Author Archives: Johanna

About Johanna

artist and curator

Meet Johanna Tuukkanen

The first weekend of Meet Johanna Tuukkanen performances is over. It has been such an exciting process… Working with someone outside the art world has been really inspiring and great but it hasn’t made making of the performance easy. So I’m truly happy that anaesthesiology specialist Johanna Tuukkanen from Jyväskylä is actully performing with me and that I’ve been able to create a structure in which we both feel comfortable and confident. And I’m so super happy that Johanna Tuukkanen is part of the performance and I’m so happy to have met her and to have gotten to know her better. We’ll do 4 more performances next weekend, you are most welcome!

Fri 22.11.2013 at 6.30pm
Sat 23.11.2013 at 1.30pm & 6.30pm
Sun 24.11.2013 at 5.30pm

Remember the absolutely necessary pre-booking: info@tuukkanen.net or + 358  (0)40 708 0005 / Asta Elijoki!!!!!

Audience arriving through the forest:


The venue:

Shots from the performance:



Audience leaving:

Examples of images in the space:

Johanna & MeAll photographs by Pekka Mäkinen.

Hope to see you next weekend! Welcome.

Johanna

Johanna’s new work premiered in Kuopio last weekend

Johanna’s new work titled Meet Johanna Tuukkanen premiered in Kuopio last weekend. Performed with 52 year-old anaesthesiology specialist Johanna Tuukkanen, this work is a chance to step inside the life of Johanna Tuukkanen. Who exactly is Johanna Tuukkanen? What is a ‘Johanna Tuukkanen’? And what’s in a name, could it be an omen? The work is performed at Johanna Tuukkanen’s home and pre-booking is absolutely necessary!Reservations: info@tuukkanen.net or + 358  (0)40 708 0005 / Asta Elijoki.

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

Johanna Tuukkanen vierailevana kuraattorina Chicagossa ja panelistina CIMOn seminaarissa

Johanna Tuukkanen on kevään aikana mukana kahdessa tapahtumassa asiantuntijana ja ANTI-festivaalin taiteellisena johtajana. Tuukkasen vuosien kokemus aika- ja paikkasidonnaisen live art –taiteen integroimisesta osaksi kaupunkitilaa ja eri yhteisöjä on tunnustettua ympäri maailmaa. Hänet on kutsuttu vierailevaksi kuraattoriksi School of the Art Institute of Chicago:n (SAIC) esitystaiteen osastolle 26.-30.4. Osasto järjestää keskusteluja, joissa kuraattorit ja tuottajat USA:sta ja muualta maailmasta puhuvat taiteen kentästä, verkostoitumisesta ja nuorten taiteilijoiden työllistymismahdollisuuksista. Keskustelut ovat osa instituutista valmistuvien nuorten taiteilijoiden lopputöiden esittelyä.

Toukokuussa Johanna Tuukkanen puhuu CIMOn Kulttuurin yhteyspisteen ja Teatterin, Tanssin ja Sirkuksen tiedotuskeskusten järjestämässä seminaarissa ”Esityksiä, kohtaamisia ja uusia kokemuksia” – esittävät taiteet ja eurooppalainen yhteistyö, joka järjestetään Helsingissä 13.5. Tuukkanen kertoo EU:n komission rahoittamista monivuotisista hankkeista Up to Nature ja A Space for Live Art, joissa ANTI-festivaali on ollut partnerina. Up to Nature on vuosina 2011-2012 toteutettu hanke, jossa neljä eurooppalaista tuotantotahoa yhteistuotti kuusi teosta, jotka kiersivät neljässä maassa. Suomesta mukana oli taiteilija Antti Laitinen. Laaja A Space for Live Art –hanke toteutettiin kahdeksan partnerin kanssa vuosina 2008-2012.

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