Interviews
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READHouse of Fvck is a Drag collective born in 2020 during the Helsinki Pride Week. It was a project for Nuorten Pride to teach young people under 18 to do Drag with makeup, costume and performance; the tutors were Chris Oh! and Betty Fvck.
No Shade: Betty Fvck & the House of Betty Fvck
House of Fvck members in a “no shade” interview with Betty Fvck.
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READI am interested in language. I question language. I often feel that naming things too clearly, opening them up as if they were on an operating table, does not speak about the things I am trying to reach, but puts them in certain categories, forced within a certain structure that is not my language. It feels like a violent act.
Countering Cohesive Narratives: Conversation with Azar Saiyar
Marja Viitahuhta interviews Azar Saiyar on the occasion of her exhibition ‘My Home and Roses’.
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READEven though we met for the first time, Rita was keen on opening up to talk about a variety of subjects. We talked about many things, stopping longer on the role of Renaissance in Rita’s current art practice, her PhD on artists-in-residence, the latest exhibition in Myymälä 2 and the invisibility of foreign artists in Finland.
A fragment of a landscape, an iceberg, or something else entirely: Conversation with Rita Vargas
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READOn the eve of the day view of Deep Time Trans (DTT), the latest project by the DTT working group, I sat with two members of this collective of artists to discuss queer ecology, queer futures, and transformation.
Deep Time Trans, a Lookinglass Into Prehistoric Queer Ecology: Conversation With Even Minn and Teo Ala-Ruona
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READI’m so tired of seeing depressing African films about slavery and civil wars; about suffering. And though I wanted to address an issue like the health crisis in Africa, I wanted to tell it through love.
Khadar Ahmed: The King of "No"
Sharron L. Todd in conversation with Khadar Ahmed on deciding his own future, despite the societal odds stacked against him.
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READThe way I learned to connect with Kaffeochbulla was mainly through art and usually in a very straightforward manner. They would hand me zines, prints, stickers, earrings or clothes upon meeting, and always ask what I’ve been doing or experimenting with. It has always felt vulnerable in a nice way and that these exchanges of art, thoughts and treasures weave little webs of support and excitement for one another.
Magic, Intergenerational Trauma & Snail Shells: Conversation With KaffeochBulla
On creating art in a culture where vulnerability is discouraged, breaking intergenerational curses, and the importance of community.
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READIt’s easy to remember when I met Eleni Tsitsirikou. It was on the day of my arrival from Berlin to Helsinki for my curatorial residency at HIAP. On Wednesday, 1 November 2017, I felt nervous looking for the entrance of Kaapeli, the Cable Factory. But there was Eleni waiting for me with a welcoming smile. Since then, throughout the residency, she was the person that I could turn to, making me feel at home. If there is a heart to an organisation, it would be Eleni for HIAP.
Moment of Welcoming: Conversation With Eleni Tsitsirikou
Has there been a change in how art residencies are perceived? A conversation with HIAP’s residency manager.
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READUbuntu Film Club (Alice Mutoni, Rewina Teklai, Fiona Musanga) in conversation with Good Hair Day (Saida Mäki-Penttilä, Paloma Sandberg, Akunna Onwen) about why community-based organisations are needed?
Why Are Community-Based Organisations Needed?
Ubuntu Film Club in conversation with Good Hair Day.
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READI still remember the first time I saw Kihwa-Endale artwork in her studio. She was painting on transparent surfaces and mirrors. The paintings were getting alive, reflecting the light, the space around it and showing you your own reflection. Kihwa-Endale explained that the artworks were meant to portray multiple realities coexisting and play with the viewer.
Continuance between Art, Art-Space and Audience: conversation with Kihwa-Endale
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READThis interview is a transcription from a recorded verbal dialogue that happened on a balcony while five other friends were eating, listening to music and dancing in the other room. In this transcription we wished to communicate the feeling of thinking through talking as it happens in real dialogues, holding a glass of red wine, sensing on our faces the fragrant sting of summer wind, on a late evening.
Curating from the perspective of an artist: conversation with Anna Ruth
Anna Ruth tells how curating from the perspective of an artist creates structures of care and reciprocity.
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READCraftsmanship that leaves a polished finishing and evocative historical notions hidden underneath the fine details. Man Yau’s work with ceramic installations arrests the viewer, while encouraging to revisit and contemplate the uncanny contemporaneity that the artworks embody. In this interview, we discuss artistic processes, practices and labour as well as the intertwining of the personal and the thematic in Yau’s two exhibitions from the spring 2021: M.Y. Chinoiserie at Kuvan Kevät, Exhibition Laboratory, and Dried flowers last forever at Boy Konsthall.
On “The Feeling of Being on Display and Under Pressure” — a Conversation With Man Yau
On artistic processes, practices and labour as well as the intertwining of the personal and the thematic in Man Yau’s work.
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READI leave my bike on the side of the market square next to the pier where the ferry to Suomenlinna island goes. I look around, trying to spot Corinna; we have never met before. My first impressions of her base on our exchange of emails, a delicate mind-map she shared with me, and on what I know of her work. Corinna arrives with a light pushchair and a lively child in a baby carrier against her chest. They have come to Helsinki before heading to the archipelago, and we have decided to take a walk in Suomenlinna. It would be easier to talk while moving since the young, involuntary participant might get restless with no action around.
On Soft Alphabets and the Hues of an Inside: An Interview With Corinna Helenelund
On the role of language and textuality, colors, pregnancy, and parenting in Helenelund’s work.