Author: Eero

Performances as magic rituals state that there is magic. What then? Magic is not speculative it is affirmative! Magic solidifies status quo.

Visited Angakoq performance event at SIC gallery. Seppo Salminen made a touching performance with a skeleton. The skeleton belonged to an prisoner who’s corpse was left unclaimed from the Suomenlinna civil war prison camp. The corpse had been donated to the medical school and the bones were assembled to be used as an anatomy model by the Academy of Fine Arts of Helsinki. Art students had used this skeleton for over 50 years to learn anatomy! Salminen salvaged the bones around 1990 (the skeletons assembly had deteriorated) and stored the bones in his basement. During the performance he used them to illustrate his mortality and the burden of his class. The visual cues of the performance was easy to read but the real bones made the thing fucking real.

Visited the Finnish refugee policy protest camp next to the railway station and had an educational chat about Naom Chomsky. I felt humbled as a refugee urged me to contact local politicians and to convince them to change the way refugee urgency evaluations are handled. I told him I can’t even remember whom I voted for and argued that such activism is in a crisis as it fails to effect EU policies, which are responsible for the crisis. He looked me dead in the eye and urged me to read Chomsky. The refugee had more faith in democracity the I do. There are 320 000 new skeletons caused by the civil war in Syria. Imagine the anatomy study classes they will facilitate.

There are two camps at the Helsinki railway station. The Finland-first camp (they are protesting against immigration) and the Finnish refugee policy protest camp (they are fighting for their lives). Their camps are at the far corners of the plaza. Both camps are manifesting a struggle against the same financial and political elites.