For now, we’re trying to sketch the big picture of the performance: what we have, what to say and how to say it, what kind of space to create on stage. Our aim is to have a working process where music, movement, light and scenography have an equal impact on the final result. That is, movement material may be affected by musical ideas, or melodies might appear from a discussion about the space. A great help in realizing this comes from our previous processes: through these, we have been able to test ideas both during research and performances. By now we also have a large bank of experiences which serves as a platform, which will help our different backgrounds to become a resource rather than a source of confusion.

In our previous process in Russia, we were more busy making things than documenting them. We will try to make up for that along the way. For now, we have a large unsorted collection of images to show you here, and very soon we will share some video material from our performance at the Body Navigation festival in St Petersburg.

There are also finnish buses to St Petersburg, but the russian bus departs from a secret parking lot a few blocks behind the Helsinki bus station. We were the only non-russian on board, just as advertised.

The bus is the main means of transportation for a large group of russian women on 24-hour visas, buying tax free detergent and Nescafé in the border shop for reselling in Russia.

Our first stop: Galleria Grasnaja, St Petersburg. An old apartment which will serve as base for a projection-based, live streamed experiment together with Flat Corner, starting the 2nd week of July.

In Moscow, we had a three day hit-and-run rehearsal and performance at Café OGI. A very nice place, with large screen football in the basement and contemporary art upstairs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moveproject/

Have spent all day working, and in two days we are having a gig in a club here in Dnepropetrovsk. We have discussed fort and back on how setting a structure for our performance, because it is somehow complicated finding a balance between a stage performance and a concert in this club environment. We now feel that  music and the visual may be in the centre, and maybe Lotta and Sasha will play a different role than on a propper stage. Maybe a more ongoing and loose performance in their characters will fit, rather than a fixed dance structure. Zavoloka, Johannes and I believe we have somehow found a plan in how to deal with our collaboration in music and video. Improvisations over a set of themes,  connected to our research period in Vilkovo and Kiev. I feel like a lighting designer without lamps, as my role is more and more connected to video. I feel excitement in dealing and performing with live video clips in real-time, since I am not a very experienced VJ, but I feel thrust in my material and in my improvisation skills.

Dnepropetrovsk is really superb. By only its name I was imagining an industrial and grey city, but my preconceptions are once again turning out to be wrong. The city seems really green and inviting, with an relaxed atmosphere. Trees and parks all over, interesting architecture, and the river Dnepr flowing like a snake through the city. The city is not filthy at all; it seems fresh and appealing with a slight nostalgic touch of the Soviet Union days. We rent an apartment somehow central in the city, through some of Zavolokas friends in the experimental music scene of the city.

Today out Russian team member Sasha arrived from Moscow. At last move project are united, and the work can somehow be structured more precisely toward stage performance. We also have access to a great studio now in town, a place we all found reliving to have as working ground.

Our first trough session in studio was established by me presenting two video clips from the material I have been working on from our stay in the trance pop city. The idea was that I feed the others with the material and somehow explain my feelings and thoughts through them. The others were supposed to respond, somehow creating a short individual piece influenced by mine. It is really interesting how different expressions as music and movements may fit so well together. As a working method it feels effective in communicating over such different fields of art, and I am looking forward to get input from the others in developing video loops and images with light.

Later we went to the club were we are supposed to perform later this week together with local artist and Dj from the experiment scene in Dnepropetrovsk. The club environment may become challenging to deal with, especially for me when it comes to the technical issues and how working within the space, but I hope we will manage to do something interesting about it.

Tonight we have spent time walking around in the parks and by the riverbank of Dnepro, together with Zavoloka’s friends from the area, some of them artists in the experimental electronic scene, and two dancers taking part in a workshop Lotta and Sasha are holding in during the week. Really great people, but again I only wished I knew the language better, because English is not quite the second language here. By the way, and an interesting fact, Ukraine seems more and more divided when it comes to language. In Dnepropetrovsk they seem to speak more Russian than Ukrainian. I still find it strange how cultural identity and language may differ within a country.

We only had a couple of ours before the night train to Dnepropetrovsk. Enough time for a tasty dinner and a brief walk around in the city core. It feels like a place I would like to explore more sometime in the future. The rawness, the beggars, the dirty market, the constant stream of people, the dangerous looking wild dogs on the corners; it alerts my senses in some way. I think there are many secrets in these alleys and streets. I hope in time I will get to know some of them better.

This afternoon I said good-bye to Fjodor the Marshrutka driver who got disappointed in me leaving already. “I have memories” I said pointing at my camera, referring to the action film starring Fjodor handling an engine problem on the way to Vilkovo. He replied with that he didn’t have anything for memory and asked me when I’m coming back. I didn’t have an answer for that.

The bus cuts through the flat landscape on a dusty and narrow road. As far as my eye can see the scenery around me consists of enormous fields, interrupted by tiny villages, cows, scattered vegetation and woodlands.  The colour out here feels not as saturated. Even though it’s green, it’s a bleacher green today. There is a straw like yellow tint in the tones of my panorama. It somehow peaceful to watch and it feels like the time must go slower out here.

On our way, the road suddenly turns into Moldavian territory. It feels somehow exotic, as my knowledge of Moldavia only goes as far as: its size, their football matches against Norway in the last qualification for the European championship, and that they are one of the poorest of countries in Europe when it comes to economy.
But the landscape feels the same, and soon the poor road leads us again through the checkpoint and into Ukraine…