Today we are talking to Timo Soppela, artist and the director of MUU galleria about this year’s exhibition and good old times. MUU is a Supermarket veteran you could say, as it is the seventh time they participate.

Hi Timo! Could you tell us a little bit about MUU galleria’s exhibition at Supermarket 2016?

MUU has been developing different ways to present and promote the work of performance and sound artists, and we have also tried to find new ways to make their work accessible to bigger audiences. This year we will present Sound Art Bank and Performance Bank. These are internet databases of artists working in these fields. There will also be performance and sound art publications produced by MUU. A very special project by the artist Essi Kausalainen will be presented – MUU produced a community performance artwork for her last year, and this work was also commissioned by the Finnish State Art Commission. Kausalainen will also be participating in Supermarket’s TALKS program.

This is the seventh year that MUU Gallery participates. What is your best memory of participating in Supermarket?

It must be the first time, and that immediate feeling of noticing how great a networking event Supermarket is. But I have to say that every year the art fair has renewed itself and we have been able to achieve new things, and each time we excitedly look forward to the coming event.

Did it lead to new partnerships/collaborations in what you, or your organisation, does today?

We have made many new contacts, and done several new projects. Many of Supermarket's participants have became friends. We have participated in other artist-run art fairs in Europe. MUU has even, together with the Photographic Artists’ Association, organised our own art fair in Helsinki since 2005 (Art Fair Suomi), which last year, for the first time, invited galleries from outside Finland to participate.

What do you look forward to most at this year’s Supermarket?

The databases MUU is presenting for Swedish and international audiences are very much a work-in-progress, something we have been developing for years, and this development will continue. Sound Art Bank is really new, officially it was published only in February this year! So we're looking forward to feedback. We are also always looking for new artists to participate in our programmes. MUU’s sound art seminar will be held in connection with Supermarket during the weekend, and we wish artists and organisations working in this field to participate in the seminar.