04 Oct 2012

AVEK Award granted to Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen

15 000 EURO AVEK AWARD GRANTED TO TELLERVO KALLEINEN AND OLIVER KOCHTA-KALLEINEN

The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture, AVEK, has honoured the artist couple Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen with the AVEK Award. The award for media arts, worth 15 000€, was given 6.9.2012 at the season opening of AVEK. The AVEK Award was presented for the ninth time.

The productions of Tellervo Kalleinen (born in 1975 in Lohja) and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen's (born in 1971 in Dresden) combine media and social art with performance art, into pieces that move between everyday life, utopia and fantasy. One of the most central themes of their production work is the treatment and unwinding of the tension between an individual and their community. Their production method is one of participation: Their art pieces are created in cooperation with various diverse communities and collectives.

'Situations that are a little bit absurd and are separate from the conventions of life release energy and ideas. Our work is to create these situations and to meet the people who face them,' the award winners say. 'Participating art may create win-win-situations between the artist and the participant without the need for an artistic compromise. The motivations of both the artists and the participants meet in a unique situation that offers something surprising to everyone.'

The most renowned art piece by the Kalleinen couple is the Complaints Choir. In this work, a group of citizens put together subjects that they wish to complain about. These complaints are composed into a choir piece which is then performed in the city. The first Complaints Choir song from 2005, I want my money back, spread via YouTube, and the creators published the concept to be freely implemented by everyone who was interested.

This participating production method is also visible in the movie production work of Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. One of their more recent works, I love my job (2012), is a satire on working life, filled with dark humour. The participants of the project were requested to direct short films about their actual work experience nightmares and to write an imaginary ending for the story. In October 2012, the production Archipelago Science Fiction will have its premiere. It is written in cooperation with people from Turku Archipelago and its theme is the future of the archipelago 100 years from now.

The AVEK Award jury emphasised that the creators' extraordinary skill to build trust with their participants is visible in the works by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. They are able to create a frame within which the participators can let go, unburden and share their most painful personal experiences. 'The entire production by this couple could be called a 'social media' in the true sense of the word – their works are about creating empowering, collective experiences, as well as the related ethical responsibility,' the jury said in its statement.

Members of the AVEK Award Jury: chairperson Managing Director Minna Tarkka (m-cult ry), members Managing Director Hanna Maria Anttila (Av-arkki ry), Managing Director Timo Soppela (Muu ry) and AVEK's Media Art Production Consultant Heidi Tikka. The AVEK Board of Directors chose the award winner based on the jury's statement.

PREVIOUS AVEK AWARD RECIPIENTS 2004-2011
Media artist Heidi Tikka (8 September 2004)
Media artist Hanna Haaslahti (6 September 2005)
Media artist Pekka Sassi (7 September 2006)
Artist Adel Abidin (6 September 2007)
Artist Pia Lindman (11 September 2008)
Artist-curator Juha Huuskonen (10 September 2009)
Visual artist Jani Ruscica (9 September 2010)
Visual artists Lea and Pekka Kantonen (8 September 2011)

AVEK media art award 2012 / Jury's statement

The AVEK award 2012 will be granted to the artist couple Tellervo Kalleinen (born in 1975 in Lohja) and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (born in 1971 in Dresden).

Their productions combine media and social art with performance art, into pieces that move between everyday life, utopia and fantasy. One of the most central themes of their production work is the treatment and unwinding of the tension between an individual and their community. The production method of the couple is one of participation: Their art pieces are created in cooperation with various diverse communities and collectives. Quite often, the production process channels the negative experiences of the participants into positive energy through the use of improvisation and play.

The most renowned art piece by the Kalleinen couple is the Complaints Choir project, which, after first touring Birmingham (2005), Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, has been organised in almost one hundred cities, on every continent. In a Complaint Choir, a group of citizens compile together injustices, which are then composed into a choir piece that will be performed forcefully in the middle of the city. The popularity of Complaints Choir came as a surprise to its creators: The choir piece performed in Birmingham, 'I want my money back, which was shared on YouTube, and the demand for organising such choir pieces grew rapidly. As befits community art, the creators published the concept to be freely used by all those interested, and now, DIY complaints choirs are being organised all over the world.

The 'Personal is political' motto seems to be a good description for the projects by the Kalleinen couple, but, at the same time, they are moving towards the opposite direction by looking for personal interpretations for traditionally political forms. For example, in the Puhekaraoke (Speech karaoke) project (2011) by The Speech Karaoke Action Group, political speeches are visualised on a video and recited by the participants. This extreme individualism of political actions is also represented by micronations. The Summit of Micronations at the Amorph! festival in 2003 was, in fact, where the cooperation between Kalleinen and Kochta first started, as they curated the summit together. The YKON artist collective, specialised in utopic thinking, was also launched in connection with the summit. Kalleinen and Kochta are founding members of the collective. In addition to the micronation theme, YKON's work includes participating future games, in which the artists imagine alternative realities.

In their movie production, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kallinen combine the methods of fiction and documentation with a participating method of production. I love my job (2012) is a satire on working life, filled with dark humour. The participants of the project were requested to direct short films about their actual work experience nightmares – and to write an imaginary ending for the story. People in White (2011), produced in Netherlands, compiles the experiences of patients in a psychiatric hospital into a document. The patients themselves act both as the patients and their caretakers, which paints a shocking image of the micro level power relations in a welfare society.

These productions depict the extraordinary skill of their creators to build trust with their participants and create a frame in which a participator can let go, unburden and share their most painful personal experiences. The entire production by this couple could be called a 'social media', in the true sense of the word – they are about creating empowering, collective experiences, as well as the related ethical responsibility.

The pair is currently in the middle of a very active phase and their art pieces are touring the world. In Finland, Puhekaraoke (Speech Karaoke) and News Transformation Agency by the YKON collective were recently seen during the Helsinki Festival. In October 2012, the production Archipelago Science Fiction will have its premiere. It has been written in cooperation with people from Turku Archipelago and its theme is the future of the archipelago 100 years from now.

Minna Tarkka, Chairman of the jury


For further information, please contact:
Juha Samola, General Secretary of AVEK, +358 9 4315 2351, www.kopiosto.fi/avek
Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, +358 45 275 6463
www.ykon.org/kochta-kalleinen/
Complaints Choir www.complaintschoir.org/
I love my Job: www.workhorror.org/
YKON-artist collective www.ykon.org
www.speechkaraoke.org

The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK), which operates in connection with the Finnish copyright organisation Kopiosto, uses its share of copyright remuneration to promote audiovisual culture. The majority of the funds originate from private copying levies, e.g. from blank video cassettes and blank DVDs. AVEK funds the cultural exportation and development of different kinds of film genres, the advanced training and further education of the employees and organisations in the audiovisual industry, in addition to festivals and events. AVEK also supports the production of short films and documentaries, animations, and media art. AVEK funds the development of cultural content production and cultural entrepreneurship through the Ministry of Education and Culture's DigiDemo and CreaDemo grant.