Event Week: Claws and Connections – All the World’s Senses
Event Week programme: 30.1.–4.2.2024
Tuesday 30.1.
15:00 – 16:00 Nature Untitled | Movements I-III (2022) • Veli Lehtovaara • performance and discussion, Myllytori, 2nd floor (English)
16:30 – 18:00 The Scent of an Apple (2023) • Zagros Manuchar • screening and discussion (Finnish)
Wednesday 31.1.
12:00 – 14:00 Ajauksia-ryhmä • Aistiretki (Finnish)
14:00 – 15:00 Ajauksia-ryhmä • discussion (Finnish)
15:30 – 17:00 Arctification – Relatively Happy Place • Ari Björn, Thora Herrmann, Albina Pashkevich, Outi Autti and Alix Varnajot • performance (English)
Thursday 1.2.
15:30 – 17:30 Wayfinding: exercises in mapping, choreographing, and re-imagining an exhibition • Nina Liebenberg • workshop (English) • sign-up required
17:30 – 18:00 The Shelter • Katja Tukiainen • reading (English/Finnish)
Friday 2.2.
14:00 – 15:00 The Cookery of art – Indigo • Katja Syrjä • screening (Finnish with English subtitles)
15:00 – 16:00 Our Lady’s Bedstraw, Dyer’s Madder and Woad • Katja Syrjä • lecture and discussion (Finnish)
16:30 – 17:30 Painting as Connector • Francisco Martinez and Mirimari Väyrynen • roundtable (English)
Saturday 3.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (Finnish)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter • Katja Tukiainen • reading (English/Finnish)
17:00 – 18:00 Letters to a Young Musician • Elina Saloranta • performance (Finnish)
Sunday 4.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (English)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter • Katja Tukiainen • reading (English/Finnish)
16:30 – 18:00 Heidi Hänninen & KAS! Kontula Art School • artists’ roundtable (Finnish)
Outside the event week
Fri, 19.1. Jaakko Ruuska – PhD thesis public examination event • 12:00 (Finnish)
Tue, 6.2. Veli Lehtovaara – Nature Untitled | Movements I-III (2022) • performance • 15:00, Myllyn tori 2nd floor (English)
Wed, 7.2. Veli Lehtovaara • public pre-examination discussion on the first artistic element of the doctoral research • 14:00, Myllyn tori 2nd floor (English)
Detailed descriptions of events
Tuesday 30.1.
15:00 – 16:00 Nature Untitled | Movements I-III (2022) • Veli Lehtovaara (English)
Veli Lehtovaara, choreographer and doctoral researcher (Tutke) talks about the dance performance, Nature Untitled, and dancer Sofia Simola performs fragments of the choreographic material at 15:00, Myllytori 2nd floor. The event is a live extension of the audiovisual installation work. Nature Untitled | Movements I-III is a collaboration between Lehtovaara, visual artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila and sound designer Jani Hietanen.
16:30 – 18:00 The Scent of an Apple (2023) • Zagros Manuchar (Finnish)
A screening and discussion with the artist Zagros Manuchar and actor Dr. Majid Hakki, about the representation of war in art, the effects of war on children and intergenerational transmission.
The Scent of an Apple (Omenan Tuoksu) is based on the 1988 Halabja massacre, the largest chemical weapons attack on civilians in history. The attack killed many women and children and left an indelible mark on the Kurdish population. The gas is said to have smelled like apples, which is why nobody suspected anything.
Film duration: 8:45 min
Language: Finnish and Kurdish with Finnish subtitles
Wednesday 31.1.
12:00 – 14:00 Aistiretki • Ajauksia-ryhmä (Finnish)
14:00 – 15:00 Ajauksia-ryhmä • discussion (Finnish)
15:30 – 17:00 Arctification – Relatively Happy Place • Ari Björn, Thora Herrmann, Albina Pashkevich, Outi Autti and Alix Varnajot • performance (English)
Arctification is defined as a social phenomenon producing historically constructed representations of the Arctic that are locked in winter-based imaginaries. Arctification refers to the production of particular representations of the Arctic among consumers as well as industry and political stakeholders.
The goal of this performance lecture is to study and develop interdisciplinary opportunities for scientific and artistic research collaboration purposes in order to reach out the wider awareness regarding in this particular case the challenges associated with Arctification in northern Europe that has so far remained in discipline specific academic discourses.
Arcitification – Relatively Happy Place will play with the idea of academic lecture tradition intertwining with the performance art and theatrical props. The performance is reaching out with means of absurdity, imaginary place, real life and contradiction.
Thursday 1.2.
15:30 – 17:30 Wayfinding: exercises in mapping, choreographing, and re-imagining an exhibition • Nina Liebenberg (English)
The wayfinder is a tool to assist visitors in navigating an exhibition. Usually an A4 piece of paper, it maps the space with a sequence of numbers and includes the label information for the artworks, sometimes the wall text as well. As such, it provides additional information and can choreograph the space for the visitor by suggesting a sequence for viewing the works. This workshop re-thinks this tool in various ways and explores the multiple interpretations of an exhibition that can co-exist in addition to its ‘first edition’ (titled ‘Claws and Connections’ in this instance). Using a variety of materials (from text and sound, to image) and mapping methods, participants will create a series of wayfinders that will form part of the exhibition and serve as additional or alternative options for visitors to choose, when viewing the show.
Please note: Due to limited capacity, the workshop requires signing up. Link for sign-up here.
17:30 – 18:00 The Shelter – reading • Katja Tukiainen (English/Finnish)
In my small interactive installation called The Shelter, the girl lies under the shelter of a book, like under a tent. Artistic research often involves verbalizing, sharing, and contextualizing the artistic work to what has already been written. Words can give the work protection.
The first book in The Shelter is Mary Beard’s Women & Power: A Manifesto (Liveright Publishing, 2017). I received the book from my friend and colleague Maria, who received it from her daughter Jenny. Mary Beard (b.1955) is an English scholar of classical Rome, who discusses in her book how history has treated powerful women.
At the book’s reading event, a free-form group of people will gather to hear my reading an excerpt from the book and perhaps give their favorite book to protect the girl. The books are changed or piled up in a pile of shelters. Those who lend their books for the work can read an excerpt from their literary inspiration. The Shelter is not limited to the experiences of only one gender.
Friday 2.2.
14:00 – 15:00 The Cookery of art – Indigo • Katja Syrjä
In her short film, the artist Katja Syrjä tells about the process of preparing the indigo blue color pigment from the Dyer’s Woad plant (Isatis Tinctoria).
Film duration: 5:55 min, in loop
Language: Finnish with English subtitles
15:00 – 16:00 Our Lady’s Bedstraw, Dyer’s Madder and Woad • Katja Syrjä • lecture and discussion (Finnish)
The meaning conveyed by the material is an important part of the content in Katja Syrjä’s works. Handmade natural color pigments, binders and handmade paper lead to research and vice versa. After the video, Katja presents the sources of different plant colors with photos and tells about her own experiences with the audience.
16:30 – 17:30 Painting Connectors • Francisco Martinez and Mirimari Väyrynen (English)
Anthropologist Francisco Martinez, from the University of Tampere, and artist Mirimari Väyrynen, from the Academy of Fine Arts, kindly invite you for the roundtable discussion ‘Painting Connectors’. Firstly, Väyrynen will present the SubaruSisters´ project, which focuses on strengthening a professional community and reconsidering painting through collaborative practices and joint field trips. The organisation of these activities is part of Väyrynen’s doctoral research about how painting is constructed through an array of social and ecological processes. In the roundtable, Martinez and Väyrynen will discuss painting as a means of building connections, exploring what can be learned through experimental collaborations.
Saturday 3.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (Finnish)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter – reading • Katja Tukiainen (English/Finnish)
* See description above
17:00 – 18:00 Letters to a Young Musician • Elina Saloranta and Mirka Malmi (Finnish)
Letters to a young musician is a participatory performance based on a correspondence between singer Elli Forssell-Rozentāle (1871–1943) and her sister, violinist Anna Forssell (1882–1970). The performance starts with a short film, after which the viewers are invited to write a fictive reply letter. The letters will not be shared in the performance, but they can be archived for future generations. At the end, we hear fragments of letters written in other research events. Throughout the event we also hear musical fragments played by violinist Mirka Malmi.
The language of the performance is Finnish, but the film is subtitled in English, and some of the reply letters are written in English.
Elina Saloranta is a teacher and artist-researcher from the Academy of Fine Arts, and Mirka Malmi is a doctoral candidate from the Sibelius-Academy. She also works as a violinist at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Sunday 4.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (English)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter • reading • Katja Tukiainen (English/Finnish)
* See description above
16:30 – 18:00 Heidi Hänninen & KAS! Kontula Art School (Finnish)
Event Week programme: 30.1.–4.2.2024
Tuesday 30.1.
15:00 – 16:00 Nature Untitled | Movements I-III (2022) • Veli Lehtovaara • performance and discussion, Myllytori, 2nd floor (English)
16:30 – 18:00 The Scent of an Apple (2023) • Zagros Manuchar • screening and discussion (Finnish)
Wednesday 31.1.
12:00 – 14:00 Ajauksia-ryhmä • Aistiretki (Finnish)
14:00 – 15:00 Ajauksia-ryhmä • discussion (Finnish)
15:30 – 17:00 Arctification – Relatively Happy Place • Ari Björn, Thora Herrmann, Albina Pashkevich, Outi Autti and Alix Varnajot • performance (English)
Thursday 1.2.
15:30 – 17:30 Wayfinding: exercises in mapping, choreographing, and re-imagining an exhibition • Nina Liebenberg • workshop (English) • sign-up required
17:30 – 18:00 The Shelter • Katja Tukiainen • reading (English/Finnish)
Friday 2.2.
14:00 – 15:00 The Cookery of art – Indigo • Katja Syrjä • screening (Finnish with English subtitles)
15:00 – 16:00 Our Lady’s Bedstraw, Dyer’s Madder and Woad • Katja Syrjä • lecture and discussion (Finnish)
16:30 – 17:30 Painting as Connector • Francisco Martinez and Mirimari Väyrynen • roundtable (English)
Saturday 3.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (Finnish)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter • Katja Tukiainen • reading (English/Finnish)
17:00 – 18:00 Letters to a Young Musician • Elina Saloranta • performance (Finnish)
Sunday 4.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (English)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter • Katja Tukiainen • reading (English/Finnish)
16:30 – 18:00 Heidi Hänninen & KAS! Kontula Art School • artists’ roundtable (Finnish)
Outside the event week
Fri, 19.1. Jaakko Ruuska – PhD thesis public examination event • 12:00 (Finnish)
Tue, 6.2. Veli Lehtovaara – Nature Untitled | Movements I-III (2022) • performance • 15:00, Myllyn tori 2nd floor (English)
Wed, 7.2. Veli Lehtovaara • public pre-examination discussion on the first artistic element of the doctoral research • 14:00, Myllyn tori 2nd floor (English)
Detailed descriptions of events
Tuesday 30.1.
15:00 – 16:00 Nature Untitled | Movements I-III (2022) • Veli Lehtovaara (English)
Veli Lehtovaara, choreographer and doctoral researcher (Tutke) talks about the dance performance, Nature Untitled, and dancer Sofia Simola performs fragments of the choreographic material at 15:00, Myllytori 2nd floor. The event is a live extension of the audiovisual installation work. Nature Untitled | Movements I-III is a collaboration between Lehtovaara, visual artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila and sound designer Jani Hietanen.
16:30 – 18:00 The Scent of an Apple (2023) • Zagros Manuchar (Finnish)
A screening and discussion with the artist Zagros Manuchar and actor Dr. Majid Hakki, about the representation of war in art, the effects of war on children and intergenerational transmission.
The Scent of an Apple (Omenan Tuoksu) is based on the 1988 Halabja massacre, the largest chemical weapons attack on civilians in history. The attack killed many women and children and left an indelible mark on the Kurdish population. The gas is said to have smelled like apples, which is why nobody suspected anything.
Film duration: 8:45 min
Language: Finnish and Kurdish with Finnish subtitles
Wednesday 31.1.
12:00 – 14:00 Aistiretki • Ajauksia-ryhmä (Finnish)
14:00 – 15:00 Ajauksia-ryhmä • discussion (Finnish)
15:30 – 17:00 Arctification – Relatively Happy Place • Ari Björn, Thora Herrmann, Albina Pashkevich, Outi Autti and Alix Varnajot • performance (English)
Arctification is defined as a social phenomenon producing historically constructed representations of the Arctic that are locked in winter-based imaginaries. Arctification refers to the production of particular representations of the Arctic among consumers as well as industry and political stakeholders.
The goal of this performance lecture is to study and develop interdisciplinary opportunities for scientific and artistic research collaboration purposes in order to reach out the wider awareness regarding in this particular case the challenges associated with Arctification in northern Europe that has so far remained in discipline specific academic discourses.
Arcitification – Relatively Happy Place will play with the idea of academic lecture tradition intertwining with the performance art and theatrical props. The performance is reaching out with means of absurdity, imaginary place, real life and contradiction.
Thursday 1.2.
15:30 – 17:30 Wayfinding: exercises in mapping, choreographing, and re-imagining an exhibition • Nina Liebenberg (English)
The wayfinder is a tool to assist visitors in navigating an exhibition. Usually an A4 piece of paper, it maps the space with a sequence of numbers and includes the label information for the artworks, sometimes the wall text as well. As such, it provides additional information and can choreograph the space for the visitor by suggesting a sequence for viewing the works. This workshop re-thinks this tool in various ways and explores the multiple interpretations of an exhibition that can co-exist in addition to its ‘first edition’ (titled ‘Claws and Connections’ in this instance). Using a variety of materials (from text and sound, to image) and mapping methods, participants will create a series of wayfinders that will form part of the exhibition and serve as additional or alternative options for visitors to choose, when viewing the show.
Please note: Due to limited capacity, the workshop requires signing up. Link for sign-up here.
17:30 – 18:00 The Shelter – reading • Katja Tukiainen (English/Finnish)
In my small interactive installation called The Shelter, the girl lies under the shelter of a book, like under a tent. Artistic research often involves verbalizing, sharing, and contextualizing the artistic work to what has already been written. Words can give the work protection.
The first book in The Shelter is Mary Beard’s Women & Power: A Manifesto (Liveright Publishing, 2017). I received the book from my friend and colleague Maria, who received it from her daughter Jenny. Mary Beard (b.1955) is an English scholar of classical Rome, who discusses in her book how history has treated powerful women.
At the book’s reading event, a free-form group of people will gather to hear my reading an excerpt from the book and perhaps give their favorite book to protect the girl. The books are changed or piled up in a pile of shelters. Those who lend their books for the work can read an excerpt from their literary inspiration. The Shelter is not limited to the experiences of only one gender.
Friday 2.2.
14:00 – 15:00 The Cookery of art – Indigo • Katja Syrjä
In her short film, the artist Katja Syrjä tells about the process of preparing the indigo blue color pigment from the Dyer’s Woad plant (Isatis Tinctoria).
Film duration: 5:55 min, in loop
Language: Finnish with English subtitles
15:00 – 16:00 Our Lady’s Bedstraw, Dyer’s Madder and Woad • Katja Syrjä • lecture and discussion (Finnish)
The meaning conveyed by the material is an important part of the content in Katja Syrjä’s works. Handmade natural color pigments, binders and handmade paper lead to research and vice versa. After the video, Katja presents the sources of different plant colors with photos and tells about her own experiences with the audience.
16:30 – 17:30 Painting Connectors • Francisco Martinez and Mirimari Väyrynen (English)
Anthropologist Francisco Martinez, from the University of Tampere, and artist Mirimari Väyrynen, from the Academy of Fine Arts, kindly invite you for the roundtable discussion ‘Painting Connectors’. Firstly, Väyrynen will present the SubaruSisters´ project, which focuses on strengthening a professional community and reconsidering painting through collaborative practices and joint field trips. The organisation of these activities is part of Väyrynen’s doctoral research about how painting is constructed through an array of social and ecological processes. In the roundtable, Martinez and Väyrynen will discuss painting as a means of building connections, exploring what can be learned through experimental collaborations.
Saturday 3.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (Finnish)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter – reading • Katja Tukiainen (English/Finnish)
* See description above
17:00 – 18:00 Letters to a Young Musician • Elina Saloranta and Mirka Malmi (Finnish)
Letters to a young musician is a participatory performance based on a correspondence between singer Elli Forssell-Rozentāle (1871–1943) and her sister, violinist Anna Forssell (1882–1970). The performance starts with a short film, after which the viewers are invited to write a fictive reply letter. The letters will not be shared in the performance, but they can be archived for future generations. At the end, we hear fragments of letters written in other research events. Throughout the event we also hear musical fragments played by violinist Mirka Malmi.
The language of the performance is Finnish, but the film is subtitled in English, and some of the reply letters are written in English.
Elina Saloranta is a teacher and artist-researcher from the Academy of Fine Arts, and Mirka Malmi is a doctoral candidate from the Sibelius-Academy. She also works as a violinist at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Sunday 4.2.
14:00 – 15:00 Guided exhibition tour (English)
15:00 – 16:00 The Shelter • reading • Katja Tukiainen (English/Finnish)
* See description above
16:30 – 18:00 Heidi Hänninen & KAS! Kontula Art School (Finnish)