From Painting to Maintenance Art and Back to Painting via Advocacy

Title: Day (3),(4),(5),(11),(12) ​or perhaps more spent on trying to request student housing associations to give students, especially non-eu/non-finnish a kind of a house rent relief for next two months.
A service manager from a student housing association where I am renting my accommodation from, gets back to my email and suggests that I look into an update on Financial Student Aid benefits during COVID-19 on Kela’s website. I wish she and her staff would acknowledge that there are many, many students living here that are neither from an EU country nor are they Finnish. And they are clearly NOT ELIGIBLE TO KELA BENEFITS. KELA was never for us, nor did we expect it to give us any benefits.
Medium: Watercolor, markers and colored pencils on watercolor sheet
Size: 10.5 x 14.8 cm
Year: 2020

(This blog post is an excerpt taken from an essay titled “Letter ‘P’ is for Painter, Painting, Personal, Place, Political, Picture (excerpt)” that is part of the writer’s MA thesis – 2020)

As someone trained in fine art skills and competencies it has been a revelatory process to at once come into contact with the subgenre of art called Maintenance Art whilst also doing ‘maintenance jobs’ to sustain a livelihood as a foreign student in Finland. But what is Maintenance Art? Among many feminist artists’ works that I have been engaging with like Martha Rosler (US) and Salima Hashmi (Pakistan), it is Mierles Laderman Ukeles’ (US) artistic trajectory critiquing the art institutions and the society in America that lead her to define the concept of maintenance art. Ukeles negotiates the conflict arising from the two types of production of works, (i) the production of art and (ii) less intellect driven tasks like washing, cleaning, cooking which are considered better suited for women. Anyone who carries out domestic chores, gets categorised as doing maintenance work – labelled as menial – and considered unimportant to maintaining infrastructures.

As a non-European artist with limited access to many forms of social security, I have been figuring out ways to support my life and artistic practice in Finland. When I moved here in 2018, I had realised rather quickly that unless I know the language I would not be able to secure a job here easily. Therefore, I decided to teach myself and give haircuts as a side job while studying, because I realised that my prior visual art training was taking various forms, leading me to take up tasks that are hands-on; done manually. Giving haircuts gave me the feeling of being purposeless at times, as I was not sure why I was even doing it. There are several paid positions of similar nature catered out to immigrants, foreign students and ‘the others’, yet most probably have not or never made it in the list of dream jobs, as those certainly are not related to our years of studying.

My internship at the Museum of Impossible forms was comforting as it directed me to a window, to become an active member and contribute as a member of the association to M{if}’s role in the Finnish art scene.

Last year, the Museum of Impossible Forms provided an intimate and homely space to test out a contemporary iteration of the conversational salon, nestled within the frame of a hair salon; hosted by me. The idea was to share these newly learnt skills, and foster frank and generous conversations about learning and unlearning in relation to expectations of living as an artist. It is a way to experiment in regards to relational aesthetics and to begin sharing strategies and knowledges about survival: student vs working residence permits; successes and challenges in the labour market; fostering networks and exchanges via alternate currencies; reflecting on feelings of loneliness and burnout; trying to set boundaries between art and life; and voicing approaches to making your work and practice visible while navigating limitations and biases because of the language(s) you speak. The unprecedented emergency caused by Coronavirus, the rising death toll, followed by the lockdown last spring (16 March 2020) in Finland like many countries in the world, only added to the difficulties – mentioned above – that one goes through in maintaining life.

Furthermore, a perplexing circumstance took over when I had to apply for Social Assistance from KELA1 (which is considered the last resort for international students as they are expected to have enough funds to reside in Finland). According to the order of receiving any help through social assistance (as a foreign student), the applicant should demonstrate a rather low bank account statement and a legitimate reason like lost jobs or low income from family. It turned into a rather incomprehensible situation when it was time to renew my study permit and not only pay the application fee, but also show a whole sum of €6720 to MIGRI2. Persistent correspondence with KELA and MIGRI respectively, in which I am trying to explain to KELA why am I not receiving any income and requesting MIGRI, on the other hand, to accept the whole sum in installments if not all, because most students are left with some or no savings due to the pandemic.

The Kafkaesque experience of having to deal with KELA and MIGRI simultaneously became more overbearing when Aalto University was not arranging rent reliefs for students in need. It was alarming to receive forlorn responses from various members of the institution, leaving me no choice but to turn to forums on social media platforms for support. Another tuition paying international student of the University of Arts Helsinki dealing with similar struggles, Dasha Che offered to join forces and helped in collecting information on international students who were in need of rent relief. The circulated survey – consisting of a number of students directly affected – was noticed by a former policy/advocacy specialist, Rosa Väisänen at the student union (AYY)3. This led AYY’s representative council to let the student union open a grant application process. The grantees were notified through email about getting selected for the one-time COVID-19 scholarship, although Väisänen mentioned that “…AYY’s decision to spend its own funds on these scholarships was challenged to the Administrative Court…”. Action taken in arranging for the scholarship was objected by a local student. On a recent follow-up on the process, Väisänen informed that AYY is still waiting for the case to be heard, and if it gets through the scholarships will be granted to students even if they have graduated.

By Zahrah Ehsan

Biography:

Visual artist from Lahore, Pakistan and currently based in Espoo, Finland.
In 2020, she completed an MA in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Arts from Aalto University, Finland. She received a BFA with Honours in 2012, with a concentration in Painting from the National College of Arts, Lahore.
Zahrah’s practice is deeply experimental, including scavenged materials from industry, popular culture, and utility incorporating it into paintings, on-site installations, video art that is mostly a critique on gender, adaptation and identity, mental health and types of labour like artistic and everyday, domestic labour.
Her artistic practice has recently pivoted to encompass hair and makeup artistry that has led her to be an aspiring hair and makeup artist; serving as a method to engage with the concept of maintenance art and labour that makes up the ‘infrastructures of care’.

References:

Footnotes:

  1. The Social Insurance Institution is a Finnish government agency in charge of settling benefits under national social security programs ↩
  2. Finnish Immigration Services ↩
  3. Aalto University Student Union ↩
4) At the edge of the Trolltunga, Norway (c) Alisa Javits

Perhaps Walking Should Be Called Movement

By: Nadja Pärssinen

This article focuses on my artistic process as a contemporary dance choreographer and dancer. My work Landscape Escapes in a Relation to…& Dance Moments! is a multidisciplinary dance piece, whose attention focussed on the dialogue between themes of wandering, movement-as-practice, and site-specificity. The interdisciplinary solo evolved slowly and was ultimately shaped by delving deeper into questions of the wander’s potential, and how dance and performativity change with location. The short film Landscape Escapes in a Relation Too… was a prequel to these growing inquiries.

Reflecting on my creative solo projects, I challenged myself by asking “how does a video-work on roaming—which was filmed during summer 2020 when the Covid-19 restrictions were milder—interact and overlap with my live performance given in December 2020, when the government imposed harsher constraints?” The ease of being in the dance film is a notable contrast compared to the performance situation where I had to wear a mask and white clothes. I was inspired to research how these divergent times, layered and merged, could bring a kind of visibility and sensitivity to the experience of being human—examining notions of action, walking, wandering, moving, touching and sensing, in site-specific spaces and landscapes. 

Landscape Escapes in a Relation to…& Dance Moments! was recorded in Munkkiluodonkuja, a residential area in Espoo. I first showed it in Helsinki’s open university dance pedagogy studies 7.-8.12.2020. After the premiere, I continued working the solo and performed the dance piece again in the Turku City Library courtyard on 17.12.2020. The performance was part of the Christmas Dance Calendar project supported by the Western Dance Regional Center. Previously, I collaborated with video artist Alisa Javits to create the short film entitled Landscape Escapes in a Relation Too… . In the summer of 2020, we travelled to Trolltunga hiking trail in Norway to shoot on location; it took over twelve hours to get all the footage we needed. In the film—through wandering, dance, and textuality—Javits and I discuss our varying experiences of nature’s landscapes and our ongoing drive to ramble forward. The work intertwined different filming techniques that invite viewers to reflect their corporal memories of wandering. 

In her book Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2000), feminist and activist writer Rebecca Solnit examines how walking is an embodied attendance to motion; presence is at once with yourself and with your world, both inner and outer. Solnit’s idea of wandering as an active awareness of body and mind crystalize when I’m hiking, especially in the mountains, or on long routes. I first travelled to the highlands of Slovakia’s Tatrás mountain range in 2019. The tiring, 12-14 hours long, walk also brought attention to the excitement of being in continuous movement, constant in relation to the resplendent landscapes—pristine nature and hilly unsolid ground. My bodily data-input from the setting also supports Solnit’s idea that walking is no place for boredom, but rather a place for emptying your mind—refreshing and generating rhythm for body and mind. Maybe boredom is the place where movement happens too.

I presented the Landscape Escapes in a Relation Too… performance in a class zoom-meeting. My dance teacher, Pirkko Ahjo, invited me to look at the piece from the point of view of the following question: Are you a regular or a visitor of the place? I am grateful for Ahjo’s proposal. I began to adapt to the term “visitor,” which allowed me to encounter a performance space with more care and detail, such as when I was in the Turku City Library’s backyard. On that spot, I started noticing the overlapping of various points of architectural and organic spaces.  

Embracing the term “visitor” and the kinesthetic exploration in the backyard, engaged me as a performer towards my unknown edges. I became informed of the embodiment of the environment that can never be fixed entirely into something permanent. Wander-based movement—a material relation with surroundings—opened a more profound link to space and a sensation to myriad environmental textures. Researching my material about the environment, and the wandering theme, lead me to ponder the difference between walking and movement. If there is no difference, could walking be embodied as dance and vice versa? 

Solnit writes: “This history of walking is an amateur history, just as walking is an amateur act. To use a walking metaphor, it trespasses through everybody else’s field — through anatomy, anthropology, architecture, gardening, geography, political and cultural history, literature, sexuality, religious studies — and doesn’t stop in any of them on its long route.” Solnit describes how walking is indispensable for most human beings, where the wanderlust could be its own reward if we are willing to give time for it or zoom into its analysis. The Turku City Library’s backyard, and its surrounding natural environment, prompted me to acknowledge how architectural design could be very visually stimulating, powerful, even leading. However, in my performance process, I realized that bodily perception speaks and brings different information than only a sense of sight can offer. My solo work process opened new perspectives for me to reflect on the dimensions and potential of dance-art in connection to the environment and the Covid-19 outbreak. 

Choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker writes, “Considering the place of dance in our world is important these days, not only in terms of how to maintain it and keep it moving through all of the restrictions and cancellations, but also in terms of what we can learn from dance – the breath of dance, the capacity it has to be self-sufficient, and also the communal nature of dancing.” Keersmaeker describes succinctly how the prevailing limitations on art-venues, due to the Covid-19 constraints, highlight the needs for further discussions of efficacy in the field. In contemporary dance-art, breathing is essential; the current conditions make this critical need impossible. Dance is a potential where we can expressively and critically explore topical themes in our society, such as ecology, the environment, community; and most of all, connect to something. As dancer Mari Martin insists, “Living places – our place relations – are emotional states: they are the intertwining of the living body and the thinking mind, the kiasmatic symbiosis of the body and the mind. Under no circumstances are our spatial relationships merely information relations, but an associative movement of perception and cognition, in which the present, the past, and the future are constantly intertwined.”

Ultimately, I am excited to hear from the community who sees my work, continuing to build from my understanding and theirs. In Landscape Escapes in a Relation to…& Dance Moments! one audience member described her experience: “your embodiment of dance in this specific space called out the landscapes from the film to this space.” 

By: Nadja Pärssinen

Proofreading by: Dahlia El Broul

 

Literature sources: 

* Researcher of Uniarts Mari Martin, 2017, In dialogue with an urban environment -chapter, Extended maker – Maker -piece, performance and society -book. Available in online. 

* Researcher, activist and feminist writer Rebecca Solnit, 2001, Wanderlust – The history of walking book. 

* Choreographer and dancer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, 14.12.2020, What’s Next in the Dance Ecosystem -written speech. https://www.rosas.be/en/news/860-anne-teresa-de-keersmaeker-s-opening-speech-for-iedn-what-s-next-in-the-dance-ecosystemi?fbclid=IwAR0w-NqcGSd6n3-AKqJb0eA22KAr_OqrrBV_DNSI6N4_qKP-HvELh5yzVzs

Nadja Pärssinen (Fin./Rus.) is a Finnsih choreographer, performer and movement teacher based in Southern Finland. Often her works involves instant composition, text, interdisciplinary art forms and relations to the sound and movement. She is a initiator of a collaboration platform FlowWowProductions which was established in 2018.  More information: www.npflowwow.com 

1-Mirror-Mirror-Sees-Them-All-c-Roberto-Fusco-copy

Review – Big Brothers And Sisters ED. 2

Photo credits from left to right: RED ROOM (c) Janne Sund, Mirror Mirror Sees Them All (c) Roberto Fusco, Imaginarium of rational thinker (c) Uzair Amjad.

By: Tanya Tynjälä

Catalysti Transcultural Artists in Finland association has presented the Big Brothers and Sisters ed. 2 program for the second year. This event was previously introduced in Caisa Culture Center in Helsinki in 2018, and the theme was also then artificial Intelligence and its many implications in today’s world. 

In the program there were two original performances: MIRROR, MIRROR SEES THEM ALL by choreographer and dancer Nadja Pärssinen, media artist Roberto Fusco, and photographer Virpi Velin.  The second performance RED ROOM was from sound and performance artist Jaap Klevering. In addition, this year included  IMAGINARIUM OF THE RATIONAL THINKER, by media artist Uzair Amjad. 

I found that the events of the program were very interesting because each performance was presented in various locations within a big, interconnected and underground, bomb shelter. Vapaan Taiteen Tila has been, for a very long time, a platform for all kinds of artistic performances. To see all the performances, the public had to move in the space. In between short breaks between performances, people were talking, commenting, and making the experience very interactive. 

MIRROR, MIRROR SEES THEM ALL is an installation-performance in which the dancer and the photographer move interactively in relation to time, space, audience, each other and live sound installation, which consists of small moving mirrors, projected images, soundscape and light. 

The performance aimed to make us explore how identity and bodily presence are negotiated and transformed by using technology. For me, the performance best represented the title of Big Brothers & Sisters ed. 2. As a viewer, I experienced strongly how a dancer needed to be in the performance of constant movement, and at the same time was followed by that anonymous eye,  represented by the camera or lens of the camera. For a moment, I could feel in the audience how the dancer was so inside the presence of her action. Her interaction made me think about how everything is so easy to store and find on the internet. I thought that as we are using the internet could we be more careful,  especially when we know how easily our photos can be leaked? Or on the contrary, are we more daring in the search for the 15 minutes of fame? The fact that the photographer was specifically targeting the face of the dancer reminded me also somehow of the obsession of the famous selfies, of ourselves. The photos were immediately shown on a mirrored screen, making us also think about the transience of the image projected to the others, and also about our identity. I also found the dancer to be full of energy and precision on a highly technical level.  

RED ROOM was a performance that included Google’s “Voicepad – speech to text”. This performance was for me terrifying, funny and soothing simultaneously. The monologue by Jaap Klevering talks about the impossibility for someone to go outside their house, because of the feeling that something bad could happen. That reminds me of some scenes of Sartre’s opus La nausée, in which the protagonist was constantly oppressed by this uneasy feeling that something was supposed to happen—sometimes bad,  sometimes good, but the fact of just “knowing” was a nightmare. The use of Google’s Voicepad was somehow quite comical, especially when the translation was inaccurate, causing the text to be completely surrealistic. Between monologues, the performer improvised some music with the help of his voice.  The result was quite harmonious and calming. I really enjoyed Klevering’s skills of improvisation and performative act. 

IMAGINARIUM OF THE RATIONAL THINKER is a project that is concerned with reimagining human future in the age of the algorithm. The press release said: “By combining elements from algorithmic prediction, speculative fiction, image-making and performance the project manifests as gameplay and a series of paintings. The work through facilitating play invites the audience to engage with discussions about the ecological, social and political effects of algorithm-based technologies. The work encourages a  deeper investigation into our techno society to envision new modes of adaptation and a new ‘political  imaginary’.” 

I must confess I did not get it. I was quite confused with the concept that, in my opinion, was not approached from the performative artistic point of view. Perhaps it would be way more interesting to present this interactive installation in a technology fair.

In general, I still think that the concept of the Big Brothers & Sisters ed. 2 program was very interesting and contemporary. I also enjoyed seeing the work of professional artists with a foreign background these days.

 

BIG BROTHERS AND SISTERS ED. 2 

Vapaan Taiteen Tila, Helsinki 

23.-25.10.2020 

Tanya Tynjälä is a science fiction and fantasy writer who specialises in children’s and young adult literature. She was born in Peru and has a Master Degree in French as a foreign language.

Here we will publish articles written by our members and colleagues. You can always send your contributions to info@catalysti.fi

A New Artists’ Blog: for a Multiple View

As an organisation we are happy to open this space for artists in the transcultural art field, to share opinions, ideas, and proposals about the future of the field, its problems, and possible solutions. You can send your contributions to

Many of us feel that space for discussion is lacking – we wish for open exchange, keeping in mind the rules of a safe space: “a supportive, non-threatening environment that encourages open-mindedness, respect, a willingness to learn from others, as well as physical and mental safety” (from YYA Meeting of Artist-run Organisation, STOA Cultural Centre, Helsinki, 16.3.2019).

Often we are asked about the meaning of transcultural. Back in 2013, when the association was founded (and in the many meetings before that), we talked a lot about how to define ourselves: one of the main reasons to choose this term was that it expresses a need to bridge between cultures. A term such as “international” does not describe the situation most of us find ourselves in: to be an artist of non-Finnish origin, or mixed origins, who lives and works in Finland.

Someone made me notice that an artist “of non-Finnish origin” is a definition that contains a negation. Don’t we want to send a positive message too? Certainly, we do.

But the present reality contains more and more in-between situations, with backgrounds that group different identities. That is why some of our artists are of (often mixed) Finnish origin, and some of them are simply interested and dedicated to doing transcultural work. Some of them spent years abroad and share some of the same difficulties that foreigners do when returning to Finland.

If we look at the etymology of “trans”, we find meanings such as “across”, “beyond”, “through”— all of which fit Catalysti as “an organisation that embodies the practices of working across cultures” (Dahlia El Broul), and is open and sensitive to any kind of diversity issues, included gender and queer identities.

This year’s event for the International Week Against Racism will be dedicated to gender issues and queer communities, curated by Jamie MacDonald (save the date: 22nd March in Lepakko club).

Also, the artist’s identity has ceased to be a singular notion. How many of us are not happy with the simple definitions of composer, painter, video artist, and so on?

Catalysti has also become a platform where different art fields meet: this has been reflected in the many multidisciplinary artworks presented in the association’s live art events. You can read about our 2019 activities here. And watch some of them on the Catalysti YouTube channel that Marek Pluciennik has been developing during the last year.

Our About reads: “Catalysti aims to shift and shake the borders between native and foreign in Finnish society”.

We all know that the situation in the art scene, and society, has changed during the last ten years—there are ever more transcultural artists, and generally, immigration is rising.

Meanwhile, many new organisations who focus on cultural intersectionality were born, and we wish to join forces and talk to them all, to make a stronger impact and have our voices better heard.

That was the main reason to join Globe Art Point, which gathers artists associations with the same scope. We need to be united, with respect for the diversity of everyone’s views and identities, if we want to be heard. That is why space for discussion is crucial to overcome prejudices and divisions that benefit no one.

Some have asked, “why does an artist organisation need to stand for diversity“? We can answer that our presence adds diversity in society, a society that we hope to become more open and inclusive. One more accessible and responsive to the needs of transcultural artists and all immigrants overall. Our members know first-hand the experience of discrimination, and the fact that many qualified people are excluded because of biases related to their background.

In this respect, we express all concern and solidarity with our member Daniel Malpica, whose application has been rejected multiple times by MIGRI. You can read more on his story here, and in Finnish, in Nuori Voima. Luckily, a few days ago he got the possibility to remain two more years in Finland, on the grounds of his work as an artist (as a full-time grantee of the Kone Foundation it was pretty absurd to see his applications initially rejected). This shows some hope for the future, although it is not enough – this is only one of the countless similar cases.

Another point is, as we bring multiple identities in ourselves, we should be supportive of other diversities, be them of gender, race, and so on. That is why we commit to the annual event for the International Week Against Racism. More can be done, and you are all welcome to help, to join other actors in this field.

Another debate that has always been present among immigrant populations is the debate between identity and integration.

How much do we feel the need to integrate? Some think (including many Finnish nationals) that it is also an immigrant’s duty to play by this society’s rules and to learn its language.

On the other hand, many of us consider their own mixed identity as a richness and have the desire to actively contribute from their own cultures to further build this society, in the multiple and complex ways that are in front of us.

This can be done hand in hand with those sectors of Finnish society that hope for a more inclusive, shared, and diverse place to live — a safer space, where exclusion and discrimination have no place.

That is why Catalysti has been participating in and promoting initiatives such as:

No Labels No Walls, in September 2019 in Oodi Library. A second edition is underway, and you are welcome to join the community (FB group).

We have welcomed and joined the initiative of a group of concerned citizens, Riikka Theresa Innanen, Rotislav Aalto, and Sari Antikainen, to make and broadcast videos of people reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, performed in many different languages, in March 2019 (see video).

And the YYA Meeting of Artist-run Organisations, that took place for the first time a year ago in STOA and will occur again on March 12th-13th, 2020, in Teatteri Toivo. It will be an occasion for peer-to-peer support, socialising, sharing practices and mapping desires, discussing the problems and needs of artist-run groups, associations, spaces, and networking with various art fields.

Catalysti is working to extend its network and collaborations, and you are most welcome to come and give a hand! In Helsinki and beyond. The association needs all of you in order to develop further and to have a stronger impact.

Paola Livorsi