The one who connects
Minttu, Janne and I were sitting in a café talking about our projects when a stranger spoke to us. He had heard me say something in German. Gabriel Landstedt, concert pianist from the USA, raised in New Mexico, piano lessons from the age of five with his mother, orchestra debut at sixteen, stations in Würzburg and New York. He did not stay long, he was on his way to the train to Helsinki. But our paths crossed that day, in that place, we talked, and we connected on Instagram. How often do you meet people like that, just like this?
The most beautiful footnote I only learned later: in those very days, Gabriel played his Finland recital at Ainola, the home of Jean Sibelius. And Sibelius was born here, in Hämeenlinna. So chance kept a beat.
And then there is Minttu Saarinen, the central figure of my time here. She is an artist and at the same time the driving force behind everything: she organises, connects and supports, she made this residency possible, and she always thinks one step ahead. I am fascinated by her work, by her presence, and by how she got all of this off the ground. The world needs more people like her.
Together with Minttu I am currently shaping the future of this exchange: between people, between artists, between the towns of Celle and Hämeenlinna, and not least between Finland and Germany. The idea is a reciprocal artistic exchange with working stays and exhibitions on both sides. What the artists arrive with is up to each of them, and that is exactly the appeal. The beginning is made, this residency is the proof, and there is already interest in a continuation in Celle. The two towns have been twins since 1972, so there is a foundation to build on.
Looking back on these weeks, perhaps that is the real lesson of these days of meeting people: none of it was mere chance. It was openness, on both sides. Here, chance always meets open doors.
None of it was mere chance.“Note, mid-July