Performance artist Meiju Niskala, who lived with her brain ill mother for years, saw what a bad death is like. That is why he has planned a better one for himself. Questions of life and death in reading with Ani Kellomäki.

Performing artist Meiju Niskala is known for her communal works of art and bubbling style. Why is everyone depressed, so how can Niskala be so social and positive, or can she?

Author Miki Liukkonen visits Niskala’s home and tries to find out.

Artist interrview:

Experience at the heart of the performing arts.

Meiju Niskala and radical empathy in community art: Art has ability to let us look differently.

The explorer of sorrow

Artist Meiju Niskala lost her mother first, then her husband, grandfather, dogs and friends.

The artist found solace through play.

Editor: Kristiina Sarasti

The guest in the episode is the performance artist and author Meiju Niskala, whose life almost revolutionized almost everything: her mother became ill and died, the relationship ended and her health collapsed. From these experiences, he wrote the book One Hundred Letters to a Dead Mother. Why can encountering a grieving person be frightening or even troublesome?

Miki Liukkonen and artist Meiju Niskala have both experienced the death of their mother. How has the loss of a loved one ultimately affected the lives of both? The episode also plans its own funeral.

There were so many losses and abandonments in the life of artist Meiju Niskala a few years ago that at some point he says he put clothes on the robot vacuum cleaner and timed it to wait for him so that even someone in an empty home would be waiting for her.

Difficult things can also be viewed with curiosity and even utilized in the artist's work, but is it too much or does such suffering refine Meiju as an artist?

Suffering can be a part of meaningful life.
Artist and author Meiju Niskala tells how the global crisis year feels like one for whom suffering has been a part of life for a long time. Why do we believe that only a life free from suffering is successful? And where to draw a playful mind if you have forgotten to play as an adult?

One does not need to follow all her thoughs. Meiju Niskala’s new book “When breathing is not enough has just been published.

Many homes are packed with store-bought toys. But are separate toys needed or is the home itself already a sufficient play area? Artist Meiju Niskala and Kaisa Järnefelt, discussing.