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March 05, 2006
Pittsburgh, thanks to Andy Warhol
After a few hectic days at home I´m again on a plane. This time with the Tero Saarinen Company on the way to Pittsburgh, our starting point for a one month tour in the US and Canada.
Arriving to ”free” America was like a nightmare. We felt just like criminals entering a prison whose guardians think it´s already full! This impression started already from the Helsinki Embassy. Our new 10 years passports had to be replaced with brand new ones and the security check was immaculate - for criminals.
My new (extra hard) luggage arrived to Washington with huge holes and missing wheels. When we humbly wanted a declaration of the ”accident” we got a real treat. After Asia this unfriendliness and general ugliness of everything struck like...a real imprisonment. I counted how many days I have to... and tried to comfort myself with a sarcastic sense of humour. It always wins, whatever the circumstansces are.
Once again, I got a cultural shock with the American food and drink habits. You have to consume the hyperfattysaltysugary foodpiece from a plastic plate and drink from a plastic cup. And surely nothing is recycled. Portions are double size by European and triple size by Asian standards. As a visible result the overweight of people follows the same standard. I get happy every time when I get a real plate, glass or fork to my hand.
American culture worships juvenility. Adults and also elderly people seem to prefer to dress up in pastel coloured sportwear and sneakers, consume their daily hamburgers and french fries standing, suck their drinks from plastic bottles designed for infants. Candies and doughnuts are sold everywhere where you can buy something. Just like at home, in Finland! Before the Second World War the skilled Finnish learned German and studied mostly in Germany. After the war we learned to speak English and studied in England and USA. I still don´t fully understand why we have to follow the Americans in so many strange things.
After first days of melancholy, I went to see the new museum of the great son of Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol. I have learned many things from his witty and humorous autobiography ”From A to B and back again”. I recommend this book especially for young artists. Thanks to Andy´s point of view to America and the cheerful, well installed Andy Warhol Museum I got inspired... I took some selfportraits in the museum toilet. Suddenly a stranger stepped in, stared at me for a second, mumbled something like ”...a female Andy of the future, I suppose...”, and disappeared behind the door to pee while I continued shooting. I was amused, finally I got the welcome words I needed!
The Pittsburgh performance was not the very best beacause the local theatre seem to miss the technical leadership, and as a result we had too little time to rehearse. The first two pieces went well and the dancers were stunning. But this time we had problems in Hunt. Tero´s ”skirt” came down in the last possible second, but thanks to our team work we could finish Hunt without any problems.
Arriving to the reception Tero and I exchanged encouraging grins, and dunked to the sea of small talk. People commented everything, the quality and looks of my body and clothes, sophisticated accent (?!) but the artistic work. Everybody wants to say something, shake hands, touch, have a personal chat. Afterwards they can say they know you well. Anyway, it´s funny, it communicates. And they seemed to appreciate our work a lot. I immediately started to wonder how they behave if they DON´T like the show...negative me! I asked a Russian born architect and she told me they will let me know every detail of disliking too! Got the idea. This is going to be interesting.
Posted by marita at March 5, 2006 03:17 PM