Forged Eden
The most essential thing for me in art is direct contact with people and involving the audience in my actions. Meeting people is more important to me than the great need to be understood. This is quite an original approach in the world of performance art, which is, as it were, by definition, the art of the individual. Perhaps that is why I am often invited to represent Finland internationally. Over the past decade I have performed 150 unique actions around the world. I have completely dedicated myself to this practice.

Unfortunately, I have the impression that, apart from a small group of fellow performers, Finland is not particularly proud of me and it was all a pointless sacrifice of a meaningless man. That’s why as a ‘milestone’ of my 30 years living and working in Finland, I would like to prepare a demanding performance ‘Forged Eden’. I intend to make a ten-day journey on foot, pulling my portable, mobile forest behind me, i.e. a cart full of exotic potted plants. I plan to explore bike paths and forest trails from Helsinki to Vaasa. Walking through cities, perhaps I will try to establish contact with passers-by and convince them to accompany me for some time on this journey with their favourite plants, but I don’t care if I won’t succeed. I’m stepping ‘offside’, away from the people, the urban hustle and the art institutions to walk 420 km, in the company of plants that, like me, don’t fit into the landscape.