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Johannes Purovaara

Johannes Purovaara - they/them


Performing artist

Country: Sweden – Finland

Discipline: Theater – Performance – Community art

Type of public space: Urban – Periphery

PLATFORM 2025 - 2028 2027 creations

Artist's pitch

Biography

Johannes Purovaara is a performing artist based in Sweden who holds a Master's degree in Dance Performance from the University of the Arts Helsinki. They have worked across contemporary dance and performance, theatre, dance theatre and audio drama, and performed on stages such as the Finnish National Theatre and Helsinki City Theatre, as well as in the Finnish National Broadcasting Company’s radio plays and at numerous national and international performing arts festivals. Their past collaborators include WAUHAUS-collective and Jenni-Elina Von Bagh.

Johannes has also worked as a janitor, a gravedigger and a librarian, among other roles. These experiences have inspired them to make art for public spaces about how different social positions are encountered, recognised or left invisible in the spaces we share. An example of this is the concept "Public Vampire", which they carried out as the invited artist of the Malmö Community Biennale 2025; dressed as a vampire they worked as a runner, helping guests and organizers in any way they needed. In another concept they enabled kids to transform into bats during a city festival.

In 2025 the Finnish Kone Foundation awarded them a 2-year working grant and a residency at Saari Manor in Finland.

Artistic project

Mascoting was born out of an open call to a theatre based in a newly built district in Helsinki. The identity of the neighborhood is still in formation, and the theatre itself has stated a desire to renegotiate its standing in the area. Mascoting is a way to engage in this process.

I conduct this first iteration in the summer of 2027, as a durational performance in two parts. In the first part I work in the street in the vicinity of the theatre dressed as a street fundraiser. I initiate conversations with passers by, asking them about their opinions of this theatre. Moving from simple questions to imaginative ones, I ask them what a mascot for this institution should be like. The conversations become spaces for co-creation. After the conversations on the street, I make the mascot costume. The second part of the performance is the revealing event of the mascot. 

The project is adaptable to different contexts and durations. The figure of the fundraiser can change into a more suitable public facing figure and instead of a mascot the conversations may bring about e.g. a theme song, a manifesto or a communal drawing.

At the heart of Mascoting is letting communities perceive and exercise their agency in shaping the identities and operations of the arts institutions in their neighborhoods. For the arts institutions it is a rehearsal in entanglement in their everyday environments.


Format: durational performance in two parts

Size of audience: 1-100

Specific location: in the streets

Timing/duration: conversations about the mascot in public space - 1 to 4 weeks; Making the mascot - 1 week; Event where the mascot is revealed - adaptable.

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