Current Projects

Project archive 2008

Project archive 2007

Project archive 2006 and earlier

2009

PROJECT ARCHIVE

(*in cooperation with FIJ)

 

February - March 2009

*Meri Nikula participated in the A.I.T.

Performance artist Ms. Meri Nikula worked at the A.I.T. Arts Initiative Tokyo residency programme for two months in early 2009. The residency is part of the project between A.I.T., FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange and FIJ. The residency partnership will also continue in 2010 and 2011.

Meri Nikula performances in Japan:

March 23 : The A.I.T. presentation (19:00-21:00)

March 26: Last Thursday, Smoke, Tokyo

March 27: 'FOLLOW ME UNDER YOUR SKIN', Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Ueno), Zen Ten Exhibition
March 28: Group Improvisation with Six Creators, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Ueno), Zen Ten Exhibition

March 30: SOUNDAMENTALISM, Café Parlwr, Nagoya

April 4 : A masterclass in Tokyo (A.I.T. at 12:00-15:00)

April 12: Rabadas Cinema Club vol. 5, Que Bom! Brazilian Restaurant

April 14 : Test Tone evening at SuperDeluxe, Tokyo

April 23: 'RAPID EAR MOVEMENTS', Loop Line, Tokyo

Evening with three experimental voice performers
MAKOTO MATSUSHIMA - voice & dance
ADACHI TOMOMI - voice & electronics
MERI NIKULA - voice, movement & videos
April 26: Obake Yashiki vol.12, Bar Gari Gari, Ikenoue

Experimental Music Event

***

 

March 4-7, 2009

*TPAM: Dance and theatre from Finland

TPAM (Tokyo Performing Arts Market) is the biggest perfoming art fair in Asia. This year the Dance Info Finland as well as the producer of the Smeds Ensemble theatre group attended the event.  Also of the Finnish Circus Information Centre was present.

The Dance Info Finland and the Smeds Ensemble representative gave a lecture on March 5 at 6:30 presenting Finnish subsidy system for dance and theatre.

Smeds Ensemble is one of  the most vibrant contemporary theatre groups in Finland. Their international theatre project “Mental Finland” got its premiere in Brussels on February 11, 2009.

TPAM

Dance Info Finland

Smeds Ensemble

Smeds Ensemble: Mental Finland Blog

Finnish Circus Information Centre

"Mental Finland" by the Smeds Ensemble.

***

March 5, 2009

*Koskinen premieres in Tokyo

The Tokyo-based Ensemble Nomad premiered on March 5, 2009 a double work "Der Bau" and “erBa” by a Finnish composer Juha T. Koskinen.

"Der Bau" is a fragment for solo guitar from which the two-guitar work "erBa" was written. "erBa" was performed by Norio Sato, the Artistic Director of the Ensemble Nomad , and Rody van Gemert. The work included also a dance part for Ms. Aki Suzuki, a Japanese dancer now resident in Finland.

March 5, 2009 at Koen-dori Classics, Shibuya

Ensemble Nomad

Rody van Gemert, guitar

Aki Suzuki, dance

Works by Pehr Henrik Nordgren, Federico Mompou, Michio Miyagi, Juha T. Koskinen, Minoru Miki, Rijndert van Woudenberg and Toru Takemitsu

Juha T. Koskinen on "Der Bau" and "”erBa”

“Franz Kafka wrote a story called "Der Bau" (The Burrow) in 1923. In fact it's an unfinished story without a title. In the story there is an animal building his subterranean labyrinth and listening in the silence to all kinds of real or imaginary noises. Sometimes they seem to be close sometimes distant. He is constantly worried if somebody will attack his burrow.

“Last year I began to write a piece for solo guitar called "Der Bau", and I finished the first movement. The musical material for "erBa" derives from this short fragment. With two guitars there are many possibilities to create different combinations of the musical figures.

“I also wanted to add some noises, with tamborra effects and whispers of human voice. Two guitars wander in the darkness like Kafka's animal being lost in the sleepless reality full of dreams.”

 

Juha T. Koskinen by Maarit Kytöharju/Fimic

Juha T. Koskinen (born in 1972) has graduated in composition from Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki. He continued his studies at the Conservatory of Lyon and at IRCAM in Paris. His composition teachers have been Kaija Saariaho and Philippe Manoury. Mr. Hosokawa Toshio invited him to the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan in 2004 and in 2005. His composition Sogni di Dante (Dante's Dreams) received the Takefu International Composition Award in 2004. Koskinen is writing a chamber opera after Mishima Yukio's play Madame de Sade (Sado kohshaku fujin).

Ensemble Nomad

Juha T. Koskinen Page (Contemporary Music - Composers - Koskinen Juha T.)

Koen-dori Classics, Shibuya

***

March 20-22, 2009

*The Umeda project with Finnish dancers

Finnish dancers Satu Rekola and Milla Koistinen performed in Hiroaki Umeda’s work ”1. centrifugal”. Umeda participated the Japan-Finland choreography project last year by visit Finland. The work was finished in Yokohama, and presented three times to the public at the Umeda project ”the the Ground-breaking 2009”.

The Ground-breaking 2009

March 20 (7:30 pm), 21 (3 pm) and 22 (3 pm)

Red Brick Warehouse Number 1, Yokohama

Works by Hiroaki Umeda

Umeda, Satu Rekola and Milla Koistinen, dancers

Hiroaki Umeda Page

Red Brick Warehouse Number 1, Yokohama

***

March - April 2009

Saara Ekström at Youkobo

Visual artist Saara Ekström worked as an artist in residence in March-April 2009 at Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo. During the residency Ekström prepared new works for a presentation at Youkobo Art Space in April 2009. She was also making research for her upcoming solo exhibition in Spring 2011 at Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland.

The residency period was supported by Alfred Kordelin Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Exhibition

April 16 – 24, 2009

Youkobo Art Space, studio B

Opening party and artist talk April 18

Youkobo opening hours:

12:00 – 19:00, closed Monday and Tuesday

www.saaraekstrom.com

www.youkobo.co.jp

***

 

April 9 - May 9, 2009

*"Three Trees" is talking about nature

”Three Trees” is a project combining forces of Finnish photographers Sanni Seppo and Ritva Kovalainen and Japanese artist Reiko Nireki. The project is a continuum of their earlier artistic project in the 90s. Now they started to work at the Kamiyama Artist-in-Residence programme with recording and photographing the animistic tradition on the Shikoku island.

Apart the project film director Shohei Shibata has translated Seppo's and Kovalainen's book "Puiden kansa" (Tree people) into Japanese.

April 12 - 26

Exhibition ”Tree People”
Awagami Factory

April 12 at 16:00

Opening Party

April 26 at 14:00-15:30

Artist Talk
Project "”Three People" "Three Trees"

May 2 at 14:00-16:00

Presentation & Reception
Kamiyama Artist in Residence (KAIR)
Speaker: Mr. Kanichi Nomoto (Ethnologist)

Kamiyama Artist in Residence

Reiko Nireki Page

Puiden Kansa Page

***

 

 

***

 

May 27 - 29, 2009

*Finland Fest was here again!

This year’s edition of the Finland Fest was arranged on May 27-29, 2009 in Tokyo. The annual event presenting the latest trends of the Finnish pop-rock scene consisted this time of a closed seminar for Finnish music industry professionals (May 27), the business-to-business Trade Day (May 28), and the main concert on May 29 at Liquid Room, Ebisu.

The May 29 concert “Finland Fest 2009: The Boys’ Evening and Girls’ Night” presented seven groups from Finland: Carmen Gray, Indica, Naked, Stalingrad Cowgirls, Sunrise Avenue, DJ Top Billin, and TV Off.

Off the official selection the ex-Hanoi Rocks star Michael Monroe performed at the venue, too [see his interview here].

The FF 2009 hosted also various folk music events with a video screening event on May 26 as well as gigs of Johanna Juhola Trio and Nordik Tree trio.

The Finland Fest main organizers were the Music Export Finland (Musex), the Finnish Music Information Centre (Fimic), The Sibelius Adademy and the Finnish Institute in Japan.

Finland Fest 2009 events

Tue, May 26 at 7 pm at UP LINK factory (Shibuya,Tokyo)

Finland Music Café Vol. 1

Video Showing Event (folk music)

Info: Music Plant Ltd.

Wed, May 27 at 7 pm at Haretara sorani

(Daikanyama, Tokyo)

Johanna Juhola Trio (folk music)

Info: Harmony Fields

Thu, May 28 at 7 pm at Musashino Cultural Hall

Nordik Tree & Johanna Juhola Trio (folk music; sold out)

Info: Music Plant Ltd.

Fri, May 29 at 6:30 pm at Liquid Room, Ebisu (Tokyo)

Finland Fest 2009:

Boys’ Evening & Girls’ Night

Carmen Gray

Sunrise Avenue

Naked

DJ Top Billin

Indica

TV Off

Stalingrad Cowgirls

A Michael Monroe interview with Guy Perryman (Inter FM)

Info: www.myspace.com/finlandfestinjapan

Creativeman

Sat, May 30 at 6 pm at Star Pine Café (Kichijoji, Tokyo)

Nordik Tree (folk music)

Info: Music Plant Ltd.

 

***

 

9 - 12 July 2009

*FILI at the Tokyo Book Fair

The Finnish Literature Information Centre (FILI) visited for the third time The Tokyo International Book Fair. FILI presented ca 70 children's books at the steir stand. FIJ arranged a seminar for publishers and translators on July 8.

16th Tokyo International Book Fair

The Finnish Literature Information Centre (FILI)

(09.06.30)

***

5 - 6 September 2009

The Tempest: The Japanese premiere performance of a late Sibelius masterpiece

Photo from the first performance of the Sibelius's "The Tempest" (1927)

The performance of the complete incidental music to Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was one of the main events to dignify the 90th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Japan and Finland.

Written in 1925–1926 the stage music is along "Symphony 7" and "Tapiola" one of the last great works Sibelius wrote in his life.

The performance history of "The Tempest" is rather obscure. The overture has been published as a separate volume. Sibelius himself arranged two suites from the music, each comprising of 9 pieces out of 34 original pieces (or 35 of the later version first heard in Helsinki in 1927). The suites are the most frequently performed and recorded versions of the work.

The Tokyo and Niigata performances with an all-Finnish soloist ensemble marked the premiere of the complete incidental music in Japan. The concerts offered the Japanese audience a rare chance to hear "The Tempest" score in its original form and length.

 

Sep 5, 2009 at 6 pm Tokyo Opera City

Sep 6, 2009 Niigata

Jean Sibelius: The Tempest

(+ Finlandia, Valse triste, Karelia Suite)

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Chorus, cond. Naoto Otomo

Soloists: Helena Juntunen, soprano; Tiina-Maija Koskela, mezzo-soprano; Juha Hostikka, tenor; Petteri Salomaa, baritone, Hiroaki Ohtsuka, baritone

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

(09.06.30)

 

***

9 - 27 September 2009

*Santeri Tuori takes you to the Finnish forest

Photo by Santeri Tuori

Photographer Santeri Tuori had a large solo exhibition at the Spiral Garden, Tokyo, on September 9 – 27, 2009.

”The exhibition should absolutely be built considering the space. You can not go to Spiral with something tiny and small, it will be lost there. My aim is to create a physical exhibition you can sense with your whole body.”

In his works Tuori uses photographs, videos and sound environment. One typical feature in his oeuvre is video shootings projected on the photo surface, thus giving it a moving character. His exhibition was the first ever Finnish solo exhibition at Spiral.

Sep 9 - 27, 2009

Spiral Garden, Tokyo

Santeri Tuori Exhibition: Place of life – Forest, Red Shirt, Tokyo

Spiral

(09.06.30 & 09/01)

***************************************

 

21 - 22 September 2009

*Eeva Muilu is waiting for miracles

Eeva Muilu by Johanna Tirronen

Choreographer and dancer Eeva Muilu participated in the Tokyo Dance Triennale on September 21 and 22, 2009.

She performed her own solo work "Sold Out" at the Spiral Hall. The work is about media criticism and social problems as well as tough personal themes – all this in the Muilu’s typically humorous input.

”Sold Out is about love and media, and I believe the themes in my work are universal.” Muilu visited at the JCDN festival in Ritto and Sendai in Autumn 2007. She also gave a masterclass at the Session House, Tokyo.

What does she wait of her visit this time? “I am waiting for miracles all the time!”

 

Sep 21 and 22, 2009 at 7 pm

Spiral Hall, Tokyo

Eeva Muilu: Sold out

Tokyo Dance Triennale

Spiral

(09.06.30)

***

 

22 September - 4 October 2009

*Tokyo Wonder Site Exchange Programme vol. 1

(Saara Vuorjoki/Fimic, 2006)

Composer Perttu Haapanen started a new exchange programme between Tokyo Wonder Site and Time of Music contemporary music festival in Viitasaari, Finland.

”I hope we are not working with the country stereotypes here; it is so easy to exchange with the same patterns, concepts and composers in both sides the whole time. I wish I could find both contrasts and consonances.”

The programme is the first ever Japan visit for Haapanen. “I am looking forward to see if Japan really is so different a world as they say.”

Tokyo Wonder Site

Perttu Haapanen Page (fimic.fi)

(09.06.30)

***

 

September 2009

*The Ghost Bridge

"The Ghost Bridge" is a Finnish-Japanese project combining research, education and new media. The University of Lapland, Chiba University (Department of Design Sciences) and Kyoto University (Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies) will gather material on the rich ghost story tradition in each country, and create new entries for new media formats.

The research part of the project started in January.

***

 

2 - 3 October 2009

*Alamaailman Vasarat –

Discovering the Underworld

Photo by Niko Luoma

Alamaailman Vasarat (“The Hammers of the Underworld”) is an unusual phenomenon in Finland and around the world. Listeners have had plenty of grey hairs trying to categorize their unique instrumental music. Split between six members, the band's weaponry consists of extraordinarily wide variety of instruments.

The band was founded in 1997 by woodwind player Jarno “Stakula” Sarkula and drummer Teemu Hänninen. They have released four albums by far, and their new album Huuro Kolkko is due to be released in Japan in August by P-Vine Records.

Their gig venues have varied from big time festivals to world music gatherings and progressive rock events, never forgetting intense acts at rock clubs and jazz dives, among them Pit Inn jazz club in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area.

Alamaailman Vasarat performed twice at the DUO Music Exchange, Shibuya (Tokyo) on October 2 and 3, 2009.

 

Oct 2 and 3, 2009 at 7 pm

DUO Music Exchange, Shibuya (Tokyo)

Alamaailman vasarat

www.vasarat.com

DUO Music Exchange

The Music Plant

(09.06.30)

***

 

2 October 2009

*Tampere Film Festival presented in Kyoto

The CON-CAN Movie Festival operates the Kyoto International Indies Cinema Festival 2009, an international short-film festival utilizing the internet to exchange directors' messages and art of film making from around the globe.

In this year’s program the festival introduced on October 2, 2009 films from the Tampere Film Festival, the oldest short film festival of the Nordic region. The event included a live online interview with Mr. Jukka-Pekka Laakso (Director of Tampere Film Festival). Mr. Laakso talked about the film culture in Finland, and share the magic of short films.

http://kyoto.indies-cinema.com/index09.html

http://en.con-can.com/

Contact / Inquiries

Festival Directors: Hirose / Tanimoto

TEL.06-6241-0522 FAX.06-6243-1219

Mail : tanimoto@con-can.com

Mail : h2d.hirose@poppy.ocn.ne.jp

 

(09.09.18)

***

Tokyo Designers Week

27 October - 1 November 2009

*Kokoro & Moi: Air Current/Past

– an exhibition flying in the air

The multidisciplinary Finnish design agency Kokoro & Moi was founded in 2001 by Teemu Suviala (b. 1977) and Antti Hinkula (b.1976), two Finnish designers whose original ideas have earned them recognition over the years.

Air Current/Past takes a retrospective look at the agency’s work with a peek into what's happening in the expanding Kokoro & Moi office today.

The exhibition presents the graphic works of Kokoro & Moi from a new perspective: it depicts a journey instead of the destination, exploring the elements of variation, collaboration and play in their work.

In that spirit, exhibition visitors and Mr. Takuo Toda, a local aerogami expert and the holder of the Guinness World Record for the longest paper plane flight, fold paper airplanes out of classic Kokoro & Moi print reproductions, thus jointly producing an exhibition in the air.

The paper airplane format symbolizes not only the journeys in design processes or the journey from Helsinki to Tokyo, but also the histories in paper that connect the two countries of Kokoro (Japanese for heart) & Moi’s (Finnish for hello) inspiration.

After Tokyo, the Air Current/Past exhibition flies over to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen as part of NOTCH festival.

www.kokoromoi.com
www.utrecht.jp/aoyama

The exhibition is supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Finnair and The Finnish Institute in Japan.

October 27 – November 1, 2009

Kokoro & Moi: Air Current/Past
Oct 27 – Nov 1, 2009
NOW IDeA by UTRECHT

201, 5-3-8, Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

30 October 2009 at 2:15-3:45 pm

Nikkei Hall, Tokyo

Teemu Suviala from Kokoro & Moi lectures at the series of the Design Nippon Association

Design Nippon Association

***

 

Tokyo Designers Week

29 October - 8 November 2009

*Glass design faces new challenges

A group of young Finnish designers and students of the University of Art and Design Helsinki led by lecturer Kazushi Nakada is working out the theme of glass design today. The “Glass Design Update” exhibition will be shown at Living Design Center OZONE during the Tokyo Designers’ Week in late October and early November.

The Finnish glass design is an iconic brand created by such legendary names as Tapio Wirkkala or Timo Sarpaneva, among others. Their output and importance has been enormous, and the Iittala company still keeps that Modernist heritage alive.

The environment of contemporary glass design has dramatically changed, though. The Soviet East European countries used to be the biggest glass tableware manufacturing area with first-class craftsmen – all that is now gone. The highs and lows of economy, and the changes in the production chain have moved much of the industry away from the origins of the actual design work.

One of the key themes of the working group is in creating a new design environment. The concept of "timeless design products" set the mode for the whole Scandinavian design between the 50s and 70s. Now the glass designer group from Finland will exhibit something they call time-bound or temporary design. They also challenge the old rule of glass designers to be dependant of countries and companies they were working for.

With a new global generation of designers the OZONE exhibition will show some new entries for revitalizing the glass design culture in Finland.

 

Oct 29 – Nov 8, 2009

“Glass Design Update”

Living Design Center OZONE, Tokyo

 

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Tokyo Designers Week

From a performance on November 2007. (Photo: Janine Eisenächer, TTK)

6 - 16 November 2009

*The Reality Research Center visits Tokyo

A live art/performing artists’ group Todellisuuden tutkimuskeskus (Reality Research Centre) is one of the most important Finnish contemporary groups in its field.

They will start “The Japan Project” with Japanese artists in Spring 2010. Some group members will visit Tokyo for orienting to the project.

The Reality Research Center

***

17 - 22 November 2009

*5 Finnish entries at the Kyoto Art Festival

Kyoto Art Festival is dedicated to music, visual arts and design. The 23rd  edition included five artists from Finland; graphic artists Anita Jensen, Sari Vuorenpää and Tuula Moilanen, paper artist Sade Hiidenkari and a French resident, painter Hilkka Vaillant.

17 – 22 November 2009

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art & Gallery Keifu, Kioto

 

www.art-festival.jp