Parkour group The Concept of Dash and dance artist Helena Ratinen are the Central Finland guides at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
The Finland pavilion at World Expo 2010 in Shanghai features artists from Finland's different regions working as performing guides and promoting Finnish culture and know-how. At the same time they introduce visitors to the themes of the exhibition.
One thing that Central Finland's artist guides, The Concept of Dash and Helena Ratinen, have in common is their original way of appropriating public spaces and the public environment. Parkour is a physical discipline which involves training to overcome obstacles: in the urban environment it makes use of walls, railings, steps and other structures. Parkour is practised in public places.
For her part, dance artist Helena Ratinen has taken contemporary dance away from the stage and into museums, parks and other public spaces where people are not used to seeing dance. She seeks to use dance to highlight architectural elements and details of the space where she performs.
In the parkour community Jyväskylä is known as the heart of Finnish parkour. The city is home to a Parkour Academy and Finland's first parkour park.
Parkour in Jyväskylä has been pioneered by a fairly small but active group of young men. The Concept of Dash group now includes Finland's only professional parkour practitioners. "At the very start we set out to develop parkour professionally. We wanted to question why things are done in a certain way. We've also systematically developed parkour training and teaching," says Perttu "Spider" Pihlaja.
Every week over 500 participants ranging in age from young children to adults take part in guided practice sessions. Parkour is a form of creative movement without restrictive rules, and regular practice plays its own important part.
"In the practice sessions participants learn how to make the moves safely. It's important to warm up properly and, when practising, to focus on preventing injury by taking the necessary care and doing body maintenance. There's no right or wrong way of doing things in parkour, though, and everyone can find their own way of getting over a railing or wall, for example," says Jaakko Junttila.
Perttu Pihlaja stresses that young participants are taught at an early stage how to practise parkour in a responsible way. Parkour should not leave any marks or traces in public spaces and the structures used are always checked first to ensure they will withstand parkour practice.
The acrobatic nature of parkour means it is also an exciting form of art to watch. The members of The Concept of Dash have refined their parkour moves into a type of performing art.
"We've introduced storylines into our performances, which is something new in Finland and internationally. We hope that the World Expo will help our group to find new channels to take our skills and knowledge to new places in the world," Pihlaja explains.
Dance artist Helena Ratinen of Jyväskylä was invited to perform as an artist guide at the Finland pavilion during July. In her performances she concentrates on site-specific dance. She is interested in exploring ways of taking dance into environments that are different and unexpected.
Ratinen has also developed the concept of exhibition guiding using her own body. This concept can be used to highlight architecture, paintings and other visual works, and even objects, in a totally new way.
"I developed the concept Kehon vuoro around ten years ago, working in Jyväskylä Art Museum. I introduced the audience to a display of photographs through mime and dance and involved the audience in easy moving as well," Helena Ratinen explains. The use of the body as a tool to guide exhibition visitors brings together many themes that fascinate Helena Ratinen.
"I've got people moving, participating and looking at things in a new way. At the World Expo I aim to use dance to highlight Finnish design products and the unique architecture of the pavilion."
Helena Ratinen is a versatile artist, and in Shanghai she will have the opportunity to show another facet of her art. She is interested in meditative movement and Japanese butoh dance. "I will also be dancing in the water around the Finland pavilion."
Photo: Jaakko Junttila (upside down) and Mika Vuoriainen (side on) are off to Expo 2010 Shanghai to demonstrate parkour skills developed in Central Finland.
Photo: Dance artist Helena Ratinen includes elements of architecture and design in her performance. In her piece 'To the Bone' a bookshelf designed by interior architect Simo Heikkilä acts as Ratinen's "partner".
words by pia tervoja, photos by petteri kivimäki and matti häyrynen