UA Talks

This keynote by Yolanda Bohm took place in the seminar Complex Complicities in MDT on the 30th of May 2022.

The seminar was part of Bridges, a project designed to strengthen sustainable and long-term Nordic collaboration in the realms of antiracist and intersectionally feminist practices. The project is funded by Nordic Culture Point and produced by UrbanApa in collaboration with HAUT, MDT, CODA and Black Box Theater.

The speaker: Yolanda Bohm

Editing & sound mixing: Mimi Kantola

Ghanalais-suomalaiset tanssija-tanssinopettajat Ama Kyei ja Julian Owusu käyvät läpi kokemuksiaan mustuudesta ja länsimaisen tanssin konventioista sekä siitä, miten nämä yhdistyvät hiphop-tanssijan identiteetteihin.

Julian Owusu on monialainen taiteilija, jonka taiteellisen työn keskiössä ovat yhteisöllisyyden rakentaminen, hip hop, tanssi, dekoloniaaliset työskentelytavat ja uusiksi kuvitteleminen. Hip hopin ja omien projektiensa ohella Owusu on työskennellyt tanssijana, koreografina ja näyttelijänä mm. Zodiakilla, Jojolla ja Oulun kaupunginteatterilla. Hän on toiminut opettajana Taideyliopiston Teatterikorkeakoulussa, Oulun ammattikorkeakoulussa sekä lukuisissa kaupallisissa tanssikouluissa. Taiteellisen työnsä ohella Owusu kuuluu The Nordic House of Reykjavikin ja Taikabox ry:n hallituksiin. Owusu on työskennellyt Taiteen edistämiskeskuksen (Taike) Nuortenkulttuurin läänintaiteilijana Pohjois-Pohjanmaan ja Kainuun alueilla vuosina 2016-2021.

Podcast-jakson on tuottanut Zodiak – Uuden tanssin keskus.

How are art institutions funded, and where is the money coming from? What kind of financial support should institutions accept? How do artists and activists utilise soft power, for example in the recent Kiasma strike, and what effects can it have? Moderated by Ervin Latimer, with guests Terike Haapoja and Bassam El Baroni.

Terike Haapoja is a Brooklyn based artist. In her installations, writings and collaborations, Haapoja explores possibilities for non-violent coexistence, focusing especially on multi-species politics. She was one of the core organisers of the recent kiasma strike. Bassam El Baroni is associate professor of curating and art mediation at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University. His most recent research engages with issues such as financialization in relation to artistic practices, AI and curating, artists’ engagement with infrastructural futures and histories, and new forms of artist-led activism. Ervin Latimer is a fashion and print designer, and the founder of deady-to-wear label Latimmier. Alongside design work Latimer writes and lectures on the intersections of queer-culture, anti-racism, masculinity and fashion.

"Jos syöminen ja pukeminen on radikaali teko, ja lepokin on vallankumouksellinen teko, onko meidän elämässämme mitään, mikä ei ole tavalla tai toisella ole aina julistamista, näkyväksi tekemistä tai kapinallista?" - Javiera Marchant Aedo

Credits:

Tuotanto: Mira Eskelinen / UrbanApa

Leikkaus: Mira Eskelinen

Miksaus: Timo Tikka

Jakso on nauhoitettu toukokuussa 2023 osana #StopHatredNow 2023 -ohjelmaa.

Kuinka oman yhteisön äärellä ja omalle yhteisölle luotu taide muovaa taiteentekijää? Voiko valtaväestön katseet ja odotukset ohittaa, ja mitä siitä voi seurata marginalisoidulle taiteentekijälle? Kuinka käsitellä omaan yhteisöön liittyviä kriittisiä tai monitulkintaisia kysymyksiä? Entä miksei taiteilijanerous kiinnosta? Keskustelemassa Stina Aletta Aikio ja Santi Garzón, moderaattorina Mira Eskelinen.

Taiteilija Santi Garzón alias Saint Santí tuo taiteellaan esiin yhteiskunnan ongelmakohtia hyvin intersektionaalisesta näkökulmasta. BIPOC-taiteilija sisällyttää tarinankerrontaansa vaikeuksia elämänsä varrelta ja taiteen visuaalinen ilme muodostuu transidentiteetin ympärille.

Mira Eskelinen on häpeilemättömän queer kirjailija, taiteilija ja kulttuurituottaja. Hän käsittelee teoksissaan muun muassa transiloa, seksiä, lepoa ja muistoja. Mira on yksi palkitun Punch Up! – Resistance & Glitter -klubin perustajista.

Credits:

Tuotanto: Mira Eskelinen / UrbanApa

Leikkaus: Mira Eskelinen

Miksaus: Timo Tikka

Jakso on nauhoitettu toukokuussa 2023 osana #StopHatredNow 2023 -ohjelmaa.

In this episode author Koko Hubara talks with Michelle A. Tisdel and Kaisa Ilmonen about Black feminist epistemology, writing as liberatory practice, norms of knowledge, Black feminist authors everyone should know, and why intersectionality work cannot forget its roots in Black feminist work.

Credits:

Editing: Mira Eskelinen

Sound mixing: Timo Tikka

The episode was recorded online in May 2023 as part of #StopHatredNow 2023.

What does decolonizing museums look like in action? How does repatriation affect and change the objects? And how to take a deep hard look into the colonialist mechanisms of museums and instead build something that benefits the communities involved?

Wisam Elfadl is a cultural producer, queer activist and a member of the Wasla collective, and the curator of the new exhibition Being Black – Afro Finns' stories in Helsinki City Museum (22.4.-24.9.2023). Eeva-Kristiina Nylander is a researcher working with Sámi heritage and repatriation processes, and she worked on and studied the process of the repatriation of the Sámi heritage collection, housed at the National Museum of Finland for more than a decade, and was part in organising Sámi museum Siida's new exhibition opened in June 2022. Moderated by Shikoh Shiraiwa, doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and the University of Antwerp.

Credits:

Editing: Mira Eskelinen

Sound mixing: Timo Tikka

The episode was recorded in May 2023 as part of #StopHatredNow 2023.

This conversation took place in the frame of UA Talks x Ice Hot on the 2nd of July 2022.

The nature of power is elusive, especially in the fields of arts and culture. In the aftermaths of #MeToo and BLM we have noticed how difficult and yet necessary it is to talk about power, hierarchies and responsibilities. The way to a safer and more inclusive dance field is to increase transparency in who is holding power, how are people appointed, how decisions are made and who are the gatekeepers.

Speakers: Danjel Andersson, Director and Artistic Lead, Dansehallerne ; Johannes Öhman, Artistic director, Dansens Hus Stockholm ; Naja Lee Jensen, Artistic director, HAUT

Moderator: Sonya Lindfors, Choreographer, Artistic director of UrbanApa

UA Talks X Ice Hot will dive headfirst into complex yet urgent conversation that can no longer be dismissed. During three consecutive sessions UA Talks X Ice Hot brings together artists, curators and producers to talk about dance in the age of the eco crisis, about inclusivity, diversity, power, and responsibility.

This conversation took place in the frame of UA Talks x Ice Hot on the 1st of July 2022.

The climate crisis is one of the most urgent challenges of our times. New reports keep showing us that we are running out of time. Systemic and structural change needs to take place on multiple levels simultaneously.

What can we do with dance in the midst of a global crisis? How do we move towards more sustainable working structures? What are the future horizons of dance (touring, working, international collaborations)? What will we have to give up, what will we gain?

Speakers: Elle Sofe Sara, Choreographer, director and filmmaker ; Magnus Nordberg, Founder and creative producer of Nordberg Movement

Moderator: Ki Nurmenniemi, Contemporary art curator, art writer, and doctoral researcher in interdisciplinary sustainability sciences

UA Talks X Ice Hot will dive headfirst into complex yet urgent conversation that can no longer be dismissed. During three consecutive sessions UA Talks X Ice Hot brings together artists, curators and producers to talk about dance in the age of the eco crisis, about inclusivity, diversity, power, and responsibility.

This conversation took place in the frame of UA Talks x Ice Hot on the 30th of June 2022.

The lack of diversity both on stage and off stage has been in constant discussion during the past few years. Despite good intentions and the fact that the population of the Nordic countries keeps diversifying, reaching new audiences and communities seems to be extremely hard. Why is this? And how could the situation be improved? In this first conversation of UA Talks x Ice Hot the guests discuss audiences, inclusivity, access and structural change.

Speakers: Stine Nilsen, Artistic Director and CEO of CODA Oslo International Dance Festival; Maija Karhunen, Dancer and performer; Julienne Doko, Performer and choreographer

Moderator: Julian Owusu, Freelance Dance Artist and Dance Pedagogue

UA Talks X Ice Hot will dive headfirst into complex yet urgent conversation that can no longer be dismissed. During three consecutive sessions UA Talks X Ice Hot brings together artists, curators and producers to talk about dance in the age of the eco crisis, about inclusivity, diversity, power, and responsibility.