PROGRAM

Phase 1: Workshops Dates & Contents

( Mosaiikki Library - Vantaankoskentie 69, 01700 Vantaa)

20.4 - 13:00 to 16:00 - INTRODUCTION

What is the concept? What is Performance Art? A brief history of Performance art. Ritual. Happening. Executing a concept as performance/action embedded in the given context (time, space, and other given conditions). Performance as a processual discipline. Tero Nauha will give an artist talk about his practice with a focus on ‘conceptual art/performance art.

21.4 - 13:00 to 16:00 - TIME

Performance is a time-based form of art. Short action (limitation of time). Microcosmos. How to start an action? How to end it? Roi Vaara will give an artist talk about his practice with a focus on ‘concept/filtering and selecting the right ideas / how to implement a concept using only the means necessary to realize it’.

27.4 - 13:00 to 16:00 - TIME

Durational performance. Timing. Rhythm. Pace. Repetition and multiplication. Creating a situational frame. John Court will give an artist talk about his practice with a focus on ‘concept/duration/composition in space’.

28.4 - 13:00 to 16:00 - SPACE

Performance as a composition in a space (horizontal/vertical/diagonal arrangements). Limitation of space. Living the performance art.

Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro will give an artist talk about her practice with a focus on ‘performance art/action art as a political statement and form of resistance’.

4.5 - 13:00 to 16:00 - SPACE

Site-specificity, Indoor/outdoor. Public space. How do you choose the right space for an idea? Annexation of space. Vishnu Vardhani Rajan will give an artist talk about her practice with a focus on ‘spoken word in performance/poetry in activism’.

5.5 - 13:00 to 16:00 - METHODS / STRATEGIES

Performance as a shared experience. Collective performance, collaboration, interactive happening, activating audience. Spoken word. Sound. Influences from other art disciplines. (How is performance different from other forms? Does it have to be? Who decides?)

Irma Optimisti will give an artist talk about her practice with a focus on ‘concept and 'drawing on experience from other professions or areas of life.

11.5 - 13:00 to 16:00 - THE BODY AND THE ARTIST PRESENCE:

Who/What performs? How to represent a body? Is the body political?

Forms of performance art as a way of thinking. Acting vs doing and being. The role of the spectator (does performance art need a spectator?) Kira O'Reilly will give an artist talk about her practice with a focus on Concept, body, and presence.

12.5 - 13:00 to 16:00 - DOCUMENTATION

Photo and video documentation. How to document a live-action? Is it possible to document performance? What can be documented? What cannot be documented? Video documentation versus performance for the camera.

15.5 - 14:00- 17:30 - VISITING ARTSI MUSEUM

Visiting the Artsi Museum together for Ida Sofia Fleming and Joonas Outakoski's performances as part of the exhibition My Home Somewhere.

Phase 2: Production & Post-production

Production of the performances will take place between 27th May and 9th June. The participants will be able to choose their time slots on these dates.

The Other Side will be responsible for the post-production of the works and preparing them for the exhibition.

Phase 3: Exhibition

The Sidewalk project outcome will be displayed at K Galleria from 11th October to 29th December.

PARTICIPANTS

Francois Bernier

Born and brought up in France. I have lived and worked in many corners of the world and now in Finland. Mostly gregarious and forever curious.

Alan P. L. Fung

Alan, currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in atmospheric science, has been passionate about bridging science and art through different media. He has been exploring artistic ways to deliver messages on pressing environmental issues on our planet.

Paula Haapalahti

”I love to observe my surroundings by taking photos randomly in nature and urban spaces. I would like to show the world through my eyes. I want to share the feeling, the touch, the smell, and the joy of everyday life. As a personal journey, I want to learn from my experiences and to see beyond the surface. I try to connect my inner thoughts visually into my work and to catch things as they are in the moment. No more, no less. "There's something significant and beautiful in this world which always surprises me... in particular: kindness, love, compassion, and gratitude will never lose their relevance"

Milla Hutri

Working in the field of social healthcare as a cultural instructor in a senior home. Culture and art are connected to well-being throughout a lifetime. Exploring ways to express myself and the way I see the world through art. Child at heart.

Xiao Junyi

With 14 years of experience living in Finland, I’ve become an idealistic and enthusiastic marketer who believes in the powerful synergy between art and marketing. I see art as a unique gateway to open minds, blending creativity with strategic thinking to inspire and connect with audiences. Passionate about exploring the intersection of art and marketing, I am dedicated to creating meaningful and impactful experiences.

Heidi Lähtevänoja

My background lies in poetry, visual arts, and movement. I want to create and implement my inner thoughts and feelings into reality with creativity. I am a 42-year-old human being from Vantaa. With dancing, painting, writing, and photographing I come to live. Through art, I have been seen and have versatile possibilities to encounter people.

Miikka Poutiainen

Miikka Poutiainen is a media artist who has been working in the digital arena for around 20 years. He is interested in experimenting and combining different visual and audiovisual art forms and expressions in his works. Most of the time the outcome of his works are video or digital media-related. In recent years he has delved into making mostly documentary films. Many of his works deal with current societal issues. Poutiainen has graduated from the University of Arts and Design, Helsinki as Master of Arts.

Dmitry Tayya

Dmitry Tayya, 39, is an artist and business consultant who moved to Finland from Russia in 2022 to contribute to global peace initiatives.

WORKSHOPS

Photo credit: Aman Askarizad

INTERVIEW

Tomasz Szrama (b. 1970 in Poland) graduated in 1998 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland. Currently, he lives in Helsinki, Finland. Szrama shifts between multiple disciplines, including photography, video, action, and other time-based works. Regardless of the medium, a dominant thread, common in his work is the use of his own body and methods of performance art, which he has practiced since 1993. Characteristic features of his actions are the use of spectators, active participation of the audience, and improvisation. Such a strategy embeds his presentations into the tradition of understanding performance art as process art, where the very moment of creation is essential. His work touches on themes of travel, trust in interpersonal relationships, and the ever-present potential for personal failure.

Irma Optimisti (real name Irma Anita Luhta; born Yliaho, born 1952 in Vaasa ) is a mathematician, performance artist, and curator living in Helsinki. He is one of the early pioneers of Finnish performance art, whose performances have also received international attention. Luhta graduated with a master's degree from the University of Oulu and in 1997 at the University of Vaasa, he received his doctorate in chaos theory with the subject of structural changes in a complex system. In the years 1984 to 1999, he worked at the University of Vaasa as a researcher and teacher, and from 2001 worked as a mathematics lecturer at the Turku University of Economics. In Irma Optimist's ironic and parodic performance shows, feminism, mathematics, and chaos were often the topics.

Roi Vaara (born July 17, 1953, in Moss, Norway) is a Finnish performance artist. Vaara studied in the general evening course at the University of Applied Sciences in 1972–1975 and art research at the University of Jyväskylä in 1976–1977.

Vaara has presented around 300 different performances. His works have been exhibited in about 200 international exhibitions and festivals in more than 30 countries. Vaara was awarded the Ars Fennica award in 2005. In 2010, Vaara was awarded the Pro Finlandia badge of honor. The President of the Republic awarded him the title of Academician of Arts in March 2023.

Tero Nauha is a professor in Live Art and Performance Studies (LAPS), at Uniarts Helsinki. In 2007 with Akseli Virtanen, Mikko Jakonen, Karolina Kucia, Katve-Kaisa Kontturi, and Heidi Fast he co-created the mollecular organization, which researched experimental forms to rethink value and organization in the context of cognitive capitalism and knowledge production. He defended his doctoral research at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts in Helsinki in January 2016. The title of the dissertation was Schizoproduction: Artistic research and performance in the context of immanent capitalism. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Academy of Finland-funded postdoctoral research project ‘How To Do Things With Performance?’ (2016-20), and a postdoctoral fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies in 2017.

Vishnu Vardhani RAJAN (they/them) was born and raised in Hyderabad, India, and is best described as a Body-Philosopher and Performance Artist, now based in Helsinki.

Vishnu considers themselves a hyphenated identity pursuing multidisciplinary practices that build connections between art, science, witchcraft, history, and cultures. They find themselves consistently exploring themes such as sleep, conflict, nutrition, night politics, food, shame, and investigation of sensory experiences, through various media such as dance, acting, and stand-up comedy.

Check out the interviews with the mentor of Sidewalk 1st Ed. 2024 and some of the lecturers from the program.

EXHIBITION

The Sidewalk 1st Edition exhibition is open at K Galleria until the 29th of December.

Photo credit: Aman Askarizad

Exhibition's Poster

Graphic Design: Parsa Kamehkhosh