The Crossing Borders degree programme was established at the Turku Arts Academy in Autumn 1999 in order to provide a practical and theoretical education in performance art and interdisciplinary practice. Four years later the first group of students are graduating and ‘The Last Escape’ is a week long presentation of their work.
Unfortunately these will be the only students graduating from the course as the Turku Arts Academy has taken the decision to close the Crossing Borders programme. As is often the case, genuine innovation is rarely supported within institutional structures.
Crossing Borders has been an original education (the only course of its kind in Finland), focusing on performance art but also closely involved with the most contemporary areas of practice in interdisciplinary and other artistic forms. One of the course’s key objectives has to been to provide the students with an international context in which to explore their ideas, and to prepare them to work professionally in the most contemporary and challenging areas of international artistic activity.
The Last Escape will be a showcase of diversity and experimentation. The work presented includes performance art, installation, photography, text work, film and video. Although more important than the range of media is the diverse range of artistic and cultural approaches used by the individual students. Each one uniquely defines their own creative approach to a contemporary artistic practice in a radically different way.
Christopher Hewitt
Course Leader – Crossing Borders, Turku Arts Academy
The students exhibiting work are: Ellen Friis, Ekaterina Gontcharova, Suvi-Maria Helin, Antti Helminen, Maija Hirvanen, Liisa Jaakonaho, Essi Kausalainen, Leena Kela, Aapo Korkeaoja, Linda Loikkanen, Marja Mikkonen, Suvi Parrilla, Tarik Zeraoui Sanchez.