Final seminar: From artists to artists – Insights from the Professional Media Presence project
From artists to artists – Insights from the Professional Media Presence Project seminar explores artistic identity, professional visibility, and the opportunities offered by international collaboration. Taking an artist-to-artist approach, the event highlights experiences, perspectives, and practices emerging from the Professional Media Presence (PMP) project and presents the key findings of the four-year initiative. Through presentations, discussions, artist talks, and practical examples, the seminar offers insights into how artists navigate professional media presence across both physical and digital environments.
The programme features reflections on artistic identity, experiences from international residencies, and the presentation of Forms of Presence, a toolkit developed within the PMP project to support artists in strengthening their professional visibility and communication, as well as offering a critical perspective on transforming media environments.
Who is it for?
Hosted at the Aine Art Museum in Tornio, Finland, the seminar is open to artists, students, educators, cultural professionals, and anyone interested in contemporary artistic practice and professional development.
How to attend?
In addition to the live event in Tornio, the event can also be attended online via live stream. The language of the seminar is English.
The seminar is part of the Oulu 2026 European Capital of Culture program and it is organised by the PMP-project and co-funded by European Union, Creative Europe program.
Programme
Please note all times are EET (Helsinki, Finland, UCT+2)
9.00 Registration and coffee
9.30 Performance
Miradonna Sirkka, experimental circus and performance artist, Turku UAS PMP national artist team member
Please note: no streaming, only for the audience in Tornio
10.00 Welcome and official greetings
Marika Saranne, manager, Digital Solutions Expertise Group, Lapland UAS
Jenni Nuorala, City of Tornio, General Cultural Services, Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture
Please note: streaming begins
10.20 PMP project introduction
Anni Sundbacka, senior lecturer, Performing Arts and Music, Turku UAS, PMP project content manager
10.30 Introduction to “from artist to artist” perspectives
Jasmina Šarić, curator, co-founder, Culture Hub Croatia, member of the PMP project team
10.45 Panel discussion: From artists to artists, artistic identity
Moderator: Jasmina Šarić, curator, co-founder, Culture Hub Croatia, member of the PMP project team
Panelists: Giovanni Sabelli Fioretti, artistic co-director at Perypezye Urbane, member of the PMP project team
Raffaella Menchetti, director, performer, filmmaker, associated artist
Miradonna Sirkka, experimental circus and performance artist, Turku UAS PMP national artist team member
Alexandra Stroganova, transdisciplinary artist, Turku UAS PMP national artist team member
11.30 Break
11.45 Presenting the Forms of presence -toolkit
Panu Pohjola, Master of Arts (Theatre and Drama), senior lecturer, Bachelor of Culture and Arts, Visual Arts, Digital Solutions, Lapland UAS, member of the PMP project team
11.55 Toolkit from residency artist’s perspective
Alexandra Stroganova, transdisciplinary artist, Turku UAS NAT member, PMP project residency artist
12.15 Artist talk
Angela Bettoni, multidisciplinary artist and artivist, disability rights advocate performer, Prisms Malta PMP national artist team member
Please note: pre-recorded video
12.35-13.00 Closing discussion and final remarks
Speakers
Miradonna Sirkka, performer, artist and artistic director of multidisciplinary art collective Recover Laboratory
Miradonna Sirkka is a performance and experimental circus artist and the artistic director of Recover Laboratory. Her works dive into pleasure, excess, everyday awkwardness and the grotesque: emotions too big, too messy or too hidden to handle. In physically demanding acts and saturated kitsch environments, the body becomes a site of contradiction. She works with social choreography: patterning trust, distance and exposure between performer and audience. Her work has been shown i.e. at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Helsinki Festival and New Performance Turku Biennale, and in the CircusNext final. Miradonna is a member of the Turku UAS PMP national artist team.
IG: @miradonnasirkka / @recoverlaboratory
Jenni Nuorala, cultural producer, painter, City of Tornio
Jenni Nuorala is a producer, acting library director and artist with a multidisciplinary career spanning culture, education, HR, and organizational development. She currently works as a producer for the City of Tornio as part of the Oulu 2026 European Capital of Culture programme. Drawing on experience in large-scale change initiatives, and community engagement, she is passionate about creating meaningful experiences that bring people together and inspire learning, participation, and cultural vitality.
jenni.nuorala@tornio.fi
LinkedIn: Jenni Nuorala
Anni Sundbacka, senior lecturer, Department of Performing Arts and Music, Turku University of Applied Sciences
Anni Sundbacka is an arts professional with expertise in pedagogy, leadership and curation. She works as a senior lecturer at the Arts Academy of Turku UAS and as executive director of New Performance Turku Biennale. Her background is in art research and in leading arts organisations, projects and events in multidisciplinary contexts, particularly performance art and contemporary performance. She is the lecturer responsible for content in the Professional Media Presence project.
LinkedIn: Anni Sundbacka
Jasmina Šarić, curator, co-founder, Culture Hub Croatia
Jasmina Šarić is a curator, cultural manager and co-founder of Culture Hub Croatia, a non-profit organisation based in Split that explores new approaches to non-institutional art practices and since 2021 managing creative hub Prostor, where she works as an artistic director. Her work is based around participatory and community projects, collective work, public art and space as a site for curatorial research. She is a member of the PMP project team.
Giovanni Sabelli Fioretti, choreographer, dance dramaturg and cultural manager, Perypezye Urbane ETS
Giovanni Sabelli Fioretti is an Italian choreographer, dance dramaturg and cultural manager based in Berlin. He is Artistic Co-Director of Perypezye Urbane in Italy. His work combines artistic practice, curatorial research and international cultural cooperation, with a particular interest in the relationship between performing arts, digital media and artistic identity. Through European projects, he explores how artists construct their professional presence, communicate their work and engage with audiences across different cultural contexts. He is a member of the PMP project team.
giovanni@perypezyeurbane.org
IG: @giosabelfiore / @perypezye
www.perypezyeurbane.org
Raffaella Menchetti, director, performer, film maker, associated artist
Raffaella Menchetti is an Italian performance artist, director and visual artist working at the intersection of performing arts, video and technology. Drawing on gender studies, her research explores the body as a space of resistance and transformation, investigating relationships between violence, care and pleasure. Combining technological languages, somatic research and participatory practices, she creates performances and audiovisual works that challenge dominant narratives and transform personal and collective experiences into spaces for shared reflection.
raffaellamenchettiart@gmail.com
IG: @chetti_ra_men_art
www.raffaellamenchettiart.com
Alexandra Stroganova, artist, curator & art educator
Alexandra Stroganova is a Helsinki-based transdisciplinary artist exploring the entanglements of nature and culture, human and more-than-human worlds. Informed by new materialism and hydrofeminism, her research-based practice engages material agency, care, and sustainability through analogue and alternative photography, video and installations. Her work has been exhibited in Finland and developed through international artist residencies. Alexandra is a member of the Turku UAS PMP national artist team.
IG: @xstrox
www.alexandrastroganova.com
Panu Pohjola, senior lecturer of visual arts, fine art photographer Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Panu Pohjola is a photographic artist and a lecturer in visual arts based in Tornio, Lapland, Finland. His background is in the performing arts and film. Since the 2000s, his primary medium has been photography, and in the 2020s he has focused on analog photography. Panu Pohjola is interested in the traces of human existence and the fundamental conditions of life, and considers a systemic connection to nature to be important. He is currently participating in the Meän Periferia members’ exhibition in Kemi and is preparing an exhibition of analog photography in Tornio. Panu is a member of the PMP project team.
IG: @forestgrapher
Angela Bettoni, performer and advocate with Down Syndrome
Angela Bettoni is an artivist, writer & advocate with Down Syndrome. She holds a BA in Creative Arts and Advanced Diploma in Performing Arts. Her performance training began at SOPA, followed by Opening Doors Association. Her training has included a DanceWEB scholarship to ImpulsTanz Festival Vienna; Europe Beyond Access International Laboratory Cycles in Spain and Portugal; and placements with Skanes Dansteatre, Chickenshed Theatre and Stopgap Dance Company. She has performed in professional productions in Malta, Italy, Greece, Germany, Sweden and Sri Lanka. She received a University of Malta Social Commitment Award for advancing accessibility and inclusion in the arts. Angela is a member of the Prisms Malta PMP national artist team.
IG: @angelabettoni18
FB: @angelabettoni