I’ve been such a bad blogger recently! Just too busy and too many things to do plus I’ve been traveling a lot. Which has been really inspiring and great. I will get back to my recent trip to Montreal soon. And don’t forget the up coming ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival in Kuopio, Finland! It will be just great.
Johanna
It was lovely to be in Brussels. I really enjoyed the Cifas Summer University “Urbi et Orbi – Living Art, City and City Dwellers”. I taught a workshop ‘Activation of sites and interventions in public spaces at ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival’ and participated in a panel discussion ‘Forbidden and Allowed: Art and Urban Law’. There was such a nice group of participants, interested, excited and inspired! I had a great time.
I also got to do my usual Brussels activities such as eating mussels at La Pré Salé, have breakfast at Cafe de Markten, pop in the Cora Kemperman shop and of course, Pierre Marcolini. The trip was short, intensive but also fun. I was also brought to the Chez Maman, THE dragshow gay bar in Brussels with late night shows, since being gay is something normal now a days, and you can even find gay porn if you go to certain sites online. It was a tiny but very busy place and Maman herself gorgeous!
Early morning in Brussels.
On my way to la bellone.
Benoit & Antoine.
My students working on a site specific task.
And another group busy with their task.
Panel discussion on Party or Mind.
I’m not a chocoholic but Pierre Marcolini’s chocolates are the best I’ve ever tasted. Truly amazing! And I just learned that they ship everywhere in Europe…
Johanna
I spent four days at the Kokko1721 residency in Kangasniemi in the end of July. I was invited by the owners of the farm, Jukka and Saila and their son Roope. As part of the residency, I contributed to a video diary creating a performance in response to the site, the place and the activities there – being there, sensing and feeling the site and my own body in there. I do not have photos of the actual work I created but it turned out to be very feminine, sensual, sensory…almost dream like and I did it in a greenhouse.
Here are some pictures from the farm and of some activities there….
I slept in ‘aitta’, a log house without electricity – what a great place to sleep in the summer. Cool and dark!
Performance material…
Strawberry pie…
Virma
I had a great time. Very inspiring. Thank you.
Johanna
We spent a few days in Hailuoto in the end of July. Justiina wanted to go swimming although it was really windy and not warm at all… and she did swim in the sea! I was also curious to see the new cottages that have been built in Marjaniemi. They are a bit more modern than the traditional fishing cottages but I was expecting them to be even a bit more contemporary. You can have a glimpse of them on the video. The video is not good and the wind makes a terrible sound but the landscape in Marjaniemi is very nice and I couldn’t believe how Justiina just enjoyed the sea…
Johanna
Justiina & her new shoes at night in London, July 2012.
Oh we had such a great time!
Johanna
had been amazing! Time for Kinesis, Pilates, functional training, zumba, running, Nordic walking, a gig of Dave Forestfield, a night out with friends, reading about creativity and innovation, cooking, sale shopping and baking. This does not happen in my normal life – especially during one week!
Inspired by our cup cakes in London, I bought this cup cake decorating set from the sales for my daughter.
So today we made our first ever cup cakes!
Very simple, just with one topping. Let’s see how they taste…
Johanna
I had a work related trip to Gloucestershire in the end of June/beginning of July and spent a week after that in London starting my summer holiday from ANTI stuff.
Did some nice things and had a great time. Thanks to our hosts Rebecca & Andrew & VP and thanks to all our friends Daniel, Jonathan, Joshua, Kris, Richard, Bryony, Season – it was so lovely to see you all!
We saw the Queen’s diamonds at Buckingham Palace, the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern, visited the London Transport Museum and Sir John Soanes’s Museum, wondered about in Harvey Nichols, Harrods (didn’t like it all!), Liberty and some cheaper places like Columbia Road, Brick Lane, Laden Showroom, Tatty Devine, Uniqlo, Topshop, M&S, Monsoon, Primark, ate some Lola’s handcrafted cupcakes, great Vietnamese in Shoreditch, good Thai on Bricklane and Turkish on Broadway Market, cheap lunches on Spitalfields Old Food Market, Camden Market and Soho… Oh, we had such a great time!
On the Millenium Bridge
Spot the brand new Shard, tallest building in Europe
The most beautiful girl in the world at the Thistledown Farm, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Birthday cakes at Harrods
But we got some LOLA’s handcrafted cupcakes
At the Buckingham Palace after seeing the Queen’s diamonds
In front of the Sir John Soane’s Museum. It’s free & great! Go if you can!
London Transport Museum
In Camden
Hanging out on Vyner Street, first Thursday of the Month
Dinner on Broadway Market
Oh what a great time we had! London, we will miss you!!!
Jxxx
I have the luxury to spend a couple of days in Stockholm before traveling to Uppsala where I’ll perform on Thursday.
Last night I hardly got any sleep as I had so much work to finish before the trip that I was really late packing. I had maybe 1-2 hours sleep before getting up at 4am so was rather exhausted. Luckily my flights were on time and all went smoothly. I arrived in my hotel in Södermalm very early and was rather doubtful that they would have any rooms available but they did and gave me one at something like 10am. I was so happy and had a little nap before heading off to town for my business.
In the evening I went to visit Fotografiska and ended up walking a route that took me to completely new places in Stockholm. Here are a few pictures from the way.
Nicest thing today has been speaking Swedish – after my course in academic Swedish this spring I really really enjoy catching up with the language. And now it’s just lovely to be able to speak better Swedish and use the language. Great! You never know where life takes you.
Hope to see you in Uppsala on Thursday!
Johanna
I performed MILK last Friday in the Functional Studios in Kuopio. I had completely forgotten what a nightmare that show is to organize!!! It took 14 hours from me to pick up all the props and materials including the dance carpets, empty milk boxes, fresh milk, bags to pack the boxes into and the bucket in which I bathe and then to set up the space, tape the dance carpets, organize the milk boxes in chronological order and back them, then to get ready for the show, perform, shower, clean up and pack everything and transport all the gears into different storages and places. I WAS EXHAUSTED.
But of course the greatest thing was to perform and to experience once again that the work is strong and it really touches people, provokes ideas and somehow also connects. So yesterday when I went to the studio for my training, I got such a warm and lovely feedback which made me feel very happy and also more connected to that place and the people who work and train there. So it was a beautiful experience.
I need to thank my son Zulani and his friend Elina who help enormously before and after the show! And I couldn’t have survived without the help of my daughter Justiina with whom we taped the dance carpets earlier during the day! So it’s all like a family business except that it’s not a very good business… Well, call it collaboration then!
I’ve been deep into dialogical and relational aesthetics and I need to work on my article rather intensively this week… Lots of work still to do. And in fact I have so much work in May and July that I can only focus on one thing at a time otherwise I’ll go crazy. But if I’m still alive in the end of June, I know I can be very pleased and proud of myself and will really enjoy a proper holiday. But until then, back to work now! So probably not a very active blogging season ahead of me – but I’ll try my best.
Hauskaa vappua!
Johanna
I realized that I’m in a middle of creating a participatory art work which is completely lacking necessary resources.
Johanna
