Visual Poetry Event

Sunday 22 April 2012 at TR1, Tampere, Finland
 http://tr1.tampere.fi/mariam-kretschmer-2-9-%E2%80%93-20-9-2011-galleria-nottbeck-tampere/ 

13.00 - 14.00 Curators' tour on the exhibition: Karri and I talking about the works in the exhibition and its links with the Text Festival.
 14.00 - 15. 00 A panel discussion about visual art/text with me, Karri, and some of the artists in the show, questions and answers.
 15.00 - 16.00 Artists performing  - Karri Kokko, Satu Kaikkonen, Marko Niemi, & Mia Toivio.

Text Art - Poetry for the Eye

It is a source of satisfaction that the relationship with Tampere Art Museum in Finland, which last manifested itself in the Moomins exhibited at Bury Art Museum, has led to a partnership in Text Art now. "Text Art - Poetry for the Eye" opens on Saturday at TR1 and runs until 29 May.

Finnish artists included are Tytti Heikkinen, Satu Kaikkonen, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Karri Kokko, Tiina Lehikoinen, Marko Niemi & Miia Toivio and JP Sipilä. From the Text Festival, we have added Tony Lopez, Liz Collini (pictured), Steve Miller, Shaun Pickard, Derek Beaulieu and Márton Koppány.

Due to my Chinese trip, I won't get to see the show until mid April - there's a poetry event as part of the show on 22 April, which I will be doing something at.

...and now, to Beijing...

Back from Finland

A great week in Tampere.

The Tragedy of Althusserianism started badly - so badly in fact that within a couple of days of arriving and struggling hopelessly, I seriously considered giving up the writing break and flying home early. I found an internet connection and started costing up flights. Then returned to my computer, and as if the threat of stopping turned on a tap, 19 sections of the poem poured forth.

"ichnologic years after inserting one mental
state into another, the space between but
the excuses as color-naming systems
deviate from the predict of universal forces would
predict"

I was very pleased to see Karri Kokko again and to meet Satu Kaikkonen. I gave Satu a copy of Reykjavik and she gave me 3 fabulous hand-made books (one of which featured the namepoem pictured here) and a couple of visual poems (which are now both on the wall in the apartment).

(Picture:Karri and Satu)

We had lunch together, and agreed their participation in the Text Festival, and then visited Tampere Art Museum, Tampere Contemporary Art Museum and the Sara Hilden Museum. Added to two shows I saw at TR1 and it felt like a cultured week. I had great meetings with Toimi Jaatinen and Taina Myllyharju, both social and establishing future projects. Taina was a great host throughout the week.

The next fruit of the Tampere partnership is the opening of the Moomin Valley exhibition at Bury Art Gallery on 23 October.

Back to Finland

It's been an intense few weeks as the Text Festival moved towards having some sort of shape, so I haven't had time to blog. The first wave of the programme will be officially announced in the next few days - there'll be more to follow. Meanwhile I am returning to my favourite (so far) place in Finland - Tampere.

Primarily I am seeing purdah to write "The Tragedy of Althusserianism", which assuming I finish it, will come out on ifpthenq in November. But I am looking forward to seeing Karri Korro again and meeting Satu Kaikkonen for the first time. The first thing I'll do on arrival is attend an exhibition opening at TR1
http://www.tampere.fi/tr1/english.htm
Through the week I'll also be meeting various local curators to talk about future projects. I am not sure I will have internet access.

Dinner for the Finns

Arrived from Tampere (Finland) today, Laura Köönikkä, Chief Curator in the Tampere Art museum, Elina Bonelius, Moominvalley museum curator, and Taina Myllyharju, Tampere museum director (pictured with Barney). Sue created one of her legendary dinner parties for the guests:

Menu
Du Barry soup
Warm duck and orange salad
Pan-fried cod loin with a bean, potato and choizo broth
Assiette of chocolate coffee desserts

They'll spend tomorrow in Bury, looking at the Gallery-Museum and preparing future projects.

Tampere

Tuire arrives at Ikko where we were staying.
http://www.ilkko.fi/eng/indexeng.html

Tuire did a remarkable job looking after our party, translating and sorting everything out with endless energy.

Older people from Bury and Tampere dancing together

Lunch with Karri Korro, who drove up from Helsinki

Project evaluation:

and finally:
Home and Barney with his Moomin brought from the Moomin Valley Museum
http://inter9.tampere.fi/muumilaakso/index.php?lang=en

Back to Finland

From tomorrow, I am back in my favourite Finnish city, Tampere. Cultural mobility is the buzz phrase in most debates about globalisation, but usually this refers to artist mobility. My take on it is broader, including communities themselves. Bury had previously taken a group of older people to Stuttgart who were learning to write plays. I was presenting this experience to a European Museums seminar in Bertinoro, Italy after which the Finnish delegation approached me to do a similar project with them. So here we are. The group we are taking are older people who are participating in a dance project led by Ruth Tyson-Jones. The programme includes dance workshops, meeting Finnish older people to exchange experience, seeing museums, etc, etc. Personally, I'm looking forward to the Sara Hilden Art Museum opening on Friday http://www.tampere.fi/english/sarahilden/
Saunas will be ubiquitious; but I draw the line at jumping into lakes - that degree of closeness to nature verges on psychosis.

I'll also be meeting Karri Kokko the poet-organiser of the Vispo Residency back in July. We'll be looking at Finnish involvement in the Language Moment. I've been too busy on it to say here much about progress with it. It has been and continues to be an intense piece of work. Whether it comes off or not, I guess that just this phase has tripled the size of my network - and at last time of counting I had nearly 100 artists confirmed from 23 countries.