Exercise of Freedom
#1-25
The series Exercise of Freedom #1-25 was part of Kristina Junttila’s final artistic work for her MA at the Theatre Academy in Helsinki. The series questions how performance art can be a place to exercise freedom. Exercise of Freedom is a series of performances performed in 2010, announced and unannounced in various public places and at performance art festivals.
Information
(Objekt ID 9061)| Object type | Production |
| Produced by | Kristina Junttila |
| Audience | Adults |
| Language | English, Finnish and Norwegian |
| Keywords | Performance |
| Running period | January 1, 2009 |
| Website | Kristina Junttila |
Requirements to venue
| Blackout | No |
The announced exercises in Exercise of Freedom #1-25 by Kristina Junttila were:
Exercise of Freedom #19
Exercise of Freedom #21
Exercise of Freedom #23
Exercise of Freedom #24
Before performing each exercise, Kristina Junttila wrote the task in an Exercise of Freedom Blog and afterwards she added an image of the performed exercise to the same blog.
Being aware that freedom is a charged and multilateral word, the exercises are in many ways naive. They approach freedom from various perspectives, like freedom of mind and imagination, freedom to act against conventions, freedom from suppression and personal freedom. In each exercise Kristina Junttila’s relationship to the context and site is of importance, and she investigated the relationship between power, responsibility and freedom of the performer when she encounters the surroundings and her audience. In the frame of an exercise you are on a micro-level confronted with freedom. There is no solution to what freedom or performance art is; the only solution is that it needs to be exercised.
Sources: Kristina Junttila, 16.11.2010, http://www.kristinajunttila.com/performances/exercise-of-freedom/
Exercise of Freedom blog, 16.11.2010: http://www.exercise-of-freedom.blogspot.com/
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Kristina Junttila | – Other |
"A drunk pedestrian witnessing the parade comments laconically "I do not call that freedom!". The participators are free to take off the sense-inhibiting devices, but those who try are reprimanded by the others in the line. Not until we get to the lawn behind the church Junttila lifts her megaphone to end the exercise. One of the audience members is so provoked by the exercise she promises never to attend a performance again. While moving on with the program others agree that the freedom provided by the senseless shambling first of all is freedom from responsibility."
Review by Sidsel Pape called Det der kaller ikke jeg frihet! (literally: I do not call that freedom!) (Minifest: Exercise of Freedom # 23 og #24), Scenekunst 25.11.09, http://www2.scenekunst.no/artikkel_6556.nml