This is a difficult question. Yes, paper is important to me, or furthermore, paper is essential or even fundamental to me. I still write my first drafts by hand. Suffering from hyperactive mind I find it pleasingly restrictive that – when writing by hand – I need to focus on what I’m trying to write. In addition, I find paper very easy and practical as an application. I can take it anywhere in the world and it works without wifi, I can take it into woods without worrying whether its battery is going to die. So I’m totally not born digital… In fact, just the opposite. Finland’s history, or economic history, is based on forests. Or – so to speak – wood. And paper is made of wood. And, especially nowadays, when we face the importance of forests considering for example climate change… So, every time I take a piece of a paper in my hand I feel I’m connected to my history, and at the same time I can’t escape the feeling that I’m wasting our global resources.
- Your project „asetelmia_makulointi” is really great! How do you work on it?
First a few words about the background of the project. My poetry collection 'Still Life' did not sell despite the positive criticism. When the publisher decided to maculate the unsold books, I thought that once the books were destroyed anyway, it could also be turned into a playful art project. So, with the help of my friends and colleagues, I bought all the unsold 483 copies of that book.
The purpose of the project is to come up with as many ways as possible to destroy the book and to compile pictures and key information from these into the project's Instagram page. At first I asked some artists that I know to join the project, and after the start several artists have contacted me and wanted to participate in the project.
My own ideas of extermination have come by accident after an intense beginning. Or thematically. For example, I thought it would be fun to cook a book, and therefore I started to think about different cooking-related destruction methods like baking, grilling, braising.
Since there are still some two hundred books left to destroy, I think that I may need at some point to reduce the ambition in terms of ideas and begin to recycle the ideas that I use. I’d be happy to return – perhaps because I am also a trained carpenter – to some tools that I already used: a saw, a drill, an ax, chisels ... And at the same time of course, still I'm looking for new artists who would be interested in participating in the project.
- Could you say something about your plays and directing them?
I’ve written both traditional chamber dramas and highly experimental one-letter plays. Years ago, when I began writing plays, I had two central, aesthetic and/or theoretical aspirations in mind. The first was that play and drama should be separated. That play should not mean just one possible (stage) narrative, that is, drama, just as „painting” does not just mean „landscape painting”. My second effort was to apply the so-called total book idea to the play (unfortunately I can't find the article where I found that term). This means that the play could consist of a wide variety of materials, not only dialogues, monologues and stage directions, but also journal entries, lyrics and receipts.
When directing my own play, I am by no means „loyal” to the text. I’m referring to the dilemma, which is sometimes encountered in the theater, that the staging of the play doesn’t please or represent the authors vision. So, when I direct my own play, there is no concern that the author will be hurt by my interpretations! As a director, I do not think so much about what the play is about, rather I focus on what the performance is about. That is, what kind of performance I want to make, and how could I use my play in that particular performance.
Also, as a director, I have to meet the challenges I have written. For example, in my miniature play „Ö”, which consists of just one letter „Ö” written in the lower right corner of the strip... I mean, how a single letter “Ö” should be read and interpreted to produce a theatrical performance. It is about association and imagination, and of course, knowing and using the means and possibilities of theater – without forgetting tradition – as much as possible.
- What was your best artistic idea?
In the context of destroying my books? Oh, I’m sorry, I really can’t decide! Was it that I burned a book in a black forest? Was it that I tried to make coffee? Or was it that I made a line of ghosts for a Halloween party?
- What is your first association with the term „neopoemics”?
To be honest, I didn’t know the term until you mentioned it! I’m bit of a tourist in the field of experimental (visual) poetry, so I’m not so aware of different flavors, terms and genres.
- I would like to develop neopoemics, understood as combining elements of visual poetry with elements of experimental comics. And I'm using my experience of creating many poemics – so I'm looking at my older works from a perspective. Neopoemics often include publishing with changes (for example each copy of an album is different, publishing different, independent works, and then putting them together as a book, or the other way round – publishing something as a brochure or book, later presenting some changed fragments of it – perhaps it reminds of asetelmia_makulointi). What should I do to make neopoemics really interesting?
Oh, I’m afraid I can’t say anything very specific. But in general I believe it’s always question about context and concept. What is the context of the work, and how does the context work with the work, what is the play between the work and its context. And, as for concept, the question is, I believe, how clear and/or innovative the concept is. Some might say that I use here term „concept” as a synonym for „idea”, and to some extent I do, but still I prefer the term „concept” when we are talking about interdisciplinary works.
- I often find something innovative in Finnish poetry (visual poetry and more). How does the situation of such poetry look in Finland? Are there a lot going on, for example at festivals, workshops?
Clearly, there has been a huge change in Finland in the 21st century regarding the field of poetry. On the one hand, traditional, large publishing houses publish little poetry (because it is not economically viable), and on the other hand, small publishers and self-publishing publishers – not to mention online forums or IG poetry – are living in their heyday. It seems that the experimental field of poetry is doing well in Finland: everything – from photographic collages to minimalist sound poetry – is now being published – in various forums – in the name of poetry.
First of all, of course, I'm not angry that you've used the Kalevala – on the contrary, it's a tribute! In fact, a major project is currently under way in Finland, based on the Kalevala. In it, many esteemed musicians grab the Kalevala and, based on and inspired by it, reinterpret it in in a way reflecting our times. I find this project interesting because it looks at a difficult and somewhat dusty, high-culture associated with Kalevala from the perspective of popular culture. The project kind of re-popularizes the Kalevala, making it a folk culture again.
https://www.instagram.com/asetelmia_makulointi
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