Ooha, just got back from the sauna. I don’t see how a day could have ended better than it did. It began with a morning run, then studying for Suomi class, then lectures, lectures, lectures and finally a two-hour documentary session for one of the classes. So my 12 hour day ended with a sauna. I guess I deserved it.

Last week was just as interesting as any other, but the culminating point was definitely the excursion to Saarijärvi Stone Age village on Saturday. It is a site by the Summasjärvi lake where they have built a reconstruction of a Late Stone Age village. Saarijärvi is a village located about 60 km north of Jyväskylä. The excursion was organized for students attending Nordic history lectures, but as a Digital Culture student I could come along. The excursion was led by professor Brian Magnusson who is visiting Jyväskylä but is otherwise professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Of course, if it wasn’t for him, the trip wouldn’t have been as interesting as it was. It is amazing how genuine and knowledgeable he is and how many things he explains just by the way. For instance, as we stood by a museum building at the site he noted that the house was a typical Finnish building and outlined major characteristics of a typical Finnish building: saddle roof, eyebrow windows, symmetry, built out of beams, position of chimney in the center of the building, the completely covered porch, the lifted entrance, and of course the characteristic yellow ocher color (or red) to name just a few. And that was just about architecture, thus you can imagine what all we heard about the archeological findings and reconstruction at the same site.

After the Stone Age village we went to the actual Saarijärvi village where one of the largest wooden churches in Finland is erected. The church itself was established here in 1628, but was renovated and enlarged several times. It is just amazing to see a wooden cupola measuring 18 m in diameter. Yes, the church is made completely out of wood. There are a few things that I really found interesting. One is definitely that the church (like almost all churches in Finland) is a central building and thus although it’s a protestant church really resembles an orthodox church. And it was the Russian Orthodox church architecture that influenced this change. Another characteristic that was immediately obvious is the scant decoration which gives one the sense of overall austerity. It was also interesting to see that stone is not used whatsoever, but rather, columns in the church are painted to imitate stone. And on top of that, there are no bells in the church building itself, but rather in a campanile located some 100 m away from the church.

I could go on an on about this … so to make long story short, definitely make sure to check the gallery for some of the images from this trip.

Last week I bought my first National Geographic … in Finnish of course. Yeah, I cannot really read it, but nevertheless I could not resist the temptation to get a copy and give it a try. It’s challenging, but I should probably remind myself how long it took me to be able to fluently read that magazine in English. I have long ways to go, or to put it into the right perspective: my Suomi journey has just begun. Besides the Geographic I have also been trying to read some daily papers and am slowly beginning to enjoy content on Finnish web sites. Hey, if anyone wants to see what I am watching every night, and give it a shot at understanding here’s a sample. Have fun and do make sure you let me know how it went or how you liked it.

As you all see I am having a great time here. OK, school is fine and things are finally picking up the pace so I’ve got quite a few articles/books to read and essays to write. But so far it’s really been fun as everything is very dynamic.

Just before I finish off this entry there’s one more thing I should say. One of the friends who is studying sports sciences (biomechanics to be more precise) at the University has made arrangements within his department to perform a few tests on me. Don’t worry mom, no matter how taxing these test are, they are not harmful. If everything goes according to plan we’ll do a VO²Max test next week (which we’ll repeat every month or so to measure changes) and later we might do a gait analysis, LT test or anaerobic threshold test and so on. For those who have not figured out yet, yes I am basically talking about my running here. This is all exciting news for me as I have not imagined that I would actually have a chance of doing these tests ever. I’ll let you know how things went.

Later.

Mladen

I know, I should have written this post a few days ago, but there is so much going on in my life at the moment that it’s a bit hard to stare at the computer and write while there are so many other more exciting and engaging things to do around here … so, finally, here we go.

Touchdown! I arrived to Jyväskylä on Saturday night. Yes, it was a long trip considering that both Slovenia and Finland are in Europe, but time wasn’t money so the trip with Ryanair, Appartmenthaus zum Hahn and VR costed me roughly two days and 120 Euros (instead of one day and 800 Euros if I were to fly from Ljubljana to Jyväskylä). The journey itself was nothing extraordinary: late planes, punctual trains and lots of waiting. The decision to fly to Tampere and then take the train to Jyväskylä wasn’t bad at all because I first got to see Finland from the air and then enjoyed the countryside from the ground.

Actually, before I go on here are my immediate impressions and associations about Finland and Finns (after being here for a few days): reserved but very friendly, language challenge, lots of space, green, tidiness, expensive and definitely, water, and lots of it too … in all forms and directions.

Jyväskylä is located in the central Finnish region also known as lakeland. Now, this is interesting, because Finland is full of lakes, so from the perspective of practically any visitor, whole Finland could be called lakeland. It’s really hard to believe, but there are 180.000 lakes in Finland. There are numerous lakes in and around Jyväskylä, which also means that there is one right next to the building where I live. One might wonder where does all this water come from, but once you spend a few hours here, you simply cannot miss the biggest source of lake water: it rains on and off every single day. Even so that practically no matter how hard it rains, there are a lot of people walking on the streets who simply don’t pay attention to all this rain. At first it looks weird to see people strolling without umbrellas through the city while the rain is literally pouring on them. But you do get used to all this water pretty quickly. I can’t wait to see what the real autumn looks like when there’s supposedly even more rain, because, mind you, now it’s still August.

One other thing that made much more lasting impression on me is Finnish language. Although I’ve tried to learn some Finnish while I was still back in Ljubljana, I think that no matter how hard I tried back then I’d still be stumped upon arrival. It is downright amazing how different this language is; it doesn’t even sound familiar and on top of that Finns speak it in quite peculiar manner which makes it practically impossible to distinguish between words. So it is not surprising at all that they have a hard time with consistency in writing. Also, I have never seen so many meaningful long words in my life: they quite easily reach 20 characters and beyond. So what I am doing right now is learning how to read completely from scratch. All my Finish friends are laughing their asses of when I am tackling one word at a time, almost a letter at a time - and on top of this not even pronouncing words correctly. But I think we are both having a great time: they get a good laugh and I get to learn something from their linguistical guidance.

Now, as far as their silence and reservedness is concerned: yes, they are a bit quiet and reserved, but when approached can be very friendly and helpful. But, for example, when I walk into a store and try out my Finish on them, they just stare at me and almost ignore me half of the time. As if they want to say that it is OK if you speak English, just don’t touch our language. Finns below 30 are an exception, because they can be very talkative once they engage in a conversation.

Another thing that really stands out is nature and their utmost respect for it. True, Finland is one huge forest by the lake, but they also know how preserve their nature or not do any harm to it in the first place. It starts with their meticulous recycling of trash (they separate it into five categories) and extends to cleanliness. But there is one very important detail: they don’t overdo it, so it isn’t kitsch like in some Alpine countries like Austria and Switzerland.

But life has a price tag here, and a hefty one too. Some prices are just obnoxious. Here are a few examples: a beer in a pub can cost you 4,5 Euros, a packet of cigarettes is anywhere from 2 to 5 Euros, daily newspaper 2 Euros, a bottle of water 1,5 Euros, a liter of gasoline 1,3 Euros, rent for a 24 sq m apartment in Jyväskylä runs from 350 Euros on, and so on. Finns seem to be happy and relaxed people in spite of all those expanses because it looks like they earn enough so they can afford to live a normal life here.

Although I’ve been in Finland only four days now, I must say that so far I really like it here. The nature is spectacular, people are friendly and relaxed, the city is rather quiet and it’s extremely easy to get all sorts of bureaucratic things done in an instant. It’s amazing how easy life can be if there are no ill intentions, greed or envy.

Well, that’s it for now. Check back in a few days when I’ll write more about my continuing Finnish experience. And in meantime I’ll also upload a few photos, because I know that some of you out there are anxious to see those.

Mladen

I guess Venice never fails to impress me. No matter how many times I’ve visited this small city, there’s always something there that turns the trip into an enjoyable experience. And this time around it was no different. When we (my mom accompanied me on this trip) arrived at around 9am we headed straight for the Giardini where the national pavilions are located and afterwards we went to Arsenale - a venue that was added to the biennial not too long ago - where individual artists display their works. There’s also a whole bunch of locations spread throughout Venice that either host performances or exhibitions that are directly tied to the biennial, but we’ve managed to visit only a few of those.

At this year’s biennial there were quite a few interesting and creative works on display that I really enjoyed. And I was taken by surprise to see so many video works. Now, I am not gung ho on painting, but I really enjoyed Ed Ruscha’s project Course of Empire (read an interview with Ruscha here). It consists of a series of black-and-white paintings entitled Blue Collar that he did in the 1990s which epitomize the American industrial culture and paintings that he did for this Biennale which respond or reflect on those earlier paintings. The black-and-white paintings speak about times long gone, while his new color series speaks in Ruscha’s words about his “doubts about progress in the world, and hopes for the world.” It is striking to see those images juxtaposed.

I’d also like to point out aero and sound installation Idiot Wind by the ProvMyza duet (Galina Myznikova and Sergey Provorov). It’s a series of dimly lit halls with varying degrees of wind force which escalates to strong wind at the end of the last hall where a small room is positioned. Ultimately this tactilely-aural experience (the halls are lined with hidden speakers emitting various ambient sounds) is the interplay between reflection on our immediate personal space and playfulness of audience that actively participates and cocreates this work. Idiot Wind is both contemplative and amusing at the same time.

Then there was also a piece (if it can even be called “a piece” since it is immaterial) by Tino Sehgal who has developed a specific form of art which takes shape only at the moment one’s encounter with it. At first, I was taken by surprise when I was approached by one of the pavilion attendants who offered to refund half of the entrance fee if I speak about market economy for several minutes. After she made that offer I peeked into a huge empty space behind the passage where she was standing and I immediately realized that it us at this very moment that are Tino’s work of art. His work thus presents the climax of Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel’s raison d’etre which they expressed in their manifesto published in 1963: “We wish to put the spectator in a situation which he initiates and transforms. We wish to develop in him an increased capacity for perception and action.”

Here’s a list of links to a few other artists whose works I particularly recommend at La Biennale 2005:
- Guerrilla Girls
- Eija-Liisa Ahtila
- Regina Jose Galindo
- Antoni Muntadas
- Robin Rhode

I mean I could go on at length about these and other works I liked, but I really think that these works speak best for themselves. So if you’ve got a chance to visit La Biennale, you should (it is open till November 6th 2005).

Mladen