Noora LEHTOVUORI

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Noora LEHTOVUORI

Participating Project	Exchange Residency Program (Creators from abroad)
Activity Based	Finland
City	Tokyo
Period	2019.9- 2019.11

Purpose of the residency

I consider that physical experience is fundamental for my artistic process. I have been driven by American philosopher John Dewey’s concept of experience. For a long time I have been fascinated by the Japanese culture and the idea of space which differs from the Western way of understanding it. Japanese design is famous for using layers by creating in-between spaces in their fashion and contemporary architecture but also in textural art. In Japanese cultural tradition, a space is conceived as a subjective perception, a physical experience and a changeable process which I’m deeply interested in.

Plan during the residency

・My goal is to collaborate with local dancers/ performance artists and to observe surroundings by photographing/recoding and writing about it, but I see that my work and ideas are multi-layered, and they evolve gradually with surroundings and with the people who I will collaborate with by also finding new methods to cultivate the idea.
・I’m interested in using my own body to observe the new experience and surroundings
・I’m curious to travel around the country by train
・I’m interesting in meeting local artists and curators and expand my network
・the aspect of touch is fundamental in Japanese crafts which I like to study and develop my own skills within this aspect 

Activities during the residency

Noora Lehtovuori is a multi-layered artist and during her stay in Tokyo she wanted to get deeper understanding of the Japanese culture and especially ‘Wabi-sabi’-aesthetic. In Japanese cultural tradition, a space is conceived as a subjective perception, a physical experience and a changeable process which she was deeply interested in her research. Lehtovuori also values experience as an essential tool in her own artistic practice. During her residency period she was travelling by train in Okayama, Aichi, Aomori prefectural areas. In her artistic process, she is interested in words and the concepts that they hold inside. She likes to question the usual understanding of words and find deeper meanings behind the concepts. During her stay at the residency she was exploring the concept of boredom in the contemporary society and was interested in the Japanese word ‘hima’ which deals time aspect in concept of boredom.

Overview of the residency

My achievements in the residency period were that I managed to experience so much during my three-months-stay. I was introduced in different Japanese craftmanship techniques since I was interested in the tactile aspects and the Japanese culture. I visited different art festivals (Setouchi Triennale 2019, Aichi Triennale 2019, Okayama Art Summit, Teratotera Festival 2019) and art residencies (ACAC and Tokyo AIT residency) which will also help for my future studies in the curatorial field. I visited in local workshops to gain knowledge and experience for the different techniques from for instance shibori-tecnique. I took part for local tours which gave me a good view for local areas and its possibilities. I took part for local butoh-dance workshop and managed to see different contemporary dance and butoh-perfomances in Tokyo. I expand my network by meeting researchers, artists, curators and local people who work in for instance in art festivals. I have to say that it feels that there is nothing at the moment that I would have done differently during my stay since everything developed so organically.

Creator Information