my new one-to-one performance in a theatre Kuopio. Looking forward to that.
Johanna
Busy busy days! I’m on my way to perform in Sweden as part of TUPP Internationell scenkonstfestival in Uppsala. Exciting! I heard that the milk cartons I sent to Uppsala have arrived safely so I’m all set and ready to Physical artistic deeds 1; Milk.
Last weeks I’ve been working on a new one-to-one performance BODY/HAIR of which I’ll show a first draft in just a couple of weeks. So I’ve had a lot of meetings related to that work and I think it’s now finding its shape and form.
Must hurry now.
See you in Uppsala!
What a sunny and beautiful and bright day. I’m enjoying an easy morning at home and having a luxury of reading the newspaper in peace, updating my blogs, commenting other people’s blogs, listening to radio, enjoying that the kids are outside playing. A good moment.
I went to Helsinki earlier this week to attend a reception hosted by Alexander Stubb, the foreign minister of Finland. He held the reception for remarkable Finnish artists & important people working in the arts and there were a lot of A-list celebrities and artists there -and me of course. Also the president of Finland, Tarja Halonen popped by. It was a really good party and I got to meet and talk to a lot of people including Minna Parikka whose fan I am. I was wearing the same handbag as Minna and her shoes as well. Anyway, artist Riiko Sakkinen was there and he had criticised the art works Alexander had bought recently. So today’s Helsingin Sanomat reported, that Alexander had admitted that he doesn’t know anything about contemporary art and asked Riiko to invite 12 artists for a dinner so that he can learn more about contemporary art. I think this is great but I’m concerned that Riiko’s knowledge of contemporary art is very limited to visual arts and artists. I think I have to send some material to Alexander or do something else. Ideas?
Yesterday I went to see a really awful performance Verigreippi. I really didn’t understand why the makers of the performance wanted me or anyone to witness what they were doing. I didn’t believe in anything they did or said. It was just so pretencious and false and there really wasn’t anything there to see or hear or to think. Oh god. What a waste of time.
I’m off to run now and enjoy the beautiful day. Would be great to hear what you think about Riiko Sakkinen introducing contemporary art to Alexander Stubb or Verigreippi for that matter…
Johanna
ps. in the image Bodium coffee maker, Polar FT60, painting by Mikko Valtonen, wall paper Larsen ‘winter tree’, table BoConcept ‘Amari’, chair Danerka, Iittala plate, KoKo coffee cup, Apple MacBook
Last week I went to Helsinki to participate in the reception of Finnish Cultural Foundation which generously gave a grant for ANTI Festival for the self-financing part of A Space For Live Art, EU funded project. This week I’ve tried to take some time off from the ANTI Festival. Lately it has absorbed far too much of my energy and caused me the kind of stress I need to get rid of. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded very well this week but at least this has been an effort to get my mind off ANTI for a while.
So this week I’ve been enjoying being at home, seeing friends, exercising and running. Nothing special but the kind of stuff one should find time to do when working as well.
Actually, I’m very excited about my upcoming performances and projects during the spring. I’ll let you know about them soon. I’ll also participate in two running events this year – something I’ve never done before. I’ll run 10K in May and a half marathon in September. This week I’ve done some exercising on a cross trainer, functional training, running and walking. I’ll do a long run tomorrow and then get a massage. On Sunday I’ll do some functional training as well. So this looks like a pretty good week in terms of exercising. And my body feels great!
When I was in Helsinki, I ate some pretty good sushi and got all excited about learning more about it. So I’ve planned a kind of sushi evening at my place with a French cook who lives in Kuopio. He will teach us about the history of sushi, how to make it and in the end we’ll have a feast! I’m really looking forward to it. Now the challenge is to find a date that fits everyone who’s interested. It will be fun.
Johanna
Visiting NRLA and Glasgow was great in many ways. It was good to see new work, catch up with artists and friends I haven’t seen for a while, work with Johanna and Gregg and of course, to have the A Space For Live Art meeting with all the European partners. A lot to digest.
As always, I feel disappointed I missed some works and performances that I really really would have liked to see, but then again, I also got so see a lot. I queued endlessly to see Dominic Johnson’s performance but that was kind of fun as I was lining up with Jennie Klein, Dee Heddon and Steven Hodge. So that wasn’t too bad. I also had to work hard to get to see Kate McIntosh who, despite all the hype around her, didn’t really do it for me. But I was really happy to see Alexis O’Hara whose work I’ve always missed before. And of course Ivana Müller and Raimund Hoghe whose work I absolutely loved.
But all my time in Glasgow I felt really stressed and slept very badly and restlessly. My plans to buy new underwear from Marks & Spencer failed as I was simply too tired to focus on looking for something nice and trying it on. Actually, I didn’t buy anything for myself, except some cosmetics from tax free, but I found a few nice things for the kids from TK Maxx. And some whisky for my partner – of course.
So it’s been great to be at home and sleep in my own bed! I’m finally catching up with sleep –and work.
Johanna
…to Glasgow with Johanna, ANTI Festival’s new full time producer. I’m really looking forward to seeing a lot of interesting works at the NRLA but also meeting collegues, friends and collaborators. The last days have been just crazy as I’ve been trying to introduce Johanna to the organization and practicalities of the ANTI Festival but also I’ve worked my ass off with the last year’s accounts and EU reports –which are nowhere near finished…
Last weekend went with transcribing and translating the DVD of HUIPPUSUORITUS – OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE. I was hoping to have that finished by now but didn’t manage. It seems I never get rid of this feeling of not having time to do all the work at hand. I guess that’s because there’s simply too much work for me accomplish but I just don’t know how to change the situation.
In Glasgow we’ll have a whole day meeting with the partners of A Space for Live Art EU project but we also have ANTI Festival staff meeting with Johanna & Gregg, Edge of Europe meeting with Maija Hirvanen and I’ll meet artists like Marcia Farquhar, Kira O’Reilly, Frenchmottershead and writers like Jeannie Klein and Dee Heddon.
I took my trainers with me so I’m hoping to have the time, discipline and energy to go to the gym of the hotels more than once…
Johanna
Thank you everyone who was there at the performances of HUIPPUSUORITUS – OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE. We had a great time and I really enjoyed them. If you are interested in reading the review (in Finnish) of HUIPPUSUORITUS – OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE titled ‘Johanna Tuukkanen lets the perfect woman to take off’ from Iisalmen Sanomat, it’s here.
Now that the performance period is over, I’ve been resting a bit more and catching up with stuff that has been neglected. The spring is going to be a busy one including a tour of soft skin / harsh life, warming up the classic Milk performance and working on a new one to one performance. Exciting.
I’ve been busy with the DVD of HUIPPUSUORITUS – OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE, ANTI Festival stuff and spending some time with my family. In February I’m visiting National Review of Live Art in Glasgow with the new producer of ANTI Festival, Johanna Hänninen. We’ll also meet my co-artistic director Gregg Whelan there, have meetings with some of the artists who will show work at ANTI 09 and of course, we’ll have A Space For Live Art meeting with all our partners. We’ll be busy! I’m really looking forward to all that. In April with Gregg, we are going to present ANTI at the Trouble Festival in Brussels which will include a great selection of Finnish artists, by the way.
My exercise programme is a bit looser at the moment but it includes functional training at the Functional Team in Kuopio or at a gym, running and Pilates. I’m very motivated. I’m maybe planning to participate in two running events this year. How strange is that?
Johanna
It’s always so hard to write about an unfinished work. What to say, what to leave out, how much to define or contextualize? This time, in a way I feel that the title itself says it all. On the other hand, it would be somehow relevant to state the slight aspect of retrospective, the moment of looking back at the body of work created. Anyway, I’m late will texts concerning the OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE but at least some things are moving on as they should.
I’ve been a couple of days in Helsinki, having meetings concerning the ANTI Festival. Gregg was there and with him and the chair of our board Vilja, we interviewed a few producer candidates. I think we found the one. With Gregg we also went to see Nälkäteatteri’s Odradek performance in the Kiasma theatre. That was really a peculiar experience. I didn’t hate the work but found it really hard to connect to. Today we’ve just been talking a lot about the program, call out and schedules. With the new producer I think we can work out the workload so that we’ll be really able focus on the program and the artists. And that feels good.
Before catching my train back to Kuopio, I had a couple of hours to wonder around in Helsinki. These days that’s a rare occasion. I found it really strange that every time I’m in Helsinki, I seem to spot or somehow bump into well-known people or celebrities. Maybe it feels strange because we don’t really have them in Kuopio or is it just that see things differently when I’m travelling? Well, this time I spotted politician Paavo Arhinmäki, director of the Swedish theatre Johan Storgård, performance artist Irma Optimist and bumped into top stylist Minttu Vesala with whom I went to high school! I think the last time I’ve seen Minttu was something like 15 years ago and it was so nice to see her. She said I look exactly the same –as did she; she’s still as tall and slim as she used to be and she somehow makes me always feel funny about my shortness and rounder body. Anyway, she’s the purchasing agent for Helsinki 10, this designer shop, and as I fell in love with the one and only Minna Parikka bag they had in the store, she gave me a discount of it and I just had to buy it. So that shall be my Christmas present and I shall not buy anything for myself. Ever. Not this year anyway.
But the bag is gorgeous and it looks like I’ve always had it. Good design simply makes me happy.
Johanna
