Sound and performance artist Jaap Klevering has been designing, directing and recording sounds, music, dance and theatre performances, films, installations and other art projects for more than 30 years. In addition, he has been teaching and directing both professionals and amateurs. Dutch-born Klevering has been living and working in Finland since 1983. He also has extensive experience working in projects relating to art and well-being.
Merja Pennanen is a performer, director, community artists and drama educator. Pennanen has worked in regional theatres and the field of art in general since 2002, e.g. as a community artist at Joensuu Theatre and as a regional curator at Rovaniemi regional theatre. She is interested in artists’ different means of interaction, marginalized subjects and groups, and collective working methods.
Klevering and Pennanen have worked together already for over ten years for example at the regional theatre of Rovaniemi, Joensuu Theatre and multiple independent, communal art projects. In social art the artist couple is inspired by people’s voices and stories and bringing them forth. The latest collaboration of the artists was a touring sound art exhibition ‘’Veistos soi!’’, which was created together with sculptor Tuomas Ollikainen. The exhibition toured nursing homes and other housing units around Finland. The artworks of the exhibition were interactive, and the actions of the viewers, such as touch and movement, made the soundscapes change and alter.
During their residency period in Ii, Klevering and Pennanen worked together on a project for the annual light festival ‘’Valonjuhla’’. During their residency period Pennanen collected dark stories from locals at the Ii library. These stories were then incorporated into the soundscapes of Jaap Klevering’s installation Path of Light and Sound seen at the newly built Lähde! –park during the festival.
