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

In my upcoming concept ”Mascoting” I develop a mascot for a performing arts institution by talking to people on the street about said institution. Embodying the easily recognizable and often evaded public figure of a F2F-fundraiser I attempt to have concrete, abstract, poetic or polemic conversations with passers-by about what a mascot of this performing arts institution should be like. 

After working in the public space from one to four weeks I will make a mascot costume informed by these conversations. The costume will be a fusion of - probably conflicting - views that people hold of the institution. The whole work is public-facing but an event where the mascot is revealed will be hosted at our around the institution at the end of the working period. I suspect that people will encounter the mascot in a very different way than my fundraiser persona. 

I find it interesting that the mascot might not be to everyone’s liking. Would this suggest that the mascot fails to represent the institution? The concept can be a useful, critical tool for bringing light to some of the aspects of the institution that might be hard to access otherwise.

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.