VENLA
Media ecologist, female, Tampere/Hamburg, active since: 2003 Works in mixed media.
On my diploma it says media ecologist and I quite like this expression. With art I don’t really earn a lot of money. I somehow think it never will bring really income, since my art is more oriented towards sound and text.
How much I work is very different, on average I would say 36 hours per week and then at least 6 hours per week for applications or the like.
I spend maybe 100-200€ per month for living without rent.. But I am not spending a lot and it is only possible because I go containering for food. Rent is 100€ – which is really not a lot, but this is only because the house is to be demolished. It is an old wooden house and the property is just worth too much that they would leave it. And they are going to demolish it quite soon, so one reason less for me to stay in Finland.
Plus another 50-100€ per month for materials like CD’s… For my work I need a video camera and a computer, which I bought 3 years ago, it cost me around 3000€.
Social security is in Finland provided by the state for everybody.
I have been registered as unemployed in Finland for the last two years, where I get 370€ plus you can apply for some rent money. Many young artists do that, register as unemployed but of course then you have to juggle and lie with the authorities so you can still maybe get some project funding. And you can only do that for 2 years, since you have to give some sort of plan to the unemployment agency and if you don’t realize these plans, then you just have to go do what they tell you to do. Which means you can’t make art any more.
For me the unemployment support ended a month ago and now I have this residency where I can stay in Vienna (but do not get a stipend with it) and I don’t know what I am going to do. I might as well go somewhere else. It was ok for the last two years; I needed it somehow, being back in Finland, since it was also of my artistic interest, Finnish stories, but now…
In addition to that my mother and my grandmother have helped me. They are pretty poor, nevertheless my grandmother then sends me 20€ or so per month in a letter. And an artist book I have had printed in offset in 300 copies they have also sponsored, which cost around 1500€. For the second book now I got funding from the state.
Vienna, March 8, 2006