Participatory Art

Keskustelupuisto / Conversation Park – A Public Space Game

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Thirty residents between the ages of 6 and 89 took part in a two-year Public Space Game. Their mission was to transform thirty individual visions into a single urban park in the centre of Rauma, Finland. The game-like process, designed and moderated by Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen and me during 2019-2020, unfolded over six phases, structured as six game moves.

The project was part of the Lönnström Project, a contemporary art programme initiated by Lönnström Art Museum.

Book
We wrote Keskustelupuisto / Conversation Park – A Public Space Game,
which shares the process, insights and lessons from the project.

Mobile app
The park is presented by the participants through a mobile app published alongside the park’s opening. The app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play by searching for Keskustelupuisto.

Project website
keskustelupuisto.fi

9 CARTUCHOS – PAPERBAG STORIES FROM CUBA

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In Cuba, paper bags represent both the past and the future. “Cartuchos” were once an essential part of everyday life, but were replaced by plastic bags after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen and I commissioned nine local writers and thinkers to write speeches about Cuba, using a paper bag as a point of departure. An edition of nine paper bags, each featuring excerpts from one of the speeches, was printed in 100,000 copies.

The bags were distributed during the biennial to vegetable markets and small grocery stores across Havana, where they were given out to customers. In this way, the work gradually entered households throughout the city.

The paper bag becomes a lens through which histories, politics, economics and global conflicts can be read.

The project was part of Havana Biennial 2019. Writers of the speeches printed on the paperbags were Juan Triana, Maikel José Rodríguez, Isdanny Morales, Mario Castillo, Roly Ávalos & Alex Díaz, Modesto Díaz , Orlando Hernández, Israel Castellanos and Hilda María Rodríguez. We worked with a local curator Lisset Yllanez.

 

TEMPORARY PAVILION FOR PERMANENT NEGOTIATIONS

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A storyteller Chantal van Doesburgh told conflict stories on a sand box. The stories were contributed by locals.

In an arena made of sand she made the problems visible and palpable with the help of props.

 The project was part of Cure Park, organised by TAAK, an intervention in the tranquile setting of one of the largest public parks in the Netherlands.
A project by Kalleinen & Kochta-Kalleinen

TRACKING DAR ES SALAAM

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An interactive video installation

The work shows parallel realities of Dar es Salaam through one weekday of 11 local inhabitants. The spectator have to make choices which of the video clips to watch, recorded in different parts of the city during that day, and which of the people to follow and listen. The soundtrack consists of recorded interviews with the participants as well as music, which is individually composed for each of the 11 inhabitants.

This work by myself and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen was curated by ZK/U, funded by Habitat Unit / Technische Universität Berlin, AVEK and Taike, Finland and hosted by Nafasi Art Space in Dar es Salaam. The music for the work was composed by Nick Martin and Tellervo Kalleinen.