News

Saari Residence

11.03.2016

New residency guests arrived with spring

We may still have snow in March, but spring is definitely in the air, and with spring, the new residency guests arrived, ready to work at the Saari Residence.






Reception, sorrow, indigenous weaving, and saw-playing

The spring winds of March blew in an international group of artists to work at the Saari Residence this spring. Residency guests during March-April are composer Manuel Contreras Vasquez (CL/IT), author Marta Frenández-Caparrós (ES), artist Olga Jitlina (RU), documentary film-maker Aparna Sharma (IN/US), artist Hanna Tuulikki (GB), researcher Lotta Lounasmeri, and two working couples: artists Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger, and puppet theatre artist Ishmael Falke and dancer Sandrina Lindgren (SE). In addition, our invited artist, cartoonist Hanneriina Moisseinen will continue to work at the residence during the spring.

At the Saari Residence, composer Manuel Contreras Vazquez, originally from Chile but living in Italy, will work on his new composition on the relationships between different art forms and artistic languages. His work is inspired by geographical movement, physical locations, weather conditions, and immigration. It will be premiered during 2016.

Spanish author Marta Frenández-Caparrós will continue to work on her novel entitled Night and Day (Día y Noche). The novel explores the significance of family inheritance to our character. It also deals with death and sorrow in our lives, and the different ways people deal with sorrow.

During her residency, Indian documentary film-maker Aparna Sharma, who lives in the US, will work on her art documentary dealing with indigenous weaving in Assam, India, and the women who make their living from it. In Assam, weaving has traditionally been a women’s activity, but since colonial times, it has been declining considerably. The film When Women Weave follows a weavers’ collective, Tezpur District Mahila Samiti (TDMS), which is working to preserve the ancient practice by training and supporting women weavers.

At the Saari Residence, British artist Hanna Tuulikki will develop a site-specific composition for musical saw players. The composition combines music, performance, visual arts, ecology and folklore. After the residence, the composition will be performed in a recently harvested forest. In her work, Tuulikki explores the relationship between the concept of forest and the Finnish national identity, and the development of the forest industry from social, cultural, emotional and ecological perspectives.

Together, the participants of the triennial of the collaborative arts RECEPTION, Ishmael Falke and Sandrina Lindgren (SE), form the Livsmedlet team. With their works, their objective is to challenge their audience’s views on the environment and everyday life. Their works combine dance, physical theatre, puppet theatre and object theatre. The works of Livsmedlet take place on the streets and in the theatre environment. In Mynämäki, the artists will work with local Karelian evacuees on a shadow theatre production entitled Varjohallitus (The Shadow Cabinet). It will be performed on the streets of Mynämäki in late April.

The second working pair in RECEPTION are Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger, whose works focus on the recurring themes of cultural interaction and the global movement of people and goods. At the residence, they will be working on their community art project Gaykätkö (Gaycache) which deals with locations in the Turku region that are significant to a sexual minority. Gaykätkö takes form and structure from the popular activity of geocaching.

St Petersburg artist Olga Jitlina is also working with the triennial, and we will hear more about her work as the triennial progresses. She likes to take a stand with her works, and in recent years, Jitlina’s works have focused on immigration issues. One of her most famous works is a board game entitled The Land of Opportunity (2012), developed together with human rights activist Andrey Yakimov.

Researcher Lotta Lounasmeri is writing a non-fiction book about Finnish President Kekkonen’s leadership and exercise of power by combining the perspectives of cultural and media histories. The book is a collaboration of seven women researchers. The idea is to study Kekkonen and his exercise of power from less traditional perspectives with the help of new kinds of materials, such as media materials, films, comics, folklore, and anecdotes.

Read more about our residency guests http://www.koneensaatio.fi/en/bold-initiatives/residenssivieraat/

Read more about RECEPTION http://www.vastaanplusotto.fi/briefly-in-english/