Vita
Johanna Ruotsalainen (born in 1983) is a Finnish composer, visual artist, and senior lecturer in music theory and composition in Oulu UAS. In recent years, Ruotsalainen has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed international contemporary performers, ensembles and festivals, such as the Ligeti Quartet (UK), Mise-en Ensemble (NY), Ensemble Avantgarde (GE) and ToolBox Percussion (CHN). A native of the Arctic area, Ruotsalainen is working to increase the inclusion of marginal voices in the globalized, Western-centered, and historically colonialized definition of high-arts: Culture is used to perpetuate differences by giving visibility and experience of belonging only to certain stories. Criteria for artistic quality are not traditionally verbalized in detail but are hidden behind peer and expert evaluations. The artistic quality presented and perceived as universal can obscure the mechanisms that maintain inequality, which produces exclusion based on, for example, place of origin.
