LAPS graduates receive Kone Foundation grants

13.12.2022 3 Like 0 kommenttia

Congratulations to Dash Che, Minerva Juolahti and Suvi Tuominen for receiving grants for their projects.

In the past few years LAPS graduates such as Harold Hejazi, Nicolina Stylianou and Tea Andreoletti, have received generous grants from Kone Foundation. However, as a grant is definitely not the only metrics in regards of a pioneering artistic practice or success alone and therefore LAPS programme aims to support all LAPS graduates and alumni in different ways. Artists’ position in the contemporary society is growing to be increasingly competitive and precarious. One of the aims of LAPS programme is to foster solidarity among artists and art workers in equal terms

However, this year LAPS programme has again reason to gratulate the three LAPS graduates: Dash Che, Minerva Juolahti and Suvi Tuominen who received a grant from Kone Foundation to develop and continue their artistic practices.

Minerva Juolahti received funding for their project “Radikaali hetkellisyys: ihmisen ääni muistamisen ja unohtamisen prosesseissa / Radical ephemerality: Human voice through the processes of remembering and forgetting.” Minerva writes that:

“In this artistic process, I approach the radical ephemerality and societal possibility of human voice through the processes of remembering and forgetting. Working with a child approaching the voice through the act of remembering and with a parent letting go of the voice through the act of forgetting form the core. I understand voice as a bodily and a personal process, as well as a public, an abstract, and a shared phenomenon. The radical societal potentiality occurs in the intersection of these two aspects. By tuning in to the fleeting and fragile movements of remembering and forgetting, I want to explore how they can open freer way for listening and thinking.”

Minerva is also part of the lumbung radio project by the Station of Commons, who received funding from Kone Foundation, also.

Dash Che and Suvi Tuominen form an inquisitive performance duet and entity called Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). Both Dash and Suvi have graduated from the Live Art and Performance studies master’s programme. Their collaboration started during the studies, autumn 2019. They write on their project “What would Skomorokh do?!” that

“is a two-year long experiment where we intertwine performance art, dance, clowning, folklore, performance studies, affect theory of humor, queer theory and critical heritage studies together in order to create a novel performance methodology. During the next two years we are crossing boundaries of multiple art forms and genres, having the focus on performance making and methodology simultaneously. The invisible protagonist of this experiment, Skomorokh, is an East Slavic cultural figure originating from the 11th century Kiev’s Rus’. Skomorokhs were entertaining clown-like comedians, sometimes denounced as devil’s servants. They performed publicly, made humorous performances about authority figures and addressed disputable subjects that no one else could take. Skomorokhs were playing with proximity – getting closer to and further from their communities and its issues in order to perform matters that stayed hidden from the collective consciousness.”

We send heartfelt congratulations to Minerva, Dash and Suvi.