The Art Magazine September 2020 | Page 19

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15

How do you see the relationship between emotional and intellectual perception of

your work? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the

viewing experience?

A good artwork makes first an emotional connection with the viewer. That connection can be beauty, colour-pallet, theme, basically anything that relates to the life of the viewer. Very often the emotional connection comes first from figurative elements and the use of colours. After the emotional attachment, the artpiece should slowly by slowly give pieces of a puzzle to build that intellectual connection what finally makes the artpiece whole. When an artpiece connects both emotionally and intellectually with the public, then the public can form a strong bond with that piece.

Before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the

nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process,

in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

There's a big difference in making art and showing art! When I create a piece I'm the only viewer. The piece has to appeal to my taste, to relate to my life, to challenge

myself as a viewer. The image of the lonely artist is very correct. I am alone in my studio when creating, there's nobody else. Nobody watches over my shoulders. Thank God for that! I am too shy to create when there's somebody around. That process is very personal and sometimes getting into “the flow”, its like meditation, having sex, being free from all the doubts! But when I decide to show my art in exhibitions or on internet, then of course I want to reach the audience. Then also a title of the work becomes important. And from that moment the artwork has to communicate with the public. I hate to be next to my art during openings and public viewings. I always have the feeling that I don't give good

enough answers to questions from the audience. The artwork should give keys for those answers. During creation the artist and the artwork try to co-operate, and if the process will succeed, the result is a newborn baby that I can be proud of. But after the birth, the artwork should grow up and the artist himself isn't that important any more! Has a Picasso´s or Rembrandt´s works lost their cultural significance, when

their makers passed away?!

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Teppo. Finally, would you

like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your

work evolving?

Yes, I look forward to coming summer when I show my art in Finland first time in 15 years! Theme of the exhibitions is searching happiness. These exhibitions are also part of the official program of celebrating Finland´s 100 years of independence. They

will happen in my birth town Ylivieska and in Nokia, next to Tampere, where I lived for 20 years. It is really exciting to be back. They are international group exhibitions, so the small art circles hopefully get broken open! That makes me proud.

With my new technique there is still so much to explore, to experiment. I have a

feeling that I can continue on this journey for years!

Who knows where it will lead me!

Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about race and ethnic identity in visual culture?

No I don't have a specific artwork that has influenced my artistic practise but many.

I'm influenced by some philsophers as well as poets or musicians or dancers or visual artists but also by some places or landscapes or atmospheres ... For some years, I was used for example to go to India where I was used to follow some traditionnal muscians or to learn bharatanatyam and practice vipassana meditation... Of course this experience has impacted my art work.... This brought me to think and work differently... My experience in India brought me to discover traditionnal strong art and paradoxally to the way of Performance Art. But there I see one common point: to make no separation between art and life and to be here and now, without projection on the future.

It's difficult for me to speak about race and ethnic identity. But I can say that today we miss more and more this notion of “to be here and now” which is more present in some cultures ... By practising Performance Art, it's my way to be connected to this way of thinking. And even in this field actually it's more and more difficult. The society and the art world brings us more and more to plan in advance, to define our work, more than to do. Just to do. To do what we deeply need.

And of course, my encountering with Black Market International and later the notion of Open Source or Open session via PAErsche have also a big impact on my work. When we go on that, each of us perform by sharing time and space but without trying to convince each other on some common way. This is for me a wonderfull way how we can meet each other, regardless of our origin, our race or our “identity”...

Many of your works carry an autobiographical message. Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.

My memory is clearly a starting point to create. I don't have any autobiographical message. I use my personnal experience ( what I feel , what I see, what I learn, what I ear...) to work. It's a motor or a material. I'm not able to paint, so I can't do something with red or white or yellow or black colors. All I have is life, a body alive. And I need to do something with that...

My sensation about life sometimes is too intense then I need to transform this intensity in some action. Some artistic action... If people can take something from this action this is great... but I don't want to give them “a specific message” or to control the translation of my experience.