The Chekhov Machine is a collective that comprises of artists from various disciplines who have committed themselves to the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. The collective creates new events and performances depending on the available space, time and possibilities. Each performance is a poetic improvisation on space and time – a site-specific live installation that deals with themes such as anxiety, ambivalence, sadness, longing, imprisonment and the feelings of being an outsider.

I have been a member of the group since January 2015. I plan visuality for our performances, and I also perform as a live set designer during our shows. Next performances are at Mad House Helsinki, October 1st, 2nd and 3rd 2015 at 7pm. Welcome! More info: https://www.facebook.com/chekhovmachine

I spent beautiful summer days last week in Harviala Mansion, an hour drive north from Helsinki. There was an international artist symposium Spirited Mansion. We worked for six days making installations, land art, photographs, paintings etc. in the mansion´s gallery and other buildings. Artists: Aya Imamura, Salla Laurinolli, Andris Makarockovskis, Pia Männikkö, Patricia Pisani, Agita Steinberga, Katri Stenberg and Anssi Taulu. The exhibition in open during happenings and by appointment till the end of September.

Pia Männikkö: Searchers, 2015. Found objects, motors, lights and sound.

OpenART, Scandinavia’s biggest public art biennial, opens again in two days! I was in Örebro in 2013 when that beautiful small town was filled with art the previous time, I had four works in the biennial. Here below are images of my 2013 works. You can find them also in OpenArt 2013 archive: Déjà Vu, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tempo and Tenses (texts in Swedish). I definitely recommend a visit to OpenART if your adventures take you to Sweden this summer.

Tempo, 2013, ink drawings on paper and tulle fabric, 3 m x 3 m x 3 m,  Stortorget square

Tenses, 2013, (detail) pigment print, 228 cm x 135 cm, Vågen KonstRUM.

Midsummer Night´s Dream, 2013, rescue blankets and fans, 12 m x 12 m, Örebro County Museum.

Déjà Vu, 2013, tulle fabric and ink, Örebro County Museum

My first show of the year is opening next week in Gallery Oksasenkatu11 in Helsinki! Tracing performance -exhibition will have artworks in which an act of performance has been a vital part of the working process, and works that have been inspired by a performance, resulting in a new piece of art.
Tracing performance artists: Liisa Ahlfors / Outimaija Hakala / Meri Hietala & Antti Ahonen / Katri Kainulainen & Antti Ahonen / Karolina Kucia / Maximilian Latva / Pia Männikkö / Tuomo Rainio.
Open 18.2.-1.3.2015. Tue-Fri at 3-7pm, sat-sun at 1-5pm. Welcome!

Stratum, unfired clay and wood. (Image from previous version, new sculpture will be made at Oksasenkatu11 gallery.)

Published by Highlike.org in the end of 2014, this hard cover book is a compilation of many contemporary artists working in unique ways and with atypical materials. I am pleased to have my work Déjà Vu included in this book.

“FILE – Electronic Language International Festival and SESI publishing house launch the “highlike book”. This is a yearbook on global contemporary ART and CULTURE. Its first edition has 584 pages with 577 artists from 35 countries. The “highlike book” encompasses several aspects of contemporary culture, providing the user a new form of appreciation of an art book. This is a book connected to the cloud. All information, images, videos and texts, is connected to their on-line counterparts in several languages, in a hybrid book which maintains its physical aspects and the virtual simultaneity of multimedia information. Its main purpose is to provide users with a new way of access culture in a global diversified view on the contemporary creativity in its transversal and heuristic aspect, by means of technologies currently available.”

Mänttä Art Festival is the largest annual contemporary art exhibition in Finland. It was first arranged in 1993.  The main venue is Pekilo, a former industrial building, with all of its four floors renovated into an art space.  This year the curator was Minna Joenniemi, who invited 60 artists to the exhibition.

I had two works in Pekilo, a 4,5 meters long photograph Tenses, and a new version of masking tape sculpture Some people knit, pictured below.

This summer I was a guest artist with a German artist group Endmoräne. We built an exhibition Darned Stich Up in an old Veritas sewing machine factory in Wittenberge. Here are some images of my works in the exhibition:

Today I was installing my work in the attic of beautiful Villa Roosa in Orimattila. The exhibition title is Melancholy – apparently the planning for the exhibition had started in the darkest time of the year:).

I have my works in four summer exhibitions, maybe we´ll meet there:

Valon aika, Jämsä, Finland

8.6 – 6.7. 2014, Pikku Galleria, Mottilantie 2 (satama), 42100 Jämsä

Mänttä Art Festival, Mänttä, Finland

15.6.-31.8.2014 http://www.mantankuvataideviikot.fi/

Melancholy, Orimattila, Finland

28.6. – 10.8. http://www.villaroosa.fi

DARNED STITCH UP – THE CASE WITTENBERGE. AN APPROACH,  Wittenberge, Germany

28.06. – 13.07.2014 http://www.endmoraene.de/de/aktuelles.html

Pop Up Art House is a feministic art festival at Diana Stage in Helsinki. We move in and out two times a year and create an open living room that will be torn down afterwards.  Pop Up Art House includes an art exhibition, theater and music performances, workshops and other events. Each period has a specific theme, in April–May 2014 it is COMMUNICATION. The concept will be realized during 2013-2015, by Blaue Frau, Ágnes Kaszás and the Artistic Team, which I am a member of.

Lanterns made of clothes and bamboo skewers, and Big Bling, a large kinetic wall made of rescue blankets, are my contributions to the exhibition. Welcome to the exhibition and other events during the next four weeks, until 17th May!