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Descending, 2020
Public event: performance, painting, platform, text, objects and coffee
For the 2020 edition of ANTI-Contemporary Art Festival, a master of coffee, Jani Mikkonen has prepared freshly roasted coffee for this coffee ceremony, Descending, at Puijonnokka laavu, Kuopio. A mixture of Castro and Colombia variety, the coffee is the product of a family owned and operated farm, Finca El Paraiso, from Piendarmo in Colombia. The coffee was harvested from 1930 m above sea level, and it has been anaerobically fermented twice in the coffee cherry in two different temperature settings. Mikkonen chose this particular coffee for the exceptional quality and its potentiality. Together with quantitive analyses, Mikkonen’s keen sensitivity develops both the roasting and brewing processes. Through the thorough craftsmanship of Mikkonen, the coffee is now awaiting for the experience of savoring – with the maximum complexity, sweet and optimal balance among the multifaceted tastes. This is the another dream of Mikkonen, pursuing ever since his first encounter of the love for the coffee. With Mikkonen, a visual artist, Shoji Kato, has developed the idea of this “coffee ceremony” in relation to other spiritual practices (such as the qahwah in Sufi shrines and tea ceremonies in Japan). Kato wanted to create a place that inspires the ways we see our places and moments in relation to the Earth and new temporality. Puijo offers us the wonderful view. It is an enormous hill resulted from the bulldozing effect of the glacier movement in ice-age. We don’t know if ancient people enjoyed looking this same scenery, but people are said to have been attracted to this surrounding scenery with Kallavesi lake from the early 19th century. Puijo became an official treasure of Kuopio when its area of 2.08 square kilometers became the one of the first nature conservation areas in Finland in 1928. How many souls have been touched or eased by this beauty? Are we seeing the same to the people in the past? Can our grand children eat the fish from the lake and see this landscape with proper snow too?
The coffee cups are designed by Jani Mikkonen and the works of Katsuhiko Matsui from Fukui, Japan.
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