Eat whatever you want...

... and lose weight. -->

Sounds promising, doesn´t it?

This is the message of a book written by Teemu Ollikainen, a Finnish psychologist and psychotherapist, who approaches dieting from the mental starting points.

Food and feelings are intertwined, and many of us overeat to control stress or calm down.

In this clever book Teemu Ollikainen gives us expert advice how to negotiate with yourself and find the reasons for your impulses before acting.

Why and when are you tempted to eat more than you need? Can you distinguish hunger from ghost hunger? Are you really hungry or just thirsty? (Drink water to find out.)

The writer himself tested these psychological weight control advices a few years ago and lost 20 kilos. I met him shortly at the book fair in Helsinki and asked how many kilos he has gained since.

- None, he said. And smiled.

Teemu Ollikainen: Syö mitä mielesi tekee (WSOY).

www.wsoy.fi

PS. First translation rights of this book are sold to Estonia. 

Photo©Paula Hietaranta

Light to the darkness of our soul

 

The artist Jaume Plensa yesterday in EMMA. 

Eyes. Hands. A brain. And a heart.

And light to our world and to the darkness of our soul.

That is what Jaume Plensa´s art is made of.

His exhibition In the Midst of Dreams opened yesterday in Espoo Museum of Modern Art, EMMA, and is open until 27.1.2013.

www.emmamuseum.fi
Photos©Paula Hietaranta 
 

 

And the winner is....

... Jasmiine Julin-Aro!

Our internationally known clothing designer got today The Kaj Franck Design Prize 2012 for her suberb acchievements in the field of designing functional and good-looking outfits for motorcyclists, skiers, golfers and sailing enthusiasts.

Well done, Jassu!

The pieces of her long freelance career are now exhibited in Design Museum Finland showing the different aspects of her innovative and strongly functional spirit. 

Worth of mentioning are also her ideas of a sustainable design even before the idea was as well-known it is today. There is for example a down coat Alaska she designed 1985, sent back to the factory Joutsen Finland for minor repairs by it´s Swedish owner. (Who got a new coat for letting this one to be exhibited but wants to get this dear old one back!)

Interesting exhibition pieces are three motorcycling outitfs showing how they saved their owners in an accident. For example this black Rukka APR AirVision outfit was sent back by  it´s Canadian owner telling how he hit a large deer at about 95 kmph, and slid appr 60 meters after the collision. The motorcycle was gone, but the owner came through with some abrasions, general soreness and a minor concussion.

This new white motorcycling outfit, designed for Rukka/L-Fashion Group Oy this year, is not only good-looking with it´s elastic, breathable material and reflective prints but has effective D30 protectors activated upon impact.

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The exhibition is open until 2 December, check the details there:

www.designmuseum.fi/en/nayttely/kaj-franck-design-prize-2012/

Photos©Paula Hietaranta

Messages from outer space

Marika Mäkelä: Tibetan Bridal Saddle II, 2012. Oil on wood, 160 x 160 cm. 

Photos Jussi Tiainen.

Have you ever wondered how it would be to travel into another reality?

Well, now you have the possibility – just go to Galerie Anhava in Helsinki and immerse yourself in the new paintings by Marika Mäkelä.

They are space ships to a secret places, they touch the magnetic fields of your heart. They show you the wonder of reality becoming unreal.

They are waiting for you at Galerie Anhava in Helsinki until November 25th.

www.anhava.com

 

Marika Mäkelä: Three Times Warm, 2012, 197 x 197 cm.

Marika Mäkelä: Guardian of Happiness, 2012. Oil on wood, 197 x 197 cm.

A dive into the Parisian art world, part 4

At the moment people are queuing to Grand Palais to see a major Edward Hopper exhibition about an American illustrator who became an artist, but to me far more impressive artists are Mircea Cantor and Adel Abdessemed now showing in Centre Pompidou until January 7th 2013.

A picture from Mircea Cantor´s video Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, 2012.

Mircea Cantor, the winner of Prix Marcel Duchamp 2011, adds poetical tradition and beauty to everything he does. 

A detail of Adel Abdessemed´s Décor, 2011-12. 

Photo@Paula Hietaranta

I am innocent, says the title of Adel Abdessemed´s exhibition and means that we all are quilty. In the cruelty of our world he shows that we are the world and the history, our´s are the barbed wire of Quantanamo, the suffering Christ and the boats of illegal immigrants.

http://www.centrepompidou.fr/

A dive into the Parisian art world, part 3

Paris is a dream city to everybody interested in photography. Here are my favorite photo exhibitions at the moment:

Claude Nori, editeur et photographe with his pictures full of love and joy in Maison Européenne de la Photographie until November 4th.

http://www.mep-fr.org/

Isabelle, Biarritz, 1995, © Claude Nori

 

&

wonderful, wonderful Martine Franck, the wife of Henri Cartier-Bresson and a Magnum photographer, who died in August, in Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

http://www.henricartierbresson.org/

Shechen Monastery. Tulku Khentrul Lodro Rabsel 

(12 years old) with his tutor Lhagyel, 1

996 © Martine Franck / Magnum Photos

& 

legendary Manuel Álvarez Bravo, photographe aux aguets (1902-2002) in Jeu de Paume until January 20th 2013.

www.jeudepaume.org/

Manuel Álvarez Bravo: Obrero en huelga, asesinado 

(Ouvrier en grève, assassiné), 1934.

 

A dive into the Parisian art world, part 2: The Finns are here!

Is the essence of good art to make you see the world and your own heart differently?

If you agree, go to see the new exhibitions of two prominent Finnish artists.

Kim Simonsson: Cameleon, 2012. Ceramic, car paint and panel of wood.

It is a common knowledge that we Finns are crazy. And that many Finnish artists are super-talented-crazy with the weird, eye-opening sense of humour.

One of them is ceramic sculptor Kim Simonsson now showing his new works in Paris.

I am dumbstruck in front of his wonderful world, so let´s him speak for himself.

That´s how he describes his works on the web page of Nancy Margolis Gallery:

“I made my first sculpture out of snow in the backyard of my childhood home! I realized then that I can capture the sensitivity of movement through my hands. Ever since I have thought of myself as a sculptor who makes figures by hand. Finding the perfect movement has become the essence in my works.

I combine traditional ceramic art with popular cultural phenomenon in large ceramic sculptures. For me the unusual is interesting. Therefore I create my own strange world of characters that comment on everyday life and its weirdness.

The subject matters are usually children, animals or hybrids. One important detail in my sculptures is the eyes are made out of glass; they give the figures a life like appearance.

Authority in its many forms fascinate me and in my work I want to reverse the common beliefs by making the weak powerful. ”

Kim Simonsson in Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil, 29, rue Duret, 75116 Paris, until November 10th.

www.favardin-verneuil.com/en_cours_en.html

www.kimsimonsson.com

A different way of seeing things you can experience with artisan-artist Anu Tuominen, winner of prestigious Ars Fennica Prize 2003.

She works with the sense of quiet, playful humour arranging everyday objects to the contact with each other and giving new meanings to the words, sometimes with yarn, carving and crocheting. 

Anu Tuominen: Fleurs de Sel, 2010. Salt shakers and crocheted small coasters.

Anu´s exhibition Nectar de couleurs is open until the end of October in Johanna Gullichsen´s textile design shop, 74, Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006 Paris.

www.anutuominen.fi

www.johannagullichsen.com

A dive into the Parisian art world, part 1

Life is a Killer. A golden statement 
by poet-artist John Giorno in Palais de Tokyo.

Photos © Paula Hietaranta

Sorry! Your blogger from Helsinki has been silent for a while, because she has been living in Paris for three weeks.

So here come my impressions of the Parisian art scene. Challenging, yes. Interesting, definitely. But sometimes it is like an amusement park, a mixture of danger and cotton candy, which makes you feel happy and dizzy.

Palais de Tokyo presents a lot of works by interesting artists under the theme Saison 2 Imaginez l´imaginaire. It is about art in construction, and really - the whole museum seems to be a construction site.

Fabrice Hyber, Das Wunderkind of the French art world, shows there Raw Materials – well, all kind of things starting from his early student lipstick works to rotting vegetables and his famous green men. 

Le mur escalier (2012), the turning staircase by Huber, 

is happily tested by young and even older visitors.

http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/

Fashion is an important part of French culture and a firm statement in the daily life.

Musée d´Orsay shows L'impressionnisme et la mode, a huge collection of famous paintings, museum piece dresses and accessories. Go there to see the art of fashion and the fashion as an art.

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/accueil.html

Dress by Phoebe Philo, laser cut and stitched toile, 

Chloé A/W 2006-07 collection.

More fashion you see in Palais de Tokyo where Chloé. Attitudes is ”a celebration of the Maison’s 60-year contribution to fashion culture.” 

It tells the history of fashion house with it´s famous designers and shows a big amount of the original pieces for example by Karl Lagerfeld who was a in-house designer some decades ago.

  

That is enough for today, more to come!

Art delicacies from Helsinki

 

Saara and Molla were brave enough to enter the web and pose a bit.

 

Are you afraid of spiders? Or have you always wished to be inside of a spider web?

What a man can do can a spider so better, but a man can always try. In Taidehalli you can now see (and enter into) an art work by Tomás Saraceno and his assistants presenting a huge Black Widow web with a working title 14 Billions.

The exhibition where you can see even living spiders is open until October 3td.

http://taidehalli.fi/

My next stop today was the renovated Korjaamo Gallery, a magic box of contemporary art, inviting and inspiring.

When entering you see a collection of Martin Luther paintings by Heikki Marila.

The main exhibition at the moment is called Portrait Gallery, presenting marvellous paintings by Mari Rantanen. The big one is called Maria.

 

Mari Rantanen´s sense of colour and the virtuosity of her painting leave you stunned. And if you bend your knees you can see her golden shimmer in it´s full glory. Here is a detail of the portrait Nancy:

 

Portrait Gallery exhibition is open until October 7th. 

See the address and opening times here: www.korjaamogalleria.fi

Photos © Paula Hietaranta

Fiddler on the Roof plays here again

 

The poor milkman Tevye (Esko Roine).

There are musicals with a huge staying power, and Viulunsoittaja katolla (Fiddler on the Roof) is one of them. Since it´s Broadway opening night 1964 it has mirrored Jewish traditions, tragedies, hopes, sense of humour and power of love to millions of audiences all over the world, and now we happily welcome it again to Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri´s main stage.

Each generation interprets things of course on it´s own way, but this play has magic that nobody can destroy, not even the sourest critic.

Today´s Viulunsoittaja performance is perhaps more dynamic than nostalgic, everything painted energetically with a broad brush and vivid colours, but towards the end it does calm down beautifully.

I have to say that you must have a heart of stone if you don´t love it... 

The happiness of the newlyweds: the tailor Motel (Antti Lang) and 

Tevye´s oldest daughter Tzeitel (Anna-Maija Tuokko).

Photos @ Tapio Vanhatalo

Check the availability of the tickets here www.hkt.fi

Well done, Sofi Oksanen!

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At the moment perhaps Finland´s most famous author is Finnish-Estonian Sofi Oksanen with her acclaimed novels translated to many foreign languages and making her well known all over the world.

The publication of her new novel Kun kyyhkyset katosivat (When the Doves Disappeared, LIKE) was celebrated last week in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and the first edition of 100 000 copies is already almost sold out.

 

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This beautiful piece of dynamite, tiny and explosive, is an amazing writer, hardworking and skillful. Perhaps almost too skillful – the new novel is like a kaleidoscope that reveals all the time so many new colourful facets of people, events and lies that the reader don´t believe his eyes. The political history of Estonia in the forties and sixties described to the details is of course interesting and important - however in many places it is so heavy that it almost sinks the story.

But that does mean only you have to read the novel for the second time to really find out even the minor significant details.

And the title of the book, what does it mean?

”During the German occupation the Germans did eat the doves of Estonia”, Sofi said. 

The window of Suomalainen Kirjakauppa in Helsinki invited the readers to the bookstore during the first night of the publication.

Photos © Paula Hietaranta

http://www.kyyhkyset.fi/english/

http://www.sofioksanen.com/

www.like.fi/