Last guests of the year at the Saari Residence

In November and December, nine artists and one researcher who is working on a Kone Foundation grant will be working at the Saari Residence. The work of this diverse group consists of crossing borders between various arts, otherness, quantum physics and mythology.

Otherness, border crossings and quantum physics

The Finnish duo Niko-Matti Ahti and Marja Johansson will be working together on their project that crosses the borders between music and sound art. Their goal is to develop an individual way of making music that renews sound art. The material produced at the Saari Residence will later be used to make an album.

Iraqi-born author and filmmaker Hassam Blasim who lives in Finland will be finalising his novel at the Saari Residence. In the novel Finnish culture is seen through the eyes of an Iraqi poet. He writes in Arabic, and once the novel is ready, it will be translated into Finnish.

Visual and media artist Leena Kangaskoski is starting the experimental part of her piece called Manifest Particle Motion (working title) at the Saari Residence. Manifest Particle Motion is a two-part work inspired by the world view of quantum theory.

British author Victoria Leslie will use her residency period to write a novel about mythical, literary and artistic representations of women in water. The novel is based on water sprites, rusalkas, mermaids and nymphs, and the associated main themes about womanhood and water.

Finnish choreographer Sonya Lindfors will be working on her dance performance NOBLE SAVAGE, in which she studies the black body and its political significance, otherness, identity and marginality. Slavery, colonialism, mass media, religion and refugeeism all affect the way the black body is regarded, and the experience of being black and the presence of a black body. The performance both visualises and unravels the politics and identity of the black body as well as the social and cultural structures that have an impact on it and define it.

German artist Charlotte Mumm who lives and works in Germany and the Netherlands will be focusing on structures and shapes in various spaces, senses and situations.

In her work, visual artist Katie Shlon from the USA will be studying nature, architecture and community through the Finnish landscape. Her main goal is to understand methods that will help to improve quality of life even for those who live further away from nature.

Finnish researcher Katri Tukiainen is a doctoral student at the Peace Research Institute of the University of Tampere and is working on her doctoral dissertation about child soldiers in African conflicts. Her goal is to find out whether the situation of African child soldiers has changed for the better or the worse since 1989.

In addition, Finnish comics artist Hanneriina Moisseinen, who started her eight-month period as an invited artist in September, will also be working at the Saari Residence.