Mad House Helsinki Publication's artist in residence Elsa Tölli
Poet and performer Elsa Tölli is the first artist in residence at Mad House Helsinki Publication. Tölli has made performances and poetry videos for various art festivals, performed as a lyric poet and was one of the artists in the Youth 2023 exhibition. Tölli published his award-winning debut book Fun Primavera in 2020 and is now finishing his second collection.
Photo by Oona Oikkonen
When asked about plans for the residency period, Tölli says: "I make a plan for myself for thirty days: every day I collect a small amount of material from life. For me, the residency is a place to turn outwards: to study the environment more closely, to familiarise myself with topics and conversations, and to collect details and raw materials for my basket. In the Mad House online residency I will collect 7 film images, 7 conversations, 7 texts and 7 drawings, one every day. I will sniff and tinker with this chaotic life we share and prepare nourishment from it. I will fall with the moon: letting the treasure and bruise of the previous one lead to another."
Published online once a year, the publication offers performers the opportunity to experiment and explore the possibilities of the online environment in performance art. The online publication has been published since 2020 and has been developed as part of Mad House Helsinki's live program. The online residency will be a month-long working period and the outputs of the residency will be published as part of the fourth issue of the online publication in December 2023.
Anne Naukkarinen, curator of the online publication, says that "the residency period allows for a longer, focused and experimental work with the online environment and the artists' practice. The month's work will include collaboration with the publication's coder and graphic designers, allowing for a new kind of collaboration and the opportunity for artists to make work that takes into account the characteristics of the online platform. "
Mad House Helsinki Publication's team includes coder Heikki Lotvonen and graphic designers Kiia Beilinson and Hanna Valle. The look and feel of the publication will be redesigned this year and we look forward to seeing what comes of the process. The other artists in the 2023 issue are the Hunajanjyvä Collective, Pilvi Porkola and Freja Bäckman, who will also create live performances for the autumn program.
