I'm back in my normal life in the village, the art world is far away again. Last week's operation in Helsinki was perfect in many ways , I'm happy with the show at Korjaamo Galleria and I confirmed my position as the number one dissident intellectual in Finland. While I was boarding my homebound flight, Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest newspaper of the country, phoned me and interviewed me about Ukraine and the Neo Cold War. The russophobic media asked me if my opinions are a provocative art project or is it really possible that I'm against the West. The journalists are brainwashed and unable even to question the propaganda they are transmitting. I had to stop answering when the aircraft was moving. When I swtiched my telephone on in Madrid the article was already online. 

It's the opening day morning and I'm relaxing in my mom's sauna. Soon I go to Korjaamo Galleria to check the lights and other details. In the afternoon I give an interview for Tiedonantaja, the publication of the Communist Party of Finland. It's going to be a soft drink opening this time because I have to cab directly from the gallery to Sarasvuo's talk show. I'm live on TV at 10pm.

It has been a busy week installing the show and, in addition, I participated in a round table discussion about Instagram and talked in the press conference of the new Serlachius Museum that opens in June with solo shows of Eija-Liisa Ahtila and your truly. Timo curates there a pop art exhibition that includes works of Warhol, Hamilton, Hirst and also younger Finnish artists like Liisa, Jani and me.

Yesterday, Carlos Urroz, the director of Arco Madrid art fair, flew in just for my show and the gallery gave him a dinner party. I still don't understand very well why he came - is it possible that I'm that important? And why am I asking this? Is it that I'm becoming humble?

A collector of mine organized a party at his home to celebrate the acquisition of my painting Cold War Was Cool. The work was executed in 2007 before Russia had gained back the status of  a geopolitical global player. I hadn't seen the big picture since the Kosmostars show at Korjaamo Galleria in 2009. I like rendezvouses with old works - they have an independent life transforming their meanings beyond my control. The greatest art works are images of their times but at the same time grow even larger in the course of the history.

Seven years ago we lived in the post 9/11 world where the sole narrative was the American asymmetric war against terrorism. Now the rivalry is again between Moscow and Washington but it's nature is not ideological - or camouflaged in ideology -  like in the old days. Both entities are capitalist and corrupt. The difference is that Russia is at least logic - they fight against fascists and islamists everywhere. Americans are more opportunist, they unite with any madmen that fight against Russia or its allies like Al Qaeda in Syria or Svoboda in Ukraine. I don't sympathize with Vladimir Vladimirovich's politics but without his government the world would be unbalanced and freely bullied by the U.S. backed corsairs and terrorists.

Sometimes I wonder how it's possible to be so busy and earn no money. I think I'm doing something terribly wrong or the capitalism just doesn't work.

Too often  the amount of office work is so overwhelming that I forget that the core of my job is the studio. Sometimes I daydream that if I had money, I'd hire a person to work with me - but I can't decide if he were a secretary or a studio assistant. I have an artist friend who has staff to do everything and he spends time in tropical island resorts. That's not my dream, I love my job.

On Thursday I travel too but not to any hot paradise. I'm off to the polar Finland for a couple of shows. This Friday we install and inaugurate Used Panties and Dirty Bombs at Galleria Ville, Nurmijärvi. It's a small exhibition space adjunct to a public library, where I'm going to do also a little intervention. Next week my momentous Riiko Sakkinen Painted Himself into a Corner opens at Korjaamo Galleria. If this show doesn't sell, I send myself to a corner as a punishment.

Yesterday was horrible, I landed home from Arco Madrid art fair at 3am exhausted and the van's gas tank was as empty as I felt myself. All fueling stations were closed and the vehicle was reminding me constantly that the fuel level was critical.

I was disappointed because I had set my goals very high and achieved them only partially. My solo booth was the most photographed thing of the fair and the media (and social media) attention was unprecedented. Unfortunately we couldn't transform the visibility to big sales. One of the plates went to Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and few others to private collections in Turkey, Switzerland and Finland. My works were asked for several shows from Bogotá to Barcelona and from Jakarta to Stockholm.

I'd need a good vacation but there's no time to rest. Next week I go Finland for my solo show at Korjaamo Galleria. Maybe it will be finally my commercial breakthrough. My wife had to tolerate my complaining one day but now I'm again self-confident ad believe that it's just a matter of time when I'm bigger than Picasso.