Villa Karo in May

One more month before it’s time for the last scholarship holders to leave Villa Karo’s residency and return to Finland. It’s been a good year with, as usual, many moments of happiness and times of being lost in translation, cultural faux-pas’ and moments of mutual understanding in Villa Karo. But it’s not the end of the year yet! Here’s what’s happening in the times to come.

This year’s second last sholarship holder translator, researcher Simo Määttä will reach Grand-Popo by the time I post this writing. He’ll be working at the residency for five weeks with a research project before coming back to Finland. Beninese painter Yves Midahuen, the last scholarship holder of this year, will arrive in Villa Karo on the 4th of May and stay there for four weeks. At the end of his stay he’ll put on an exhibition in Villa Karo’s Lissa Gbassa for the month of June. It’ll be this springs third and final exhibition in Villa Karo.

Fisher men by Yves Midahuen

Teni-Tedji, a marionette group, will be holding a workshop in Villa Karo for the children of Grand-Popo on the first weekend of May. We shall get back to you about this with pictures.

Villa Karo’s own multitalented board member Anna Ovaska and curator Tintti Timonen will be working on a new museum exhibition in Villa Karo’s museum during the month of May. The exhibition will open in September of this year to the people of Grand-Popo, scholarship holders and passing tourists. At the same time Anna will be laying down the foundations of Villa Karo’s upcoming first virtual exhibition. Yes, you heard me right! You’ll get to see what Villa Karo’s collections and the new exhibition has to offer even if you aren’t able to go and see by yourself! At the same time, hopefully, VK’s homepage’s appearance and content will be finally updated. The project is trarting now and will be finished by the end of the year.

But not all upcoming events are taking place in Benin. The 2nd of June Villa Karo will take part in a festival that will take place at Narinkkatori, in Helsinki. The other organisers are Walter ry, radio SPIN FM, 09 Helsinki Human Rights, Namika, Funk on ry and FIDA among others. We’ll have there our former scholarship holder Camilla Heidenberg performing and holding a workshop with her husband Georges Agbazahou. Also five artists affiliated with VK will take part in charity event with five graffiti painters. A big plate of street culture and sports with a flavouring of Villa Karo will be offered to you on Narinkkatori that day.

During the months of summer, although it’s quiet in VK, we’ll have a big piece of the centre’s heart here in Finland with us as VK’s director Kwassi has kindly agreed to lend us here our chère Georgette and cher Richard from VK. They will come here in July to meet friends and acquaint and learn from their Finnish colleagues in August. Welcome Georgette and Riku!

Afrikkalainen iltapäivä – African Afternoon in Helsinki 14.1.2012

Musiikkia Beninistä Taiteen vaihtolavalla!

Afrikkalainen iltapäivä -konsertissa Aristide de Souza tarjoaa talven taitteeseen lämpimät terveiset Beninistä. Hän esittää sekä perinteistä beniniläistä että improvisoitua musiikkia. Aristide soittaa balafonea, djembeä, laulaa ja tanssii. Mukana musisoimassa ovat myös Franck Koumolou (djembe, laulu), Maija Karhinen-Ilo (laulu) ja mahdollisesti muitakin yllätysesiintyjiä.

Lauantai 14.1. klo 15
Taiteen vaihtolava
Fleminginkatu 21

Liput 10e
Tilaan mahtuu rajoitettu määrä; varaa lippusi siis ennakkoon!
Lippuvaraukset ja lisätiedot: 0400-392071, tainamakiiso@hotmail.com

NOVEMBER CONCERT

Real, traditional, seductive and communicative music by MIDJOUBA from HEVE, a suburb of Grand-Popo, delivered the goods on Saturday night re concert of the month.

Midjouba, a folkloric group founded in 2006 presented a great show that attracted thousands of souls from the beginning to the end.

Midjouba, in their concert, tried to send a message to the younger generation about the danger of severing our ancestral link by importing and mixing too much of western tradition into our daily lives . The key to traditional communication lies in the link between the young and old folks and their capacity to merge ideas for good results in community development was the message throughout the concert. All these were demonstrated by short musical sketches to strengthen their message to the audience, especially the youth. A message well digested by all generations, young and old is already in the archives of the folks.
KtL

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KAKA

KAKA-KAKA. Félicitations !! félicitations !! is the single french word pronounced by a great audience to congratulate Janne Storm, Felix Agossou and Gabriel Teiko, three resident artists in Villa Karo who performed wonderfully on the stage of the French Cultural Centre in Cotonou on Friday 30th September.

They preceded the main event of the night LA NUIT DE LA PAROLE by association KATOULATI. Same scenario took place in Grand-Popo on the red terrace stage of Villa Karo the following day 1st of October 2011. Backed by young artists from Comé, Janne Storm and his African Stipendiates presented a great concert, this time preceded by the group KATOULATI with stories recited by griots from Togo, Burkina Faso and Republic of Benin. These kind of stories told by grand parents during our infancy just to keep them company on full moon nights.

An hour session by Janne and his group was so that the audience amazingly fell in love with them. They played all kinds of music including KAKA, a rythm that sent the whole audience back to the root of their tradition with incredible demonstration of feet taping and chest druming that provocated great joy. Traditionally, KAKA is played to wake up adepts of all kinds of religion from their slumber to shake off the devil. It is danced in a way that even the disabled ones can be part of the game.

« Incroyable mais vrai », it was totally unbelievable even to me that Janne Storm understood and played KAKA to the surprise of all. IT IS VERY INPORTANT TO AIM HIGH TO AVOID ACHIEVING VERY LOW.

Janne did exactly that.

KtL

World Music System at Feeniks club

Next Thursday (October 6th) is a great occasion for lovers of really good music around Helsinki. Camilla Heidenberg (FINLAND, former scholarhip holder of Villa Karo) and Georges Abgazahou (BENIN) are giving a concert at Feeniks club.
As the artists put it, prepare yourself “for a soulful mixture of afro, pop, jazz and classical music with piano, vocals, djembe, percussion”.

The group has been performing all over Finland and in France this past summer. As George’s stay in Europe is, for now, coming to it’s end in a few weeks, this will be one the last possibilities to hear their music live in Finland this year. Don’t miss it!

World Music System at

Musiikkitalon klubi, Mannerheimintie 13A

Tursday 6th October at 10pm.

A Glimpse of Villa Karo and Grand-Popo on YLE Areena

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) visited Villa Karo in 2009 to honour the 10th anniversary of the centre by playing a concert for the people of Grand-Popo. The concert was held on the stage of Lissa Gbassa, VK’s exhibition and concert building, by the beach of Grand-Popo. RSO’s eventful trip became the subject of a documentary film (Afrikan sinfonia, directed by Jenni Nyberg, YLE productions).

Also meet the dancing and singing children of Grand-Popo as well as Noël Zaïzonou, a Beninese virtuoso in dance and music. How do they see our western musical tradition?

Click here for a taste of cross-cultural music.

SEPTEMBER 2011 CONCERT

Between a dream and reality, there seems to be a distance that is never measured but the most important thing is that the dream comes true whatever the distance. Villa Karo dreamt some years ago of having on stage a famous gospel artist. His name Djidjoho Hounkponou. A maraton of negotiation that took weeks finally proved futile with a signature of the renown gospel artist on a two page contract that was signed on the 9th of August 2011. . .

3rd September, preparations were set to receive the artist on stage at 9pm. As early as around 19 hours people from all nook and corners of Grand-Popo, Adjaha, Hillakondji and Comé took to the only unique paved street of Grand-Popo’s keskusta and trooped towards Villa Karo, just to witness their favourite program of Premier Samedi du mois; MONTHLY CONCERT.

Publicities from two local radios and posters intrigued all gospel lovers. Youth, elders and especially children trailed behind their parents to be part of the monthly event, “sans blague”. One could hardly move two steps on the parking lot full of mopeds without trying to avoid body collision with the incoming audience. Djidjoho Hounkponou alias Jonny Sourou is one of the greatest gospel artist in Benin today. Talented from his infancy he got lot of inspiration from music like Afro-beat and Djoudjou from Nigeria, M’bala from Senegal and Laroumba from the Congos.

Jonny Sourou

Pushed by his determination to succeed, he continued struggling despite hard times, he left the storm behind him and imposed his music to the gospel world. At present he is rated second in the Benin musical circus. 9 pm on the dot, Jonny Sourou was welcomed on stage by two lovely and elegantly dressed ladies, Sylvie and Georgette who presented in English, French and Mina for the benefit of all.
Temptation to dance, constantly run through my nerves but I tried to quench my desire with some quick steps at the background responding to the rhythm. Audience without hesitation danced their hearts out with unlimited joy. Villa Karo’s trainee Emilia also cracked, went wild with joy, responded to the invitation of the artist on stage. I hardly recognised my colleague in such a joyous mood.

Soaked from head to toe with popular gospel tunes, the great audience, one of the biggest of all times periodically exploded with great joy, since everything that commences has an end, so was the concert. We parted home fully satisfied.
Concert was great, Audience was great!! everything was great. Chaoo Chaoo till next time.

KtL

Jonny and Emilia

Music and language

Felix Agossou and Janne Storm

« BRASSAGE » Brewing two cultures depends not on language.

Janne Storm a Finnish musician stipendiate who arrived in Benin on the 30th of August, made his way to Grand-Popo comfortably via inexpressive transport services of Alphonse Bodjrenou, recently ranked to the grade of Field Marshal in Villa Karo. Felix Agossou, the African resident artist already mentioned in our precedent publication on Akasia News, is a great and respected saxophonist in Benin. Both, quiet, brainy and enthusiastic, effortlessly merged their energies to break a relative language barrier because Janne hardly speaks a word in French and Felix speaks no English at all.

They got settled down for business as fast as they can. Lissa Gbassa is the venue of daily practice after breakfast. Sounds that came from their direction pushed my curiousity to invest in their training session by becoming a lonely spectator. Both charming guys Janne and Felix ignored the problematic solvable language barrier with drums, saxophone and the gong all combined to give another language « MUSIC » which is understood by all. Even my five year old grand son understands them with rythmical body movements as I nod my head to accompany him. A third fellow Gabriel is a drummer who assists Felix in his arrangement with Janne. After two weeks of coperation, Janne, Felix and Gabriel have recorded four songs and are preparing the fith. Braaaavooooooo.

KtL

 

Janne, Felix and Gabriel

A Recipe for Understanding

The newspaper Kouvolan Sanomat published a large article about Villa Karo last week (by Henna Mäkelin, Sept. 6th). The article was based upon VK’s last year’s scholarship holder Aleksi Saraskari’s experiences in working with local musicians in Benin. According to Aleksi, a tuba player, his first impressions on his Beninese colleagues’ percussion skills weren’t favourable. The two fellows playing balafon and djembe seemed like nice chaps but their beat was odd, not precise enough to a highly educated musician.

Although their first session wasn‘t very satisfying, he decided to take part in another one the next day. This time the trio was joined by a fourth member, another local djembe player. When the locals started their odd beat again a revelation hit the Finn: the two djembes were playing the same weird, imprecise rhythm minute after minute, synchronously. Aleksi understood that this time it actually wasn’t their sense of rhythm but his that needed work. In his own words, he had to forget about what he had learned in Sibelius Academy and start from scratch in order to learn to play the local music. I wonder how often a hasty conclusion, like the one Aleksi first made, is the reason for misunderstandings in multicultural encounters. For it is so easy and yet so ineffective to try and grasp something that is different when the process of understanding is based merely on one’s own knowledge and experience of the world.

Aleksi’s method proved to be very effective. At first, he simply put his instrument down and started the process of learning by simply listening the beat that was so unintuitive for him. This resulted in friendship and musical partnership with the Beninese musicians. In fact, one of them, Georges Agbazahou, is in Finland as I’m writing this to teach music and play concerts with Aleksi and other Finnish musicians. And of course, to also take his turn in being the cultural pupil that Aleksi was in Benin a year ago.

Aleksi also learned from his African colleagues a motto that is always worth saying, writing, publishing, posting and even shouting out loud: L‘amour règne! Love rules! And that this thought should be the aiming point for all of us.

A clip from the article from Kouvolan Sanomat with Aleksi‘s colleagues‘ motto (never mind the typo).

6296 Kilometers up North

Being in Finland doesn’t necessarily mean being so far away from Villa Karo, Grand-Popo and Benin. This was noticed again yesterday, when Helsingin Juhlaviikkoklubi was filled with people who came to listen Beninese musician Alpha Omega singing and playing djembes and balafon. Familiar African rhythms and songs filled the club of the National Theater and in the end people were dancing as if they were in the coast of Golfe de Guinée, sand in their feet and warm wind blowing in the air. If we Finns are like jars with their lids still tightly closed, as Alpha had said (and we are, I completely agree), music and dance are most likely the best ways to open up those jars. And now, when autumn, winter and cold are approaching, it is good to gain energy through art and exchange of cultures – to be ever more able to open up to others.

The dialogue between Benin and Finland can be experienced right now also in Kiasma in the works of Romuald Hazoume and Georges Adéagbo who have been invited to participate in the Ars 2011 exhibition.

Last time I saw Hazoume’s work, I was in Porto Novo, where Hazoume’s recycled statues of petrol canisters stand in the yard of the palace of King Toffa (now Musée Honme) and tell the story of modernization, changes in environment and in traditions.  In Kiasma Hazoume exhibits his recycled masks and a large snake made of used tyres. Snakes are considered holy in Benin, and the idea is, that they don’t harm people unless they are harmed. The same philosophy expands to technology and markets, which are neither good nor bad in essence, but whose use is becoming more and more problematic all over the world.

In another room in Kiasma, Georges Adéagbo forms a dialogue between political histories of Benin and Finland. A room-sized collage consists of objects Adéagbo has collected in both countries, from fetish-statues to books and newspapers. To those, who happened to be in Benin last spring, familiar objects include the electoral poster of Yayi Boni, the president of Benin, and also a page of a report of an art workshop which took place in Villa Karo in January and was lead by Finnish-Beninese group of artists and art educators (Pekka Lehtimäki, Victor Amoussou and Leea Pienimäki-Amoussou, see Ateneum).

As it happens, also Victor Amoussou’s and Leea Pienimäki-Amoussou’s work can be seen soon in Finland, when their exhibition opens on 3^rd September in Hämeenlinna. Like Hazoume’s, Amoussou’s work treats the subjects of modernization and change. His perspective is optimistic and two-fold: looking back to the traditions and history and trying to build bridges in time and between cultures. His animistic and environmental ethics is well visible in his work, as well as his ability to form a dialogue between African and European traditions and philosophies and make the connections more intelligible.

Anna Ovaska

Alpha Omega playing with Georges Agbazahou at Juhlaviikkoklubi, Helsinki. Photo by Pekka Lehtimäki.