Startup Wrapup: Jarkko Partanen
Read | 18 October 2024Aerowaves continued its annual Startup Forum at Spring Forward 2023 in Dublin, inviting nine emerging dance presenters to be guided through the festival by five Aerowaves Partners, and to propose a curatorial project. Three of them were awarded €10,000 each to follow through with the project: Soňa Jakubove (SK), Sheree Lenting (NL) and Jarkko Partanen (FI).
We have been publishing snapshots from their production journeys to track their progress, problems and practical solutions. Here, Jarkko Partanen reflects on the final stage of his project.
Interview by Inês Carvalho
“It was beautiful to see Atlas da Boca finally in Helsinki”. Jarkko Partanen’s words remind me that this is our third and last conversation about his Startup Forum project, which took Gaya de Medeiros’ intimate duet with Ary Zara to Finland for the first time.
Presented at KIASMA Theatre over two evenings in September (11-12), the opening performance was followed by a Q&A, hosted by Jarkko himself, giving audiences the opportunity to unveil the autobiographical layers of this work. “It speaks to people in different ways, which explains the warm reaction from the audience. In the post-show talk, both Gaya and Ary were very generous about sharing their creative journey, usually starting in a humorous tone, but then going deeper and deeper into personal and touching aspects,” says Partanen. “They were very open with the audience, who had loads of questions… I think that was a good sign!”
Alongside the performances, Partanen curated a series of opportunities for audiences and local artists to engage with Medeiros’ work, including a residency sharing and an artist encounter. Also taking place at KIASMA Theatre, the duo worked on stage during a full-week residency for a new work, with early access to resources including equipment and technical assistance. “I understood from Gaya that elements such as light or set design usually come later in the process for them,” says Partanen, “but hopefully this was a relevant experience to raise questions of how the design could be part of the dramaturgy of the work and what kind of infrastructures they need for the new work.”
Gaya and Ary’s residency culminated in a public sharing on 21 September, where the artists also gathered initial comments from the audience. “It looked much more like a performance than I thought it would at such an early stage of the process. They had a busy week!” laughs Partanen. “Even though we always say there’s no pressure about sharing, it’s always present when you have an audience coming in. So I think sharing is always a brave act”.
Aware that most artists don’t work in their ideal conditions, this residency was eye-opening for Partanen, who has been thinking about offering similar opportunities to international artists: “It feels meaningful to create more spaces for artists to experiment” he says. “I could also be dialogue, or even just time, which can be a luxury”. In collaboration with his artistic collective, WAUHAUS, he applied to other city grants to develop a long-term residence scheme. Although application was unsuccessful at this stage, he is inspired by the experience at Startup Forum to keep working towards an international residency programme.
In addition, Partanen is equally interested in creating more meaningful encounters between visiting artists and local creative communities: “I feel a lack of a culture of coming together, both in the local scene but also internationally”. In fact, this aspect of his Startup Forum project turned out to be a real challenge: “It was a failure. It was an element of the programme that I didn’t prioritize in the same way, as my budget was spent mostly on the performance and residency”. Such strategic choices ended up compromising the artistic encounter. The initial idea was to have an informal get-together, without setting goals and outcomes for the evening – but the lack of a clear structure, and no RSVP required, ended up affecting attendance. Looking to the future, Partanen still believes that these moments are crucial, but perhaps better mixed within a programme of events, such as a post-performance or post-sharing reception, and with more clarity on what artists can expect from this kind of event.
Was that the main challenge of delivering the Startup Forum project? For Partanen, it was definitely the role of marketing and audience reach. “I didn’t work very closely with the KIASMA Theatre team, and I don’t think I was able to maximise opportunities to market the programme. Although I also promoted the performances and residency through WAUHAUS’ channels, it wasn’t the best platform for this project, which was quite new for me. I wasn’t involved in the marketing side apart from the initial requests of copy and multimedia, so I think some ideas and strategies to reach and contextualise the work for local audiences were missed for this work”.
Nevertheless, the learning curve that this project offered will impact Partanenn’s next professional ventures – what kind of formats he would like to work with, how to continue the relationship with venues such as KIASMA Theatre, and to work on curatorial proposals in collaboration with larger institutions. And – last but not least – he can’t wait to see the premiere of Gaya’s new work in Portugal, in summer 2025.