VIBES
Vibes is a total, multiannual piece consisting of one-off performances, situations, texts and installations. It celebrates carpe diem and commitment. Vibes (2012–) is created by Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta and their friends.
Selected past events:
6-22/2/2015 SIC, Helsinki
9&13/11/2014 Baltic Circle Theatre Festival, Helsinki
19/9/2014 Kutomo art space, Turku
28/8/2014 Theatre Academy Helsinki
7–17/8/2014 Titanik gallery, Turku
22/5–1/6/2014 Sorbus gallery, Helsinki
6/4/2014 Kiasma contemporary art museum, Helsinki
10/4/2014 Guggenheim Club / Kaiku, Helsinki
12/4/2014 Kiasma contemporary art museum, Helsinki
30/12/2013 Private home, Shared online document, Helsinki
5&6/12/2013 Pop Up Art House, Helsinki
19/10/2013 Tavastia Club, Helsinki
13&17/11/2013 Baltic Circle Theatre Festival, Helsinki
10/5/2012 Saari residence, Hietamäki
Contact: info at vibes dot fi
Jaakko Pallasvuo's video interview with us (2014):
Vibes 6–22/2/2015
Laura Birn, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Tuomas Skopa, Heidi Soidinsalo, Aarne Tapola and Martti Tervo
SIC, Helsinki
Multimedia installation
Vibes presented a solo exhibition at SIC by Laura Birn, Anni Puolakka, Tuomas Skopa, Heidi Soidinsalo, Ville Seppänen, Aarne Tapola and Martti Tervo.
The exhibition consisted of a site-specific installation - a world of its own, that the viewer could watch but also visit.
In this world the visitor found herself inside a cloud, amongst a group of creatures who had surrendered to the idea that life and art are about being lost, following one's instincts and sharing journeys and picnics, joys and sorrows.
The work had its starting point in a play written by Pablo Picasso in 1941, called Desire Caught by the Tail. The play took a new life in the characters seen at SIC: The Onion, Fat Anxiety, Thin Anxiety, The Curtains, Picasso, The Cousin and Silence (who had also picked up some Moomin genes on the way). Picasso's work also echoed in the actions and processes that ruled this fantasy: free association, intuition and "letting one world influence its unlikely neighbours"*. Like in Desire Caught by the Tail, the Vibes piece's vigor came with obscurity, and meanings were best discovered by leaping beyond language.
*) As put by Picasso's friend and biographer Sir Roland Penrose in the foreword of the English translation of the play.
The piece was produced with the help of Laura Jantunen, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Venla Korvenmaa, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Antti-Veikko Salo and Pauli Tapola.
Vibes 13/11/2014
Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen and Masi Tiitta
with Emil Holmström, Heidi Soidinsalo and Douglas Toth
Baltic Circle International Theater Festival, Helsinki
Performance, 60 min
Vibes 19/9/2014
Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen and Masi Tiitta
Kutomo, Turku
Performance, 30 min
Metsän hiljaisuuteen (To the Silence of the Forest) 8/2014
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen and Tuomas Skopa
Titanik gallery, Turku
Baltic Circle, Helsinki
Film, 30 min
Vibes Hoitola 22/5–1/6/2014
Anna-Mari Karvonen, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Anni Puolakka, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta and
Sanna Uuttu
Sorbus-galleria, Helsinki
10 days
Vibes Hoitola (in English, ’health center’) opens with an evening jog. During the following nine days it offers situations, materials and methods for ill-being and well-being. These include a guided sitting meditation session focusing on inner and outer vibes every morning at 4.15 a.m. as the sun rises and a daily morning jog. In addition, Vibes Hoitola features making of ’treasure maps’ – visual collages of one’s aspirations; writing healing where participants write together a play using a shared online text document; hand treatments and making of energy objects from Das clay as proposed by Jaakko Pallasvuo; an open working session e.g. for writing art grant applications; and noise treatment with the receivers being swaddled in sheets. The writing healing session results in a play ’Aurora’ which is presented to the public through a cold reading by Noora Dadu, Antti-Veikko Salo, Tuomas Vaahtoluoto, Juho Keränen, Sara Melleri, Tuomo Tuovinen and Anna Paavilainen (in the order of appearance in the photograph below). Besides meaning (the goddess of) the dawn and Northern/Sourthern Lights, Aurora is a hospital in Helsinki offering psychiatric emergency duty and facing abolition threat at the time of writing the play.
EDIT on Vibes and Vibes Hoitola
Vibes 12/4/2014
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Dakota, Dxxxa D, Johannes Ekholm, Masha, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Ruut Kuittinen, Samuli Niittymäki, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Pietari Peltola, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen and Heidi Soidinsalo
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Theatre
5 h
Vibes are dressed in Raasakka-Sirén-Laitinen menswear collection from 2012. They perform a staged play about coolness and death. The bubonic plague has ravaged Europe. Only the cool have survived. Vibes play the role of the last survivors. In the beginning of the play they wake up to discover that they have contracted the plague. Vibes have 5 hours to live. How to spend these last moments? Everyone gets to suggest an activity. First the group engages in Art Circuit Training, circulating from one sensory point to another. The group telepathically Skypes with Ville Seppänen, who proposes that the group sing karaoke for the very last time (Queen – The Show Must Go On). The group performs improvised comedy theater routines for their own amusement. The group practices cybergoth dancing. The group gives healing treatments to each other. Samuli is killed because he freaks out. The body is taken away. Anni, Ami and Ville make out. Vibes argue and love each other. Jokes are told to incite final laughs. Anni makes a protein-heavy, alcoholic smoothie. Pietari is mute and captures everything with a camera. In the end they dance the Bolero and die. Ville Ahonen has not contracted the plague and survives. He sings a cover of Maanantai, a song by Apulanta. A voice-over spoken by Dxxxa D is played at various intervals throughout the performance.
Helsingin Sanomat writes about the performance before it happens
Vibes 10/4/2014
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Heidi Soidinsalo
Guggenheim club / Kaiku
1 hour
Vibes create meditation sounds and play cybergoth dance music. They also read an excerpt from their Kiasma performance’s voice-over and sing Show Must Go On karaoke style.
Vibes 9/4/2014
Laura Birn, Anni Puolakka, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Johannes Ekholm, Jaakko Pallasvuo
Corona Bar
120 minutes
Performance voice over text
Vibes 6/4/2014 (Workshop)
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anni Puolakka, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Johannes Ekholm, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Heidi Soidinsalo, Ville Seppänen, Milja Aho, Akse Pettersson, Laura Jantunen, Saara Hannula, Pekko Koskinen, Saara Hannus, Henna Hyvärinen
Kiasma Contemporary Museum of Art Theatre
4 hours
The participants are selected based on applications they have sent in. The applicants are asked to introduce a cool survival skill. The selected participants introduce their survival skills at the workshop. The workshop has a fictional premise: everyone else in Helsinki has perished because of an outbreak of the bubonic plague. The survivors practice joke-telling, death preparations, embalming, etc.
Vibes 30/12/2013 (Assembly)
Noora Dadu, Johannes Ekholm, Laura Jantunen, Saara Hannula, Satu Herrala, Veli Lehtovaara, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Anni Puolakka, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Ville Ahonen, Masi Tiitta, Heidi Soidinsalo and anonymous participants on the internet
Anni Puolakka's flat / Online document
4 hours
Vibes announces an open call for a play writing session at Anni Puolakka’s apartment. Seven people come and bring their laptops. A link to an online document is shared on Vibes’ Facebook page and online participants can also contribute to the play. The participants are not allowed to talk to each other at the flat while the writing is ongoing. There is a 20 minute writing break every second hour. Club Mate, candy and paleo-vegan energy balls are served. Hardstyle techno and Nightcore mixes are played. The end result is a 61 page document: a play with the title Murha vai Pano (Murder or Shag).
Vibes 6/12/2013 (Independence Day Reception)
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Pekko Koskinen, Anna Mustonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta, Wurm
Pop Up Art House
6 hours
Saami music is played. The reception begins with Vibes shaking hands with all the guests. Sparkling wine bottles are popped open and a toast is raised. An independence day speech is made by stealing other people’s Facebook status updates. A group picture is taken. An audience member gives a speech on the Mumbai/Bombay debate in India. The Finnish national hymn is sung in Swedish while some guests form a human pyramid. Anna Mustonen gives people instructions on receiving dance, and people dance. Pekko Koskinen does a monologue as Kimmo Modig. Ami and Anni do a ritual where they paint bindis on people’s foreheads. Wurm plays, people dance.
Vibes 5/12/2013
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta
Pop up Art House
2 hours
A staged reading of The Problem of Being Alive, a play in Finnish by Vibes with a title in English. An entry fee is charged: a bottle of sparkling wine from each audience member. The play is about Vibes. Blue drinks are served to the audience.
The Problem of Being Alive
Vibes 17/11/2013
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta
Media Centre Lume
50 minutes
Vibes enter the space. They tell the audience that they are about to fill the space with smoke and that this is not dangerous. Ville Ahonen lies down in front of a smoke machine which is turned on. He makes love and gives head to the smoke. Five additional smoke machines turn on filling the space with smoke and dropping visibility to 80 centimeters. Some audience members scream. The smoke color varies from white to magenta, green, yellow and blue. A sound piece plays for the entire duration of the show. The performers drift around in the smoke. They wear wireless microphones. Laura Birn wears a headlamp and puts make-up on Masi Tiitta while narrating her actions in an ASMR fashion. Anni Puolakka takes her shirt off and Anna-Mari Karvonen and Ville Ahonen paint her with blue, yellow and black body paint. Anni reads out loud from a book called True Perception by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Laura and Masi face each other with eyes closed and jump up and down. A plant is carried and passed around. The performance ends with Vibes dancing Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. They aim to change their way of moving every time they realise they’ve found one. People create a circle around the dance. The smoke disappears slowly during the Bolero.
Vibes 13/11/2013
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta
Ääniwalli
90 minutes
Vibes enters the room. Vibes announces that there is no performance. The audience is asked to remain in the space for the duration of 90 minutes, as this is mentioned in the programme as the duration of the performance. Most of the audience stays. Audience members ask Vibes to demonstrate how the smoke machine works. This happens. Audience members suggest ‘doing things together’ so that ‘no time is wasted’. Discussion about the potential of the situation. Wasting time makes the audience frustrated. Attempts to execute some of the audience suggestions. Consensus is not found. Vibes are not able to control the situation. Vibes do not attempt to control the situation.
Eva Neklayeva writes about Vibes on Medium
Kimmo Modig writes about Baltic Circle and Vibes on Medium
Peterpeter writes about Vibes on tumblr
Reviews at Liikekieli about Vibes @ Ääniwalli
Vibes 29/10/2013
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta
Puoli-Q stage
60 minutes
Vibes gives a private performance to an invited audience of three. The performance is not documented.
Vibes 7/11/2013
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Pekko Koskinen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta
Kick off party at Pop Up Art House
2 hours
Vibes writes a press release. The audience follows and is allowed to participate. In the end the press release is printed with blue ink. The print is framed in a golden frame and hung on the wall. Anni Puolakka hands the framed print to Anna-Mari Karvonen. The print falls and the glass breaks. After a brief period of negotiation it is decided that the piece is ‘better like that’. The print is priced at 1200€, but is never put up for sale for unclear reasons. The piece later disappears.
Vibes 19/10/2013
Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Anni Puolakka, Ville Seppänen, Minä ja Ville Ahonen, WURM
Tavastia Club
90 minutes
Vibes pose as living gold sculptures and take up the role of backup dancers for Minä ja Ville Ahonen and WURM. Some audience members do not realize that the golden sculptures are in fact living.
Vibes 10/5/2012
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Kimmo Modig, Ville Seppänen, Heidi Soidinsalo, Masi Tiitta
Saari Residence
80 minutes
Seer Kimmo Modig reads Vibes their future. Playing cards are not found so cards are made. The reading is filmed.
Vibes 22/10 - 8/11/2012
Ville Ahonen, Laura Birn, Anna-Mari Karvonen, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Antti-Veikko Salo, Ville Seppänen
Youth Activity Centre Happi
9 days
Vibes contemplate adapting Checkov’s Three Sisters for the stage. Jaakko Pallasvuo records things that Vibes say in an unpublished .txt file. A week of conversation.
