Residency artists and researchers Literature Muotokuvatiski visual artist, poet Mirkka Kinnula and Anne Mölsä We are visual artist Mirkka Kinnula and poet Anne Mölsä. Together we founded Muotokuvatiski (”portrait desk”) in the autumn of 2012. Muotokuvatiski is a mobile art counter that is set up in a public space. Anyone can sit at the desk as a model and in fifteen minutes they will have their portrait both painted and written as a poem. The model gets to keep both portraits and they are also published on our website WWW.MUOTOKUVATISKI.NET. Muotokuvatiski’s purpose is to bring refreshing artistic experiences into people’s everyday environment and to offer participants joy and a sensation of meaningfulness. An important part of the work is the Internet page, which offers an overall view of our work and allows a larger audience access to it. A significant part of the works is also how the visual portraits and texts inspired by the models communicate and what kind of connection forms between them. We will be coming to the Saari Residence for two weeks in July 2015 to brainstorm and plan the future and development of Muotokuvatiski. We have been doing Muotokuvatiski according to the current concept since 2013. It has taken place a total of ten times and has been experienced by approximately two hundred people. At the Saari Residence, we will be delving into our work and will try to evaluate its strengths, possible developmental challenges and its future. We will chart possibilities for a publication or exhibition and future collaborations, for example. We will also contemplate whether we wish to have Muotokuvatiski take a stand on current issues. Muotokuvatiski has the potential for many. Mirkka Kinnula (b. 1985) graduated from Tampere University of Applied Sciences in 2012. Her artistic focus is on painting and community art and she teaches applied painting courses. What Kinnunen enjoys about Muotokuvatiski is the opportunity to work in different spaces as well as the fast-pace, conveyor belt –like painting of live models where you can throw yourself into the work without thinking too much. Anne Mölsä (b. 1986) is a writer, performer, journalist and a Master of Social Sciences. She works with poetry and prose, writes for magazines and performs poetry slam. Through Muotokuvatiski, Mölsä has learned how important it is that a text sometimes faces its reader head on, without the influence of years of processing and of gatekeepers. Portrait poems are born in a minute and writing them is both freeing and difficult. Each portrait poem is the result of an encounter between two people and as such, is always unique.