Residency for artists and researchers in the Outokumpu Old Mine area.
Vanha Kaivos Residency – a unique place for art!
Vanha Kaivos Residency is located in Outokumpu, North Karelia, in the heart of Eastern Finland, within a historic mining area. This inspiring and tranquil environment provides the perfect setting for creative work, research, and networking. The residency invites artists and researchers from around the world to focus on their projects in a unique milieu surrounded by nature and history.
Vanha Kaivos Residency harmoniously blends art, research, and nature, offering guests a one-of-a-kind experience amidst North Karelia’s cultural heritage and natural beauty.
Apply for a residency and immerse yourself in the inspiring atmosphere of Outokumpu!
Immerse yourself in creative work amidst the tranquility and natural beauty of North Karelia. Join an international residency community and experience an inspiring atmosphere in a historic mining setting. Discover the application process and all that the residency has to offer!
Comfortable and bright living spaces provide a peaceful environment for residency work. Shared facilities include a kitchen, lounge, and dedicated workspaces for different art forms. At Vanha Kaivos, creativity and comfort come together in an inspiring setting!
Explore our comprehensive handbook, which contains all the necessary information for your residency visit. You’ll find practical instructions, details about local services, and tips on area attractions. The handbook helps you prepare for your stay and make the most of your time in Outokumpu.
Events in Outokumpu
Work in process: Tanssiinkutsu – Danceformations performance for M_ITÄ? Bienniale 2025
We worked for two weeks at the Marita Cultural Center, as artists-in-residence at the old mine artist residency in Outokumpu. We are working on a multidisciplinary piece, Tanssiinkutsu, which will be completed in the fall of 2025 and performed at the LUMIT stage in Kuopio as part of the M_ITÄ biennial presenting contemporary art from Eastern Finland. The time at the residency was wonderful, a deep immersion and a pause to be among the new material. A residency is a space and opportunity for work that is of paramount importance when the material is in such a stage of processing. The members of our working group all live in different cities/countries. For the first week In Outokumpu, we got to experiment, improvise and play that was essential. The second week we planned the structure of the performance in more detail and assembled the material. This time together in the same place was like a gift. The days were spent in Marita and elsewhere in Outokumpu’s special spaces. We recorded the Kiisu hall, sang in the space and peeked into the caves. We were inspired by the material found in the mine area, such as stones, sand and metal which have been one of the central elements of the work for years now. The sounds and materiality they create are again part of the new work. The performance got flesh around the bones during these two weeks. We recorded a lot of material, which we have now listenend through during June back at home in Iisalmi. For some years, me and my sister Anna Fält, have been playing around the table with materials collected from nature as drawing tools and our own voices. The idea of a wordless dialogue between sound and drawing as well as the contact created through that grew into the idea of a space that moves people together. Three years ago we wrote down the first ideas for the work and now we are here. That is also coming back to the collaboration we started with as young artists more than 10 years ago in our performance Vallpiga that toured in Nordic/Baltic countries for some years. With Andrea, we have worked on sound and space, as well as drawing. We have been sharing thoughts on collaboration, thinking and doing together. In our previous works, installations and spaces have been created using sounds of leaving a trace. Now we are all connected through these elements, playing together on same stage in a live situation. That will for sure create a whole new soundscapes and possibilities. This is the first time that all three of us are doing something together, although we have collaborated in different ensembles for years. Now we were able to immerse ourselves in a world whose seeds were sown long ago in Nerohvirta in Iisalmi, somewhere in Italy and in numerous other places where sticks and stones have been collected and spaces have been listened to together. Discussions and experiments with sound and drawing, spaces created by sound, archaic (ancient music) and experimental use of sound, improvisation, play and making together connect us. All of them are the basis for this work. It was wonderful and, as always, alsoexciting, and intense to come to a common space and build something almost from scratch together. We brought the first part of the work to Marita and also performed some of the material to a test audience at the end of the residency. It was such a pleasure to play to the audience, our first one. Now the work continues in Helsinki and Kuopio together with Dancer-choreographer Anna Maria Väisänen, who will bring her skills of facilitating the audience. The performance is built from contact, listening, and building different spaces with sound. We are inspired by slow aesthetics, invitation, and authentic movement. We hope to travel and invite to places where there is time to listen. The elements that come together in the work create a soundscape with a special combination of sounds. The material deals with physicality, matter and is I would say “tactile”. Let see how we are able to touch the listener with our sounds and traces. We all experienced dancing at techno parties, enjoyed various gatherings where the shared experience of rhythm and movement liberates, connects, invigorates, strengthens, and invites us to join in. We wanted to make a work that is an invitation to dance and move you as you are. Whether you are a fan of techno and/or electronic music, a person who expresses themselves through dance, a listener, a drawing lover, an admirer of ancient music and experimental sound, interested in rituals, or someone going through change we want to invite you. Danceformations is a journey and a ceremonial space that opens up through sound and movement, in which everyone can participate with a movement that suits them, whether it is a mental more invisible or a lively dance that moves the whole body around the space. Thank you for letting us welcome the summer in Outokumpu, thank you for listening, On behalf of the entire working group Best regards, Emma Fält the working group of the Invitation to Dance work Anna & Emma Fält and Andrea Mancianti www.annafalt.com https://emmafalt.net/ https://www.andreamancianti.com/ (FIN) Teimme kahden viikon ajan töitä kulttuuritalo Maritassa, Outokummun vanhan kaivoksen residenssitaiteilijoina. Työn alla on monitaiteinen Tanssiinkutsu – teos, joka valmistuu syksyllä 2025 ja esitetään LUMIT – näyttämöllä Kuopiossa osana Itäsuomalaista nykytaidetta esittelevää M_ITÄ-biennaalia. Aika residenssissä oli ihana, syvä uppoutuminen ja pysähtyminen uuden äärelle. Residenssi on ensiarvoisen tärkeä työskentelyn tila ja mahdollisuus silloin kun materiaali on tällaisessa työstön vaiheessa. Outokummussa saimme vain kokeilla ja leikkiä ensimmäisen viikon. Toisen viikon suunnittelimme tarkemmin esityksen rakennetta ja kokosimme materiaalia. Työryhmämme jäsenet asuvat kaikki eri kaupungeissa/maissa ja tämän ajan käytimme yhdessä soittamiseen, sekä uuden materiaalin luomiseen kuunnellen ja kokeillen. Tämä yhteinen aika samassa paikassa oli kuin lahja. Päivät kuluivat Maritassa ja muualla Outokummun erityisissä tiloissa. Äänitimme Kiisu-hallia, lauloimme tilassa ja kurkistimme luolastoihin. Inspiroiduimme kaivoksen alueelta löytyneestä materiaalista, kuten kivistä, hiekasta ja metallista,
Subterranean landscapes, unruly waterways
We are grateful to be spending two weeks at the Old Mine Residency in Outokumpu, working on our project Hypogea: beneath the light of days, different rhythms flow. Hypogea is a research-led artistic project investigating subterranean landscapes and waterways. Through our work, we are interested in looking at how industrial activity transforms the landscapes below our feet, which are – contrary to our cultural imagination – full of multi-layered life. We are moving within the categories of presence/absence, revelation/hiding, light/dark – looking at how underground processes of change and mutual affect often manifest above ground in subtle and sometimes unexpected ways. At the moment, we are focusing on processes related to subterranean landscapes in the context of mining, ecology and trade. Responding to the invisibility of underground spaces, we try to encapsulate their haunting – invisible, yet strongly felt – presence through various sensorial devices, speculative approaches and alternative visualisation methods. Our approach is informed by on-site ecological and sensorial research, and combines different elements such as recordings, video and thermal imagery, speculative narrations and archival material as a way of building a more complex, multi-layered representation of a space that combines artistic and scientific methods. During our two weeks here in Outokumpu, we had the chance to engage with its mining history, geology, lakes and myths. In particular, we spent a lot of time in the Old Mine’s underground tunnel. Something grounding in its sounds, smells, rhythms. Something wispy in its echoes. ꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷ Thank you historical archives • rock samples • karelian pie • lake • geological survey maps • postcards from the local kirppis • forest • sound recording • nightly bird call • mystical northern lights We are thankful to Esko and the residency house for welcoming us so warmly, to the Vanha Kaivos people for supporting us in different ways, and to the town of Outokumpu for its charming ways. Nimesi | Name: Amy Merigo and Martina Seresova
Jätemuoviteoksia ja performansseja
Työskentelimme residenssissä kaksi viikkoa elokuussa 2024. Alkuun tutustuimme Vanhan kaivoksen kaikkiin tiloihin, joista monet koimme hyvin innostaviksi. Päädyimme tekemään teokset Kiisuhalliin ja Nostokonehuoneeseen, jotka koimme tiloina parhaiten toimivan osana teoksia. Työskentelymme aloitimme kotitalousjätemuovien lajittelulla. Toimme mukanamme pakettiautollisen jätemuovia, minkä lisäksi saimme erikoisluvalla käydä keräämässä Outokummun lajitteluasemalta täydennystä. Samalla teimme siellä Jätettä -performanssin, missä ihminen on sidottuna huomionauhalla osaksi tuottamaansa jätekasaa. Kiisuhalliin syntyi halkaisijaltaan kolmetoistametrinen jätemuovi-installaatio ”Virta” sekä teokseen liittyvä performanssi ”Tuonelan virta”. Nostokonehuoneen seinän vanha magee ovi inspiroi työstämään sinne tähän päivään päivitetyn version Helene Schjerfbeckin maalauksesta Ovi. Tummanpuhuvasta ”Ovi” teoksesta tuli lopulta 4 x 2 metrinen. Teimme myös keskustassa Pääroskaa nimisen performanssin. Koimme Vanhan kaivoksen residenssijakson hyvin tärkeäksi ja antoisaksi työskentelymme kannalta. Kuvataiteilijat Marko Kaiponen Toivakasta ja Katja Öhrnberg Fiskarsista Nimesi | Name: Marko Kaiponen Toivakasta ja Katja Öhrnberg Fiskarsista
Animaatiota tekstiili- ja keramiikkaosilla
Toukokuussa kahden viikon ajan ja nyt syyskuussa ovat Karoliina Arvilommi ja Marjaana Rotko sovitelleet tekstiili- ja keramiikkateoksiaan tai niiden osia vierekkäin ja etsiskelleet niitä yhdistelmällä erilaisia mielikuvitushahmoja tai ympäristöjä. Aluksi sukelsimme vedenalaiseen maailmaan. Pyrkimyksenä on hahmojen löydyttyä herättää ne eloon stop motion -animaation avulla. Palojen liikuttelu onnistuu helpoiten vaakapinnalla, täällä kaivoksen tiloissa saamme kameran nostettua niin korkealle yläpuolelle lattian, että suurikokoisetkin teososat mahtuvat näyttämölle. Lisäetuna hieno, jyhkeänkarhea työympäristö, mukavannäköistä eläväpintaista lattiaa taustaksi sekä kuntokuuri mäkien ja portaiden muodossa. Sekä valokuvaamisen että stop motion -animoinnin kanssa olemme itsellemme aivan tuntemattomilla vesillä, joten mielenkiintoista opittavaa riittää! Tekniikkaan olemme tukea saaneet Riveriasta, kiitos! Residenssillä on ollut mielenkiintoista seurata Danielin projektia ja kuulla Danielilta ja Bonnielta Michiganin kaivos- ja suomalaisalueelta. Karoliina Arvilommi, tekstiilitaiteilija VärtsilästäMarjaana Rotko, keraamikko Joensuusta. Nimesi | Name: Marjaana ja Karoliina Kerro itsestäsi | About the Author: Olemme tekstiilitaiteilija Karoliina Arvilommi Värtsilästä ja keraamikko Marjaana Rotko Joensuusta. Näyttelyä rakentaessamme myös keramiikkaosat löysivät tiensä yhden Karoliinan Palapeli-sarjan yhteyteen ja muodostui yhteisen teos. Nyt leikimme lisää kahden eri materiaalin ja eri muotojen ja värien yhdistämisellä, kuvitellen millaisia otuksia evoluutio voisi näistä tarpeista kehittää. Ja kuinka ne voisivat liikkua…
Useless machines at Vanha Kaivos
Evere heard of ”useless machines”? The ”useless machine” is a concept theorized and used by the Italian sculptor Bruno Munari as the title for a series of sculptures that began in the 1930s and continued until the late 1960s. The introduction of movement, a new parameter for an art until then considered exclusively static, it makes these works fundamental for understanding the new paradigm of kinetic art. The movement of objects, activated by internal gears, by wind or water, modifies the observer’s perception of shape; the motion of the observer itself, the simple change of perspective, is functional to an ever new experience of the object. In the definition of its creator, useless machines ”are nothing more than colored movable objects, specially designed to obtain that particular variety of combinations of movements, shapes and colors. Objects to look at as you look at a moving complex of clouds after spending seven hours inside a useful machine factory. The first useless machines were more complicated and with limited movements, while the latter, simplified, find their motor in natural phenomena, such as air displacements, sudden changes in temperature, humidity, light and shadow, etc., assuming the aspect of its own life comparable to the movement of the grass in a field, to the changing of the clouds, to the rolling of a stone in a stream. There can be very slow or very fast machines, with an infinite variety of movements, garden machines, home machines, hanging from the ceiling, floating in a pond, table, terrace and perhaps pocket machines.” The important thing is that they are absolutely useless. And yes, musical useless machines are also possible! This month I worked on my last musical ”useless machine”, for Kaivos festivaali 2024, which closes a cycle of five pieces (the fourth useless machine was played here last year by the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra’s Brass).I studied the acoustics of the places and the possible spatialization of the instruments in the Kiisu Theater.The close contact with the place of performance significantly influences the entire creation process, so the work has been conceived as ”site-specific” as possible.I am very thankful to everyone at the Old Mine for giving me this opportunity!Besides, an old mine is already a wonderful useless machine in itself, and what could be better than letting another useless machine play inside it? Nimesi | Name: Daniele Vulpiani Kerro itsestäsi | About the Author: I'm an Italian composer and my musical ideas are connected with architecture, philosophy and studies on perception. My work is focused on the perception and cognition of the sound events, their connections and transformations. I'm here in Outokumpu to work on a piece for Kaivos Festivaali 2024.