growing darkness

art, recent work

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All these photos are by Reino Koivula. Thanks a lot, Reiska!

Growing darkness in the yard of Åbo/Turku municipal library; “Pimeyden kodat” (“Cots of darkness”) exhibition can be seen during the library’s opening hours until August 31st.

On returning from Finland, I spent two weeks in the Land of Mir (temporarily located outside the exotic city of Södertälje) together with old and new friends. No photos, but for documentation from last year, see  Archives/July 2008.
And right now, I’m writing up the course in aesthetic-based qualitative research.

Daylight is shortening by minutes, a larger bell of darkness awaiting.

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working Darkness VI

art, recent work

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Today’s my last day at Titanik. The Darkness workshop will go on for another week, though, with Reiska, Timo, Simo Helenius and others. Finally it will end up with an exhibition in the yard of the public library, just across Aura river.

Thunder and rain reached Åbo/Turku yesterday – just after my last writing. I will not accomplish the felting of the large bell here and now, since it needs to be done outdoors and preferably in warm weather.
However, the smaller, experimental piece turned out quite well.
I start the day by giving it a nice shave, using a shepherd’s scissors.
Then I set to finish my things here, packing the car for going to the ferry.

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If I leave something behind, it means I’ll be back some day.

http://www.arte.fi

Pina Bausch 1940 – 2009

art, beauty, time-out

In Venice, a truly magnificent thunderstorm passed by during the night between Friday and Saturday; sounding like canonades, turning electricity off, and – lights out – pouring rain over the city for hours.

Saturday night – June 27th – at the dance biennale, the Compagnia dell’Accademia Nazionale di Danza di Roma performed a show at Teatro Piccolo Arsenale.
The first piece was announced beforehand as an homage by Pina Bausch to the company: a short solo, elaborated from Bausch’s choreography Nefes (‘Breath’), by Cristiana Morganti of Wupperthal Tanztheater;

sudden spotlights on; and a red-dressed woman dancing like a flame of joy, all alone in the large scene space, never a moment of hesitation or doubt until, too soon, conclusion; dance ending as abruptly as its beginning.

After a short pause, the second piece, Da ora in poi by Jacopo Godani;

the whole company on stage, men and women alike all dressed in dark, and again this softness and staccato, blending into hermaphroditic beauty; Hermes and Aphrodite; flow; transmission of movement taking priority over manifestation of individualities; and, at a certain moment, all sitting low on scene floor; some movement upwards, spotlights flashlighting the high-up ceiling and a hundred fingertips tapping like raindrops, then dark again; last night’s thunder and rain recreated within the Arsenale building; soon transforming to a movement like walking underwater; then transforming again…

On Thursday, June 25th, German choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch was diagnosed with cancer. On Tuesday, June 30th, she passed away.