One week left to Finland!

I finally took out my suitcase from the dark and dusty storage in the back of our apartment. Slowly I started to pick stuff I may need over there, but what do I need? I haven’t traveled for some time now and I forgot the deal of going somewhere for more than a week! or taking an airplane! I feel like I need everything but at the same time, I may not need anything, except a camera (in fact two nights ago I had a nightmare where I forgot to bring my camera), project deta files, drawing materials, my mouthguard and maybe some clothes but the worst case I could be wearing the same outfit for 2 months…if I’m lack of something I could probably buy there too.

I’m excited to do Muku & Coro project in Rauma, Finland. It’s a small city of 40,000 people, 4 hours west of the capital Helsinki by bus. Raumars hosts a residency program which I happened to be selected. I always wanted to visit scandinavia countries at least once in my life and I also have a friend in Helsinki to visit (to complete the Long distance version of Muku & Coro), I’m happy that this residency opportunity will allow me to achieve these goals.

There was another residency opportunity given to me through les Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes, in Liepaja, Latvia, in the spring of 2009. That could’ve been the first Muku & Coro project to try out outside of my social network. But after all this was canceled due to a political conflict that the host organization had to encounter, and I’ve been looking for other possible places for the project.

To realize the project in a new strange place will be challenging, I’m not sure what to expect. And especially that I’ve been taking some time-off since the birth of our baby, I’m not yet in a working mode. But I have a good feeling about this. As far as I understand, Rauma is a beautiful place, we’ll be living in an apartment only a block away from water, the Gulf of Bothnia…this also satisfies one of my dreams that I always wanted to live by a sea.

Anyway, I’d better go back to packing…