Bios

Monday 10.1.2018

 

Karina Griffith’s films and installations explore themes of fear and fantasy, often focusing on how they relate to belonging. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Cinema Studies Institute, where her research on Black authorship in German cinema interacts with theories of affect, intersectionality, and creolization. She has written for Women in German Studies’ Special Online Section on Race and Inclusivity, Berlin Art Link, and Shadow & Act. In 2017 she curated the festival Republik Repair: Reparatory Imaginings from Black Berlin. 2018 she made Decolonizing 68 project as part of Artist-in-Residence for District Berlin.

 

Maarja Kangro’s works provide a potent vehicle for a complex and distinctive take on life. She has published five collections of poetry, three books of short stories, and a 'documentary novel' titled Klaaslaps (The Glass Child, 2016). The latter is a frank and unsparing reportage of failed attempts at conception, as well as a personal meditation on death, trauma, and the ever-looming “abject” dimension of human life. The story is set in same time frame as political turmoil in the Ukraine and intense public debates in Estonia. Her work in all these genres is permeated by saturnine humour, which in turn is relieved by a lucid style and true sympathy for everything living (and even un-living). She graduated from Tartu University in 1999. She has translated mainly poetry and philosophy into Estonian from the German (H. M. Enzensberger), Italian (G. Leopardi, V. Magrelli, G. Vattimo, G. Agamben) and English (P. Larkin).

Jaana Kokko is a visual artist with a background in arts and economics. She works primarily with video, but also in the field of photography, text and drawing. Her works revolve around the subjects of language, representation and alienation with an eye of a feminist. In her practice Kokko is often interested in polylog; showing through dialog how our world consists of different individuals and their interpretations of reality in their historical context. Since 2011, Kokko has been working on a practice-based PhD in political and social arts:”Contemporary Art as a Form of Worldalization – understanding political and social dynamics” and is being inspired by Hannah Arendt.

Jarkko Hartikainen is a composer striving to create works that explore what music is and could still be, researching the possibilities in sound through rigorous performer-collaboration as well as studying findings in a plethora of disciplines. Stimulating acoustic phenomena, exciting sonorities and concrete, bodily impulses through rhythm, resonance and empathy fuel his often extremely instrument-specific, concentrated writing. Currently Hartikainen is working as a commission-based freelance composer, as well as pursuing his D.Mus degree at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Eriikka Maalismaa, defunensemble, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ensemble Adapter and other such distinguished performers have recently promoted his work.

Aune Kallinen is a theatre director, performance artist and teacher. She works as a lecturer of contemporary performance at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Art Helsinki from year 2012 and as a freelance-artist, directing, performing and collaborating. In all her work political, spiritual and meditative qualities are present and the (power) relationships between audience-stage/performance- performers is somehow questioned and investigated. She is also curious in investigating the boundaries between and inside of (nude) bodies, cells, mushrooms and invisible realities. Her background in yoga, contact improvisation and alternative therapies can also be seen in her works and workshops.

Eriikka Maalismaa plays in a variety of ensembles and collectives and visits frequently as leader of orchestras. She is fascinated by saying Yes to things that scare her. Performing music of our time as well as collaborating with composers is one of her biggest interests. She finds it a musician's duty and a priviledge. As a quite natural part of the profession, Eriikka loves setting her violin up with raw gut strings and finding sounds and colors that are no longer available to listeners of modern-day instrumentalism.

Satu Palokangas is a somatic activist, practitioner and facilitator with 25+ years of training in movement, anatomy, improvisation, therapy and pedagogy. She has graduated in Participatory Arts and Somatic Research from Moving On Center in1999, and have since received certifications in Dynamic Embodiment - Somatic Movement Therapy Training (DE-SMT), in Laban/ Bartenieff Movement Analysis (CLMA) with Integrated Movement Studies and in Somatic Movement Education (SME) and Practitioner Program (CP) from the School for Body-Mind Centering®. Additionally she holds a Master degree in Live Art & Performance Studies, during which she begun to create her ecosomatic teaching and research participatory approaches to performance making.

Riikka Talvitie’s music is Modernist but often incorporates lucid lyrical qualities and scherzando tones, sometimes in the guise of ironic humour. Talvitie's output is relatively evenly divided between vocal and instrumental music; the latter group includes works for her own instrument, the oboe. Electro-acoustic music also interests her, particularly live electronics. She has also written a great deal of educational material for children and adolescents.

Jaakko Ruuska is a Helsinki-based filmmaker, performing artist and media artist. Documentarism is the conjunctive method for his artistic practices. He holds a Master of Arts in Documentary Filmmaking (Aalto-university, 2012). Since 2010 Ruuska has been a member of the live arts collective: Other Spaces. As a documentary filmmaker, his debut documentary feature is The Nature of My Heart (2016). Since 2017 he is a doctoral student in the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Academy of the Fine Arts. He also is the chair of the board of Eskus - Performance Center.