Research Catalogue

This exposition documents my explorations of pondering with pine trees. Tämä ekspositio dokumentoi yritykseni miettiä mäntyjen kanssa. Den här ekspositionen dokumenterar mina försök att fundera med furor.

In the vibrant setting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, the European Researchers’ Week 2025 will transform the Campo Boario venue into an open laboratory where science, art, and community come together. From the 24th to 26th September, several activities—including talks, interactive and multimedia installations, hands-on workshops, audiovisual performances, and roundtable discussions—will guide the public on an immersive journey across disciplines.

This artistic research project deals with Indaba, a performance for young audiences. Indaba is an isiZulu word for a meeting or discussion where the right people meet at the right moment to figure out things that concern them. Our performance Indaba explores questions like: How does it feel to be Finnish, or African, or both? How do many identities fit into one person? This artistic research and performance investigate important and underrepresented topics in the Finnish context: a sense of shared space and questions of mixed identities. The research question addresses shared space as follows: “What kind of tools and skills are helpful in creating a sense of shared space in a performative setting?”. The research takes a closer look at a series of five alternating and interconnected indabas and reflection sessions with the performer-trio: Pietari Kauppinen, Kasheshi Makena, and the author of this exposition. This written work also maps out some key conversations and concepts that our indaba and this artistic research connect to, such as third space and intersectionality. The main research findings are a practical tool for establishing a way of sharing space and the importance of the performer's responsibility in making meanings. Relevant skills that emerged from these findings include observation skills such as being alert and sensing what meanings things carry in the context at hand, and proactive skills such as the ability to respond in the moment.

The RESONANS festival, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, operates as a comprehensive artistic research project that critically examines the intersections of multimedia arts, community engagement, and cultural diversity. By establishing a dynamic circular process, the festival acts as a platform for multimedia and multicultural dialogue, facilitating meaningful exchanges among artists, scholars, and community members. This exposition aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the festival’s methodology and developmental trajectory, placing particular emphasis on its iterative process and agile project management strategies. These methodologies enable the festival to adaptively respond to participant feedback and emergent artistic expressions, thereby fostering an environment that promotes innovation and inclusivity. In addition, the RESONANS festival addresses significant themes, including humanity's relationship with the environment and the diversification of the Nordic cultural landscape. Through a series of curated events, workshops, and performances, the festival invites participants to engage in critical discussions surrounding ecological consciousness and cultural representation.

Public Positions - looking into the works of MA PPS artists and their Public Spaces. With this new collective online publication, MA PPS curates past and current alumni artistic research processes and practices that encapsulate references and positions of public space discourse. The publication serves as documentation of artists who developed (part of) their research together with the programme, and that shares their valuable contribution to the field of Performing Public Space.

In the last days of June 2024 I learned something I would rather not know. Aware that the act of forgetting is something that often simply happens, I started a daily practice of checking if I could still remember what I would like to forget. The question I found myself asking as time passed and I failed is if the desire to remember is what makes us forget. or In the last days of June 2024, I learned something I would rather not know. Something I wanted to forget. Aware that the act of forgetting is something that often simply happens, I start a daily practice: at the end of each day I sit down, stamp a date on a notebook page and take note: Do I still remember? I write using charcoal, a material that has little permanence. To work with charcoal is to constantly fight its desire to go away. Every night I take the time to see if I can still remember what I would like to forget. I know how to remember, I don’t know how to forget. I do nothing to forget, I simply let time pass and register the presence of this thing I now know. I don’t know how to actively forget, and I choose not to learn ways to do it. I wait for it to happen. As time passed and I failed, I found myself asking if the desire to remember is what makes us forget. I fail over and over again. I still remember.