Breakfast across borders
10.05.2012 - Johanna MacDonald
Tomorrow morning, for those of you ready to bounce out of bed for your oatmeal, there’s an interesting programme item over at Jätkäsaari called Share Your Dreams. Essentially, it’s about being able to work and collaborate within the Nordics as well as internationally.
Having been in the art scene – albeit the less-funded, more underground, and therefore much more street-cred version – for years, I can attest that if you live in a city of a million people, in a country of five million, you’re going to want to get your work out of the country you live in. In most cases, it’s simply too exhausting and expensive to come up with something brand new every three months, and eventually it can affect the quality of your work. You will eventually learn how to make use of collaborative opportunities and networks.
Öö will kick off the talks around 10:00. They’re new to me, but they’re kind of interesting because they’re really going for something they call “authentic luxury.” On Saturday their big number is called “The Forbidden Bar”, held at ultra-posh grocery shop Eat & Joy in Lasipalatsi. Those tickets run 65 EUR a plate, and are geared towards foodies who want to make a difference. Proceeds go to a collaborative Nordic-India project for helping marginalised kids in Mumbai stay in school, called Project Crayons.
Fashion label R/H, who will also be showing this month at Näytös 2012, are part of the Öö showroom on the 3rd floor of Kluuvi.
On Öö’s own site, their vision starts with “ÖÖ means night in Estonian. The time when dreams become reality. Long and dark nights in the Nordic region nurture creativity and the development of innovative solutions. Design-led innovation is the key to competitiveness.”
Personally, I’ve never been one to associate creativity with competitiveness, because I’m one of those old-fashioned muse-loving types that thinks my creativity loses out in that battle. But I know just as many artists who do have a head for business, and it appears that the Oö crew have something going on. I might head in just to see if they can convert me.
Johanna MacDonald
Our living.aalto.fi editor Johanna takes on Aalto Talk for the month of May, bringing you the Daily MoA blog - a steady flow of observations and information on what's been happening in Jätkäsaari and around town. With interests ranging from performance art to game culture to bike hacking to politics, expect her blog to be an infinitely curious take on all things MoA.
Johanna wears an awful lot of hats: performance artist, stand-up comic, writer, actor, designer, cycling nut, sport lover, cultural hacktivist--a surprising number of them professionally. She believes imagination makes the world go round.
