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Being in love is like feeling the sun from both sides:

A performance for one person at a time that examines ways in which art can be made personally relevant to those experiencing it

‘Being in love is like feeling the sun from both sides’ was a work performed for one participant at a time.

The Finnish folksong words ’Being in love is like feeling the sun from both sides’ inspired Juha, a Turku actor, and myself to gather real-life love stories from the citizens of Turku and commit them all to memory. Juha learned the ones submitted in Finnish, and I the ones in English. The next day, Juha and I - standing between two sunlamps and under the bright summer sun - simultaneously whispered into the ears of passers-by the stories we had memorized: Finnish in one ear and English in the other. Each participant is bombarded with two different and equally captivating true love stories in each ear (possibly their own), whilst being roasted by the "suns" from all sides.

Following my on-going interest in the phenomenon of innate human empathy and its role in ensuring resonant and vicarious bonds between the artist and the viewer/participant, this work examined the ways in which art can be made personally relevant to those experiencing it. This performance creates an intimate and immersive experience by using the participant’s history as raw material for the work, and by transforming the participants’ role from nonchalant viewer to co-creator.

New Performance is produced by Framil Network of Performing Arts and Arts Council of Varsinais-Suomi, and supported by Kone Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation and Arts Council Finland. Other performers included Oreet Ashery (Israel/Great Britain), Wathiq Al-Ameri & Ali Al-Fatlawi (Iraq/Switzerland), and Gary Stevens (Great Britain). ‘Being in love is like feeling the sun from both sides’ was written about in TAIDE art journal in 2012, and performed again at Vanderbilt University’s Curb Centre in January 2013.