Sunday, January 18, 2009

Invitation to an Exhibition in China

Exhibition invitations like this one have become increasingly common in the days of the Internet. In my youth, it was difficult to go to international exhibitions, and to get there it happened through the mediation of a State Art Committee. I participated in the Florence Biennale a year ago (2008). The invitation to that exhibition, just like to Beijing now, was inspired by my works in the online exhibition. To me, Florence meant above all an encounter with Renaissance art, the San Marco Museum and the Uffizi collections.

Identifiers: letter, exhibition

Friday, January 16, 2009

The Dove and the Poppy

This is a page of Timo K. Mukka's novel "Kyyhky ja  unikko' [The Dove and the Poppy] and its dedication to me in 1970. The book had just been published. He was anxious and desperate, like authors usually are when something new by them is published. "This is not good", he said, turning the book round in his hands. We had met at Pohjanhovi. He invited me to his home. It was late at night. "Let's cook some coffee and have a chat", he said. "What if I read the book aloud, we do have all the night". We were sitting in the kitchen. That night I read The Dove and the Poppy to Timo. "Now listen to me, I don't think this is bad, quite on the contrary", I said. "You read it so well", Timo maintained.

Without having slept at all we met a group of people in the morning with whom we went on to meet Reidar Särestöniemi at Kittilä.

Identifiers: The Dove and the Poppy