Issue 22 | July 2024
ISSUE 22 | July 2024
Welcome to the July 2024 edition of The Miaaw Monthly which provides a few pointers to things you might like to explore, including (but not limited to) our podcasts.
These represent one way to have (hopefully) interesting conversations about some of the things we care about. Please spread the word as widely as you can, and encourage people to subscribe to The Miaaw Monthly.
If you have anything that you want to include in The Miaaw Monthly, or discuss in the podcasts, then please email us at monthly@miaaw.net and we will be happy to collaborate.
TODAY'S PODCAST
Last month Sophie Hope promised a summer surprise for today’s episode of Common Practice, and she delivered!
In an episode we call Letting Things Bee she talks to Ben Jones, founder of Dingy Butterflies about a recent citizen science and arts project called Bees of Bensham, and asks “what is the connection between bees and cultural democracy?”
THE JULY PODCASTS
Every Friday a podcast appears at approximately 12:12 Helsinki time (which you may like to think of as 10:12 UTC).
Sometimes we get so eager that they appear an hour or two early to allow for any lag across the internet. Mostly they arrive on time. With that in mind, here are the podcasts that will arrive in June.
Friday July 5: Meanwhile on an Abandoned Bookshelf | Episode 22
Last month Owen could not deliver the episode he wanted to because he has a nasty but of covid, accompanied by a cough that would not (will not) go away. This month he will have a second go at recording a look at A Guide for the Perplexed, the book that E. F. Schumaker wrote in 1977 and considered his most important work.
Should we read this instead of Small is Beautiful?, he will ask if his voice holds out.
Let’s find out if he does or not.
Friday July 12: Ways of Listening | Episode 9
This month, socially engaged artist Alex Parry explores workshop practices in depth and, in this episode, describes a collaborative project that intervenes in the structure of the seminar to disrupt the usual power dynamics.
Alex questions - how can we accomodate non-participation? Could there be richness in refusal? We discuss the tensions between planning a workshop and creating space to listen and respond to the room.
Simon reflects on the process of the project, and how listening was central throughout.
Friday July 19: A Culture of Possibility | Episode 42
In Culture of Possibility #42, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso turn their attention to some of the words commonly used in discussions of cultural democracy and community-based arts.
Humpty Dumpty may have said “When I use a word, it means exactly what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less,” but we think communication, effectiveness, and collaboration depend on exploring meanings for both differences and points of connection.
Friday July 26: Common Practice | Episode 37
Sophie Hope has another summer surprise for you. We know its one of three options but not even we know which one it will turn out to be.
LISTENING
All our podcasts are available from Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Overcast, RadioPublic, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Stitcher.
You can also listen to them at the miaaw.net website where you will find additional links, notes, and references accompanying each episode.
You will also find a full archive of all the previous podcasts there.
OFF SITE
This edition is light in off-site content for two reasons: summer holidays in the cultural world and covid in Owen’s world. We do however have an update on the Fiskars Village Biennale in Finland that we promised a couple of months ago.
Normal service will be resumed next month!
Fiskars Village Biennale - an update
One of the most interesting cultural events in Finland, Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale has opened in Raasepori. The programme features two impressive main exhibitions and a diverse array of parallel events spread across the Raasepori region.
The exhibition Fragile celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Artists’ Cooperative Onoma, highlighting local creative talents who have formed a strong and resilient community over the years.
The exhibition Surprise Guest by Luovi Productions tests the boundaries of art and design. The historic Granary transforms into a summer villa-like space, where the dialogue resulting from encounters blurs the lines between decoration and functionality.
Collaborations between contemporary artists and design brands take over the villa’s top floor in the Surprise Guest exhibition, curated by Sini Rinne-Kanto. The exhibition’s themes and architecture draw from the era when city-dwellers and their families would pack up their belongings and move to the countryside for the summer.
Surprise guests were a frequent sight over the summer months, whether invited visitors or unannounced arrivals. The Surprise Guest exhibition explores home and domesticity through the lenses of art and design, as well as indicators of identity, social relationships, hospitality, and welcoming strangers. Design brands and contemporary artists, paired in rooms designed by exhibition architect Lauri Johansson, engage in their own dialogue. While the surprise guests have established practices abroad – most of whom have never exhibited in Finland before – the invited design brands are local, representing the aesthetics, forms, and materials of Nordic design. On the veranda, we are welcomed by Lapuan Kankurit and Parolan Rottinki, accompanied by artist Laura Gozlan.
In the lobby, we meet Vaarnii with Yeṣim Akdeniz. The kitchen is naturally hosted by Fiskars, with Marc Camille Chaimowicz’s works taking pride of place.
The library is by Studio Kukkapuro and Michel Auder, and the living room is the work of Nikari, Secto Design, and Woodnotes with Leonor Antunes. Everyone is invited to the dinner table with Artek and Laëtitia Badaut Haussman.
The bedroom is designed by Johanna Gullichsen and Villa ja Peite, with Keren Cytter and Kim Farkas as the surprise guests. The bathroom by Durat and BLESS is a striking explosion of colours. Learn more about the main exhibitions here and book your tickets here.
With the code “surprise guest” all Weekly readers get a -20% discount for normal priced tickets. Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale is open daily from 11am to 6pm until 1 September.
If you subscribe to The Miaaw Monthly you will get a short, sharp newsletter in your email in-box at breakfast time on the last Friday of every month. You can then find out what’s in the podcasts for the following month, as well as some things available in the wider world.
We won’t sell you email address, or use it for anything else except mailing you a copy of The Miaaw Monthly every four or five weeks.
Subscribe by going to buttondown.email/miaaw.net - and please tell your friends about it too!