Interview with Atte Elias Kantonen
Atte Elias Kantonen, convener and curator of the bugbath: questing event at Mad House Helsinki on 15.3.2024, tells about the background of the event.
photo by Atte Elias Kantonen
Mad House:
bugbath:questing brings together experimental music and sound performance. How do you see sound performance currently finding its place in the contemporary performance scene?
Atte Kantonen:
Sound performance as a concept seems to be still relatively unestablished and I personally feel that it rather acts as a reading instruction or a reference to the way of performing or to the content of the performance. Of course, performance art that relies on the voice as an expressive medium has its own long history, but I feel that at the moment the horizon is undergoing an interesting transformation - especially with the merging of practitioners and performance art subgenres.
Perhaps there is still room for blurring the boundaries between musical expression and sound expression: in a performance context, it may be interesting to explore the need for distinctions between, for example, concert, sound performance and performance. Overall, there seems to be a renewed interest in performance art based on sound and/or music. As a sound worker, I see this as a positive trend, of course - it also liberates the role of sound from its traditional backstage position.
Mad House:
The event is part of a serial project. Can you give us your thoughts on this in the longer term?
Atte Kantonen:
I have been able to enjoy the fruits of labor of the many organisers and facilitators working with different arts, both as an experiencer and as a maker. In relation to influencing and being active “in the field” I still feel like a beginner - my own practice and peer work has mostly been based on huddling alone over various screens. My aim is to take small and soft steps to include in my practice also locality, physical being, doing and acting, where I act as an initiator and inviter - thus also being part of the audience for a wide range of interesting things to see, feel and listen to.
A certain continuity seems important both for one's own learning, for understanding the world around us, and for being in the presence of the common - the idea of a serial model sets a good basis for this. There is no clear, coherent stencil at this stage as to the nature or form of what will follow, but certainly a new bugbath will emerge after a breather.
Mad House:
Tell us about your own curatorial thinking. What kind of processes do you go through to get a sense of the big picture and what does curation mean to you?
Atte Kantonen: I haven't thought about my work or my thinking patterns through the context of curating before, so I can't outline a clear curatorial framework yet. In this case, I think that the choices and entities are formed by the enthusiasm, interest, emotion and enjoyment that comes from being around the work and art of others
The impact of sound as a temporal and material being creates a strong internal narrative potential for it, and thus, regardless of form or length, I think that sonic gestures always have a trembling narrative quality. In my own practice and in my radio show, for example, I try to follow these plots by rhythmizing various sonic events, gestures, environments and entities - perhaps something from this also trickles down to being an organiser (or curator). Ultimately, however, it seems that for me the most rewarding part of organising an event, especially at this stage, is the chance to experience and be surprised by great performances.