I am happy to travel to Kemi to participate in a seminar about art, cities and urban planning this week. I am going to share thoughts (and of course some dreams) about Shared Futures – a project that this year reaches its 4 years age! We have worked together with Anna Maria Väisänen, Roberto Fusco and 60+ people as well as many visitors who were walking with us in Kuopio and Mikkeli. Little did we know when we started planning on listening walks in the city, drawing dialogues and drawing sound experiments with invited guests. We feel that it is a good moment to share with other art practitioners as well as architects and the audience what we have learned and what are our hopes and dreams about living areas in the future.
The event is organised by Piste Kollektiivi a collective of artists and art educators who share a passion to do art in relation to their community. Cross-art Collective Piste produces high-quality and distinctive contemporary circus, dance and theatre performances and applied art projects.
Our feet were listening to Karakallio in pleasant spring weather with students from the local secondary school.
Thank you to everyone who participated last week in the Listening Positions – workshops. Now I am much wiser about the area and its specialities. Many of the public spaces around here are important to the people of the area. The common wish seems to be that much of what is now understood as Karakallio would stay the same at least when it comes to suburban forests. Also, it was decided together that pizza, heavy metal and suburban forests as well as friends will not disappear from here for at least 100 years! People will say goodbye soon to their shopping mall, but the memories seem to be vivid!
A student created a pain curve about how it is to be without their mobile phone during the workshops.
The participants were listening in many different ways and together we shared thoughts on what is it that we hear and how that affects us. We also did some drawn sketches about our feelings and tried to map what we pay attention to. In the end, everyone did a little imagining exercise about what Karakallio will become 100 years from now in their personal utopia.
Now I am working towards a new sound art piece, the third and final part of the project. Stay tuned!
Blindwalks with friends and the listening drawings looking at the environment. Photos: Hanna Häkkä 2023
Kuunteluasentoja on tilaustyö, joka valmistuu keväällä 2023 Karakallioon, Espooseen
Julkisen taiteen teos sisältää kolme osaa:
Kirje Karakallion asukkaille
Työpajat Karakalliossa 15.4.2023
Ääniteos, joka on sijoitetaan alueen lähiömetsään keväällä 2023
Teoksessa keskeistä on pohtia, millaiset asiat vaikuttavat kokemukseen ympäristöstä. Kolmiosainen teos kutsuu mukaan kokeilemaan ehdottamiani kuunteluasentoja ja asemia, sekä löytämään omia.
Listening Positions is a commissioned work that will be completed in the spring of 2023 in Karakallio, Espoo
The work consists of three parts:
A letter to the residents of Karakallio
Workshops in Karakallio in 15/04/2023
A sound art piece, that will be placed in the suburban forest of the area
The focus of the work is to think about what kinds of things affect the experience of the environment. This work invites you to try different listening positions suggested as well as find your own.
Imagining Future Bodies on esitys, jossa yli 60-vuotiaista kuopiolaisista koostuva osallistujajoukko jakaa yleisölle kokemuksellista matkaansa tulevaisuuden Kuopioon. Imagining Future Bodies -esitys oli osa ANTI-festivaalin ohjelmistoa viime syksynä. Tänä keväänä esitys saa uuden muodon ja yleisön, kun teos vierailee kuopiolaisissa palvelukeskuksissa. Esiintyjät ovat tutkineet kaupunkitilaa ja elinympäristöjään sekä näihin liittyviä tulevaisuuden unelmia ja tarpeita. Työssä keskeistä on ollut syvällinen ja radikaali kuunteleminen, yhteiskuvittelu ja moniaistisen lähestymistavan hyödyntäminen. Palvelukeskuskiertueella ryhmä tuo näkyväksi erilaisia tulevaisuuden materiaaleja, äänimaailmoja, kehollisia maisemia ja ympäristöjä. Esitykset toteutetaan yhteistyössä Kuopion kaupungin kanssa. Tervetuloa!
Esitykset to 16.3 klo 12 Suokadun toimintakeskus, liikuntasalima
27.3. klo 11.30 Melankadun toimintakeskus, monitoimitilake
29.3. klo 11.30 Alava-talo, salima
8.5. klo 11.30 Puijonlaakson toimintakeskus, liikuntasalipe
12.5. klo 10 Leväsen toimintakeskus, liikuntasali
Shared Futures: Imagining Future Bodies on tour at service centers
Imagining Future Bodies is a performance in which a group of participants consisting of people from Kuopio over 60 years of age share their experiential journey to the future of Kuopio with the audience.
Imagining Future Bodiespremiered at ANTI Festival 2022 and now the working group will go on tour at local service centers.
The performers have explored the urban space and their habitats, as well as their dreams and hopes of the future. Deep and radical listening, co-imagining and utilizing a multi-sensory approach have been central to the work. On the service center tour, the group brings different future materials, sound worlds, bodily landscapes and environments to light.
This year has gone so fast and it is time to wrap up things before the Holidays. This year has been a lot about dialogue and sharing with two new large-scale projects and some smaller ones. In each one of them, I was connecting with something new and drawing + listening as carefully as possible.
This year I have worked together with a Ringette – team, 60 + people, Sociology students at Turku University, art students, art lovers of many kinds, the KSL Civic Association for Adult Learning, artists, researchers as well as with my kid and AI. Maybe it is needless to say that I am curious and love the dialogue. Looking back at things that happened this year, it certainly is a privilege for me to be able to do these things. Thinking about how difficult times we are experiencing, I am so happy to see that there still is a possibility for sharing, trust and inspiration. I am glad that so many thinkers, makers and associations have been reaching out to ask me to collaborate! Please do, I am more than happy to continue sharing practice, opening dialogue, connecting and listening through art.
There are still some things happening in Kuopio this year. So, if you are here please go and see what´s written below. If you are not in Kuopio or in Finland, I am more than happy to tell you that these projects seem to have a life of their own, so you might be able to experience some of it the following year out of my home city.
I will be sharing also something new right before Christmas. So stay tuned for a couple of weeks more! Until then, I wish you a peaceful and inspiring December!
Hear you soon again,
Emma
SHARED FUTURES – project
The nearest event is gonna happen on Saturday this week
Saturday 3.12. between 12-14 – KIVET TYKKÄÄ TEKNOSTA – and other reflections on future
Kohtaamo, Kuopio City Library, Maaherrankatu 12, 70100 Kuopio
The 60 + group, Performing artist Anna Maria Väisänen and myself are sharing thoughts and inviting the audience to participate at Kohtaamo. You are more than welcome to follow what we have found through the year-long working process about the future. See the link below:
There a is a little bit more than a month to experience a group exhibition DIALOGI at Kuopio Art Museum.
I, Iida Valkonen and the working group created an audiovisual installation where the key concept is drawing…on the ice this time. Go and see what ringette team NoU Ringette has to do with it!
Composing and sound design: Emma Fält & Andrea Mancianti
Production: Fält & Valkonen
Team: NoU Ringette
Support: The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation North Savo Regional Fund, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Musicians’ Union, Roberto Fusco
The group exhibitionRAHTU HIEKKAA, VETTÄ JA TAIVASTA
My new audiovisual installation Voiko Sinne Sukeltaa? is part of the 70th-anniversary exhibition of the Iisalmi Seudun Kuvataideseura ry. The exhibition RAHTU HIEKKAA, VETTÄ JA TAIVASTA is open until 31.12.2022.
I created there a piece that was inspired by outer space, a dialogue with my child who was learning to use words and the capability to connect with something that is far away, almost unreachable.
Roberto Fusco and I were showing our piece The chance that makes what we are at Kuopio Art Museum this summer. It was great to bring this piece alive in my home city!
Go and see what is going on at the GalleriA. It is a collaborative gallery of the Kuopio Art Museum and the Kuopio Kuvataiteilijat ry – Ars Libera which operates on the premises of the Kuopio Art Museum. The gallery, which focuses on Northern Savoland visual art, is free of exhibition rent for artists and free of admission for visitors. GalleriA’s goal is to diversify the art that is viewed in Northern Savonia. GalleriA was opened this summer.
Tervetuloa pohtimaan ja tunnustelemaan tulevaisuutta. Millaisen kaupungin ja maailman haluaisimme jälkipolville jättää?
Jaettu tulevaisuus -työpajat on suunniteltu 65-75-vuotiaille, mutta kaikki +60-vuotiaat ovat tervetulleita mukaan. Työpajoissa tutkitaan kotikaupunkia, sen herättämiä muistoja ja tuntua.
Kävely, piirtäminen, tunnustelu, liike sekä ääni johdattavat meidät matkalle omaan kaupunkiimme ja toiveisiin sen tulevaisuudesta. Hyödynnämme työssä tuttuja ja tuntemattomia karttoja sekä toteutamme uusia. Työpajoissa tutustumme myös nykyteknologian tarjoamiin mahdollisuuksiin hahmottaa ja tutkia maailmaa.
Yhdessä pohdimme millainen olisi unelmien tulevaisuus ja mitä voimme oppia kuuntelemalla toisiamme ja elinympäristöä tarkasti kaikki aistit avoinna?
Työpajat ohjaavat taiteilijat Emma Fält ja Anna-Maria Väisänen.
Missä?
Kohtaamo (Kuopion pääkirjasto, Maaherrankatu 12 / Museokatu 1) Tila on esteetön.
Milloin?
Maanantaisin klo 10.00 – 12.00
Tulevat työpajat 2022:
10.1. 17.1. 24.1. 31.1.
7.2. 14.2. 21.2. 28.2.
7.3. 14.3. 21.3. 28.3.
Jaettu tulevaisuus -työpajat ovat osa IKO – kulttuurihyvinvointia ikäihmisille -hanketta, jossa tuetaan ikäihmisten hyvinvointia taiteen avulla. Hanketta rahoittaa sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö ja sitä toteuttavat yhteistyössä Taiteen edistämiskeskus, Teatterikeskus ja sen jäsenyhteisöt, Kulttuuria kaikille -palvelu ja Aili-verkosto. Kuopiossa IKO-hankkeen toteutuksesta vastaa ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival.
Perjantai 26.11. klo 17.30, Taidekeskus Ahjo Lauantai 27.11. klo 11-19, Taidekeskus Ahjo / INSTALLAATIO
Shifting Sands on monitaiteinen runo ja ruumiinavaus. Teos on kunnianosoitus kaikille kehoille, niiden epämääräisyydelle, kauneudelle ja alati muuttuvalle luonnolle.
Fusco – Fält – Haatainen: Shifting Sands Friday 26.11. at 5.30pm, Art Centre Ahjo Saturday 27.11. at 11-19, Art Centre Ahjo / INSTALLATION Shifting Sands is a multiart poem and an autopsy. It is a homage for all the bodies, their vagueness, beauty and ever changing nature.
Emma Fält - drawing out loud 