Tero Kokko (1962)

• Visual Arts
• Performing Artist
• Kitchen supervisor
• Photograph
• What is art?

Interest in art has always been a part of my life. It has manifested itself in different ways at different times.

Visual Arts

Throughout elementary school, I got the mark 10 (highest) in art. When I was in ninth grade of elementary school, the teacher put three drawings I had made at lessons in front of me and said “apply to the Ateneum with these, and you will be admitted.” For a child of a working−class family, art was not a profession and one did not earn a living with it. However, the mentality guided me to a career as a chef.

Performing Artist

When we were 14, my best friend asked a magician if he could teach us. This gave rise to a small magician club, the Magic Society of Shadow Brothers. It was also the beginning of a 20−year career as a performing artist.

Kitchen supervisor

I had to end my career as a chef in the early 1990s because my sight simply was not good enough for working in large−scale kitchens any more.

During my career, I graduated as a kitchen supervisor at the restaurant school Perho. For the last working years, I was first a representative chef at Nokia Data's office in Pitäjänmäki and after that as a freelancer representative chef.

Photograph

Photography is to me a way of expressing myself. On the other hand, the camera is also my tool that assists in seeing far and small things. Over the last few years, I have been taking a lot of courses in photography, because how can you break the rules when you are photographing if you do not know the rules.

I have been involved in various photography communities and group exhibitions since 2018.

What is art?

What is art and what should it look like? Maybe it is more a question of the frenzy of creation and that it can be calmed down by doing. When you know you are making a unique portion of food or taking a picture that makes something happen, you get peace. When making whatever art you do, you have to study, and in order to learn you also have to listen to other people's views. You can decide for yourself whether or not to take them into account. But you have to listen. How else can you develop if you do not have friends with whom to compete?

Tero Kokko