The historical context from which my thinking arises, is Finnish, especially Helsinki-based, live art in the first decades of the millennium. This scene is a mix of art made by local artists and visiting international works programmed by local institutions. International touring works are presented mostly in the context of several annual festivals; they have served as inspiration for the local scene, which is in effect a type of occidental contemporary art with locally distinctive features. The local genre is in Finnish called esitystaide. It is useful to stop for a moment to consider the Finnish term.

Esitys is generally translated as performance, while they do not mean the same. This is well exemplified by the Finnish translation, by Riina Maukola, of Marvin Carlson’s Performance: A Critical Introduction. Maukola’s translation for the title of the book is telling: the book is titled Esitys ja performanssi: kriittinen johdatus, which is to say that two words are needed to translate the English word performance (Carlson 2006, cover, see also Porkola 2019). This reflects a difference not only in the meanings of the words in the theoretical sense, but also a difference between local artistic traditions. Maukola makes a point of how the (US-based) genre Carlson is writing about does not exist as such in the Finnish context (Maukola 2006, 303). In Finnish, there are two transdisciplinary terms: performanssi and esitys and in Finland two artistic genres: performanssitaide and esitystaide. The universalist tendencies of the discourse in English may hide the fact that things exist and develop also in ways that might not be fully graspable in English. While Maukola’s work with the book has been valuable for the Finnish scene, it has also been an impossible task. She has had to balance between two words throughout the book and translate performance as “esitys” in one sentence and as “performanssi” in the next.

The terminological landscape: esitys, performance, performanssi, live art, esitystaide, contemporary theatre, nykyteatteri, contemporary performance, nykyesitys

Pilvi Porkola (2017) notes that “the word ‘esitys’ doesn’t include meanings of sport or business or technology” and is in dictionaries translated for example as a “presentation, proposal, rendition, show or representation”. The complexities or problematics of the relationship of performance and esitys have been noted by many others as well (Arlander 2003, 8-13; 2009, 7-13, 16-22; 2016, 15; Maukola 2005, 303; Savolainen 2005; Laitinen 2008, 7; 2011; Erkkilä 2008, 13-18; Rinne 2009, 49; Heinonen 2009, 15; Silvonen 2016, 16; Jensen 2021, 23; Korkeaoja 2022, 11). I consider that the issue goes beyond the triviality of translation always being indefinite. While there is contingency in how certain terms become introduced and popularized, the process is not completely random but reflects some meaningful aspects of the addressed issues. Terms that fit a purpose are used and in turn they influence the phenomena they articulate. In effect making and attending a performance is not entirely same as making and attending an esitys.

The word esitys appears in a dictionary by Otto Meurman in 1851. It is derived from the ancient word esi, which denotes a relative location, a location in relation to another. (Häkkinen 2011, 131, 132) Esi is used as a prefix of multiple words in Finnish and relative languages and it is close to the English prefixes pre and fore: something taking place before something, in both of the meanings of the word: previous to or in front of. Preschool translates as esikoulu, prehistory as esihistoria, prologue as esipuhe, foreplay esileikki. Taide is the Finnish word which translates as art. It was coined by Volmari Kilpinen, who proposed it in a newspaper article published in 1842. It quickly replaced taito (skill) and konsti (a direct derivative from the Swedish word for art, konst. The Finnish konsti translates currently as a way of doing something). (Kuusi 1962, 207)

The compound word esitystaide first appeared in the 1990s, started to gain an institutional status in the experimental sector of the performing arts field of Helsinki in the early 2000s and became more and more common in the Finnish discourse in 2010s and 20s. While esitys usually is translated as performance, the closest parallel for the genre of esitystaide is often considered to be the British field of Live Art. Annette Arlander (translating both terms into English with the same word) bridges between the terms like this: “The Finnish distinction between performance art (performanssi) and performance art (esitystaide) is hard to find elsewhere. Somewhat similar discussions have taken place around the British concept Live Art, which is used by many artists emphasizing performing for spectators and interaction with the audience” (Arlander 2009, 17).

If esitystaide has been linked with the British term Live Art, the equivalent for the genre term performance art (which gained popularity at first in the US) is its direct derivative performanssitaide¹. It has been used especially to refer to performances that are considered to belong to the tradition of visual arts and are focused on the body and actions of the (often solo) artist. In the early 2000s when I entered the field, there was a lively, sometimes even heated, debate among artists about the division between these two genres: performanssi- and esitystaide. The opposing sides of this debate came mostly from two different educational backgrounds: the artists making performanssitaide from visual arts, the artists making esitystaide from theatre and dance. Towards the third decade of the millennium this debate has mostly lost its relevance.

In addition to the two above mentioned terms, also nykyteatteri (contemporary theatre), nykytanssi (contemporary dance), uusi tanssi (new dance), nykysirkus (contemporary circus) and nykynukketeatteri (contemporary puppet theatre) have been used as terms defining genres that surround, border and overlap with esitystaide. Recently also the term nykyesitys (“contemporary performance”) has gained popularity. It appeared in 2010s at least in Pilvi Porkola’s dissertation (Porkola 2014, e.g. 96), but has become more popular since 2019, when local freelance artists delivered a petition signed by over 800 professionals to the board of Helsinki City Theatre, the largest theatre in Finland—appealing for the theatre to open a “nykyesityksen näyttämö”, namely a stage for contemporary performance. Following the inclusive politics of the Stage for Contemporary Performance (the first season was in 2022), nykyesitys is used as an umbrella term that encompasses all genres of performing arts with the condition that the works in question challenge the prevalent definitions of their genre(s) and thus take part in the topical transformation of performing arts².

A brief history of esitystaide

In the 1980s and early 90s there was a vibrant reformation taking place in the Helsinki contemporary arts field. The Artists’ Association Muu was founded in 1987 to gather and support artists whose work did not fit traditional categories (muu stands for other; it referred to the category of “the other” in funding applications, available for those applicants whose practice did not fit traditional genres of art). According to Heidi Romo, the activities of Muu during its first years created the framework for the way contemporary art became understood in Finland (Romo 2008). Muu became an important forum of dialogue regarding emerging artistic forms and genres and the organization of artists in relation to them. For example artists Tuija Kokkonen, Juha-Pekka Hotinen, Annette Arlander, Pieta Koskenniemi, Mika Aalto-Setälä, Jari Aalto-Setälä, Pentti Otto Koskinen, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Teemu Mäki, Cris af Enehjelm, Satu Kiljunen, Vilppu Kiljunen, Roi Vaara, Lea Kantonen, Pekka Kantonen, Irma Optimisti, Pekka Luhta and Tiina Huczkowski, as well as researchers Irmeli Kokko and Helena Erkkilä, were influential in these discussions. Performing arts groups Homo S (which was linked more to the tradition of theatre) and Jack Helen Brut (which in turn arose from the tradition of fine arts) had started their experimental work already at the beginning of the 80s and were influenced by reformers of theatre such as Jan Fabre and Robert Wilson and anticipated the emergence of esitystaide. (Hotinen 4.9.2024) These events are elaborated in Helena Erkkilä's dissertation (Erkkilä 2008).

While Muu enabled the organization of experimental artists especially in relation to the tradition of fine arts, there was also a need to foster and boost experimentation with regard to the performing arts and the theatrical tradition (as well as the tradition of dance, resulting in the founding of Zodiak Center for New Dance). Theatre artists and pedagogues Juha-Pekka Hotinen, Annette Arlander and Pieta Koskenniemi applied together for the position of the rector of the Theatre Academy in 1991. They were not chosen for the position, but the making of the application inspired an idea to institute a centre for experimental performing arts. (Hotinen 4.9.2024) Hotinen, together with Arlander, visual artist Satu Kiljunen, choreographer Ulla Koivisto, composer Olli Koskelin and performance artist Roi Vaara formed a working group to plan the realization of the center (Hotinen 2002, 153-4). Also an association called Kokeellisen esitystaiteen keskus (Engl. Centre for Experimental Esitystaide) was formed.

Apparently during this process Hotinen coined the term esitystaide and introduced it into the public discourse in a writing published in the magazine of the Theatre Academy in 1994, in which he proposed that the centre would be founded within the academy (Hotinen 2002, 153-54). According to Hotinen, the coining of the term was a strategic and political choice. It was motivated by the need to belong to and be associated with the tradition of performing arts³,  a term used widely in Northern Central Europe and the US. At the same time, esitystaide was aimed to compete, counter-argument or expand the notion of performance art, which linked everything it encompassed to the context of fine arts. (Hotinen 9.8.2024) The debate over these terms was intense in 80s and early 90s and performing arts was adopted as an umbrella term only later on. Hotinen’s idea behind the term esitystaide was that it, as well as performing arts, would be more narrowly defined to describe the grey areas that emerged between genres but originated from the theatrical tradition⁴ (a view that corresponds well with the way I am describing and defining esitystaide in this study). (Hotinen 4.9.2024) Esitystaide is thus, following the origins of the compound word, a revision of the performing arts, or more precisely, of theatre—with the savour of a contrast to performance art.

It seems that the lively artistic dialogue around Muu, the institutional creativity of the agents in this discourse, the coining of the term and the appearance of a new generation of experimental theatre artists incited a multitude of artistic and institutional expressions in the coming decades under the name of esitystaide. While the plan to realize a centre did not become institutionalized as such, it had substantial consequences in other forms. The two most obvious ones were the opening of Kiasma Theatre and the launching of Estaite MA programme in the Theatre Academy. When the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma was opened in 1998, it contained a theatre (both a department and a venue), which became an important site for the emerging genre of esitystaide. Estaite, the MA degree programme in performance art and theory (esitystaide and theory) was launched as a Finnish-language degree programme in 2001, under the leadership of Annette Arlander. Since 2007 the programme started to use English as the teaching language and was renamed the MA degree programme in Live Art and Performance Studies. (Arlander 2016)

Around the turn of the millennium, several artist collectives, which would start to define the subsequent field of esitystaide, were founded and the terrain of this newly found genre was to expand to several directions in the capital area. Teatteri Naamio ja Höyhen (1995-, since 2013 known as the Pluckhouse—an example of their repertoire is available here: Lovers’ Match Making Agency 17-20.8.2009) fused contemporary theatre with live action role play. Maus & Orlovski, led by Tuija Kokkonen (1996-, an example here: Chronopolitics—III Memo of Time March 2010), studied how live art could respond to the ecological crisis and non-human agencies and temporalities. Oblivia (2000-) developed their own style of minimalist and embodied stage work. Circus Maximus (1997-, see  International Buto Summit 6.12.2008), the Reality Research Center (re-organized from Kallion teatteri in 2001-)  and Esitystaiteen seura (Eng. Live Art Society, 2005-, see Pimeä Projekti September 2006) experimented with audience participation. Other Spaces (2004-, see Reindeer Safari October 2010 & 14.1.2017) designed ways to stage and share practices of transformation and non-human experience. Eero-Tapio Vuori coined a genre of his own, experimance, and developed consciousness-based performances with Risto Santavuori (see The Wall 2011) and ritualistic practices with  Jani-Petteri Olkkonen. Students and graduates of the Live Art and Performance Studies MA programme brought in some scholarly vibes supported by Annette Arlander’s research-oriented pedagogics (see Terminaali September 2006 & Inhabitors October 2008). Pilvi Porkola, who was one of the first students to graduate from the Estaite MA programme, defended her artistic doctorate (Esitys tutkimuksena = “Esitys as Research”) in 2014, symbolizing and marking the institutionalisation and research-orientation of esitystaide (Porkola 2014). Contemporary dance professionals composed intermedial works and developed transdisciplinary fields such as social choreography (see Sleepover 7.2.2009); experimental theatre artists conceived disturbing and captivating stage works (see Bakkantit 3 May 2010 & Conte D’amour May 2010) with esitystaide-like flavours.

In Turku something was also taking place. The filmmaker, performance artist and archivist Christopher Hewitt was running a BA programme with the title Crossing Borders in Performing Arts at the Turku Polytechnic from 1999-2003. The once-only programme was completed by a group of to-be very influential and multi-talented performance artists such as Leena Kela, Aapo Korkeaoja, Essi Kausalainen and Maija Hirvanen. One floor up from Crossing Borders, Pieta Koskenniemi was running theatre instructor education and invited Reality Research Center artists Eero-Tapio Vuori and Julius Elo yearly to teach seven-week courses on applied theatre history called the Dream Workshop, which had a profound effect on a generation of esitystaide-artist educated in Turku. Anna Torkkel, Maija Reeta Raumanni and Tashi Iwaoka, who came from a dance background and had been educated in Amsterdam, opened the Contemporary Art Space Kutomo in 2007. 170 kilometres north, at the Kanpaanpää Art School, Aapo Korkeaoja initiated a BA education programme in esitystaide in 2010. The esitystaide studies are still running in Kankaanpää (the 10th anniversary of these studies was celebrated with a collection of writings on performance art pedagogy (Korkeaoja 2022)).

Additionally, festivals sprouted up and would become a very important environment for the development of esitystaide, both offering a context for local artists’ work and a chance to bring in foreign influences. Kiasma Theatre, which could according to the above be seen historically as the inaugural venue of esitystaide, launched the /theatre.now-festival in 2005, programming the new experimental performing artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. The ANTI festival started in 2002 with a diverse spread of both local and international artists from performance art, contemporary dance, contemporary music and contemporary theatre to work in the urban space of the town of Kuopio in Mid-Eastern Finland. Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival, organized by Q theatre and started in 2000 as an event gathering theatre makers from countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, developed more and more towards experimental, esitystaide-like programming. Contemporary dance festivals Moving in November, launched already in the 80s and Sidestep, started by Zodiak Center for New Dance in 1996, both became also influential and relevant contexts for esitystaide.

While fine-arts-based performance art was distinguished from—and even contrasting with—esitystaide during the first two decades of the millennium, there was also a parallel, a supportive dynamic present. Artists working on either side of the divide were empowered by the general vitality of the scene. Emerging visual-arts-based performance artists were very active during the 00s to launch and organize festivals and events, resulting in hundreds and thousands of performances. The gallery of Helsinki Kunsthalle programmed already in 1985 an exhibition with the title Performance 85; the publication of the exhibition shows that the thinking behind the concept of esitystaide (via the interplay of theatre and performance art) was already forming for example in the texts written by Arlander and Hotinen (Kiljunen et al. 1985). Helena Erkkilä mentions inviting with Irmeli Kokko “all” Finnish performance artists to Performanssiyö in 1991 (Erkkilä 2008, 10). Muu started to organize the AMORPH! performance art festival in 1995. Roi Vaara gave the scene a giant boost by curating a big local festival Poikkeustila, “Festival of Unusual Live Performances” in 1999 (Poikkeustila 2000) and the world’s biggest international performance art festival EXIT in 2001 (Vaara 2017). Inspired by Vaara’s work, regular club events were instituted in Helsinki: Là-bas since 2000, Art Contact between 2005-09, New Art Contact since 2010 and as their continuation Fake Finns Festival between 2011-14. The graduates of the Crossing Borders in Performing Arts BA programme in Turku run the Fluxee performance art club at the small Tehdas Theatre from 2003-13 (Korkeaoja&Yoken 2013). In the town of Pori on the west coast a group of artist who had graduated from Kankaanpää art school formed T.E.H.D.A.S association and started to organize performance art festival Perf in 2005 and Porin Juhlaviikot in 2007, as well as Perfo!-clubs at Telakka Theatre in Tampere (T.E.H.D.A.S. 2013). In Vaasa, Platform-events run since 2000, in Lahti Taidepanimo since 2003 (Vaara 2017, 129). New Performance Turku, initiated by Leena Kela, started in 2012 and transformed into New Performance Turku Biennale in 2023.

Some artists crossed borders and performed both in these performance art events and in the context of esitystaide and instigated processes aimed at bridging the divide. Performance and Live Art Information Center Presentaatio (in Finnish Performanssi- ja esitystaiteen tiedotuskeskus Presentaatio) was founded in 2008, explicitly naming both genres in its title and thus emphasising its inclusivity. While many art forms had their own information center, initiated and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Presentaatio was a grass-roots, bottom-up project initiated and run with scarce resources by artists for some years. Presentaatio published a calendar of performing arts events on their website, started a prize for the Performance Act of the Year (which was given only once as the personal resources of those active in Presentaatio ran out) and represented the field in a union-like manner and had an effect on how these art forms were recognized and funded by the Arts Promotion Center Finland. In 2009 four esitystaide groups: Oblivia, Reality Research Center, Other Spaces and Live Art Society, in collaboration with Presentaatio, started an association called Esitystaiteen keskus (The Esitystaide Center; echoing the original plans of Hotinen and others in early 90s) in 2009 and opened a shared studio space Eskus in 2011. Mad House Helsinki, a performing arts venue, sprouted out from the same community and opened in the next building in 2014 and operates since 2023 in connection with the brand-new House of Text. Mad House Helsinki has adopted the title of The House of Esitystaide, placing itself and its marginal funding in parallel with the huge investments made in Helsinki to build the Music House and the Dance House (much like Presentaatio placed itself in parallel to the funded information centers of other genres). Despite the rich field of activity listed in this chapter, in terms of financial support esitystaide still remains mostly a poor experimental oddity.

In 2007 Reality Research Center started to publish a magazine called Esitys, arguing for the existence of a field which it named and which required its own literary forum. Esitys-magazine developed practices of writing and editing critiques, articles and other texts written by peers—performance, dance and theatre artists across genre boundaries, giving a voice to those practices that did not fit into the contexts of theatre or dance as such. Other publications also diversified the discourse on esitystaide. Online culture magazine mustekala.info featured esitystaide among other genres of art, and the online dance magazine liikekieli.com intersected with esitystaide occasionally. The Reality Research Center has continued actively publishing: books (e.g. the series of methods guides under the title How to Research Reality) since 2008, an online periodical Ice Hole Live Art Journal since 2014 and Taiteen paikka (The Place of Art) as a section of the political and leftist Voima-magazine since 2020. Esitysradio, the first Finnish podcast on performing arts, was active between 2015-2021.

During the second and third decade of the millennium the field of performing arts has further diversified and internationalized. Esitystaide has on one hand gained popularity as a term and on the other hand its definition has possibly become even more clouded. As the English language is used ever more both in artist education and in the professional field, Finnish terms are less needed. Practices that reach across and ignore genre divisions are becoming more common and nykyesitys has been offered as a more inclusive option that could partly replace esitystaide. Galleries such as Oksasenkatu 11, Sorbus, Huuto, Yö, Myymälä2 and others have programmed plenty of performances from artists with various backgrounds, Museum of Impossible Forms has nourished especially decolonial practices and created an environment for BIPOC artists and publications such as No niin online magazine have developed the local art discourse in English. Probably due to the language(s) used, and some inclination towards the tradition of fine arts, these circles do not identify with or utilize the term esitystaide much. Also, some state funded institutional theatres have expanded the number of opportunities for experimental esitystaide-artists. All in all, while diversification is highly valuable for societies like the one in Finland, in which the culture has remained fairly homogenic, it poses the threat of a new linguistic uniformity through the dominance of English. This potential overrepresentation of one non-local language has motivated also my contribution to the discourse regarding the terms esitys and esitystaide.

My own engagement

Personally I have been actively involved in many of these initiatives, activities and institutions. I studied in Turku under Pieta Koskenniemi and joined in 2005 Reality Research Center, where I have worked since. My main focus has been directing performances and working as a member of several different working groups in which the director role is not utilized but power is distributed in more or less horizontal ways. I have specialized in performances in which the role of the audience is an area of experimentation.

I have performed in, worked with or published something about all of the mentioned festivals and venues. I was involved with founding Eskus Performance Center as the chair of the board of Reality Research Center. I worked as the managing director of Presentaatio—Information Center for Performance and Live Art for a couple of active years. I have curated Amorph!14 Performance Art Festival organized by Artists’ Association Muu, Kiasma Theatre's Performance Compost event (as part of a larger group) and Helsinki City Theatre’s Stage for Contemporary Performance during the pilot phase 2021-2023 (in collaboration with Riikka Thitz and Suvi Tuominen).

I was one of the founders of Esitys magazine and was in the editorial group for the whole cycle of 10 years, after which I continued in Ice Hole Live Art Journal and then in Taiteen paikka. I have contributed essays on esitystaide to some essential volumes like Nykyteatterikirja (The Book of Contemporary Theatre) and Dramaturgiakirja (The Book of Dramaturgy) as well as to several books published by Reality Research Center. I have worked in boards of Reality Research Center, Eskus, Presentaatio, Totem Theatre and The Finnish Directors and Dramaturges.

Pedagogically, I have been teaching regularly and mentoring students in Kankaanpää Art School, the Fine Arts Academy, Theatre Academy, Turku Polytechnic and elsewhere. And last but not least, I have been an active audience member of the field of esitystaide for more than 20 years.

In short

Following Hotinen, a pure definition of any genre of art can be maintained only for a limited time and different genres are more adequately defined by family resemblances (Hotinen 4.9.2024). Esitystaide can in my opinion be included in the family of theatre, or of performing arts, while it has also emerged through a fruitful dialogue between (at least) theatre, fine arts and contemporary dance. A close relation with theatre is corroborated by methods of working, choices of venue, conventions of collaboration, audience relations and the historical roots of the term described above.

In this framing esitystaide appears as a reformation of theatre, situated in the local context of Finland and its capital area and being greatly influenced by the post-dramatic and intermedial practices and aesthetics developed in Central and Northern Europe. Through the lens of my research I interpret it particularly as an art of contact between a performance and a resonant audience body. Due to this focus on contact, works of esitystaide are using the complicity of audience bodies as a fundamental artistic material.

1   In the 80s and 90s also a straight-forward combination of the English and the Finnish word was used: performance-taide—see for example Erkkilä 2008, 17 and Hotinen 2002, 153.

2 “Contemporary performances take a conscious approach to the history of the art form or forms they represent, examining them from new perspectives. The stage presents art that responds to the changing world through both its content and form.” (Nykyesityksen näyttämö -homepage. Accessed 18.10.2024)

3  Performing arts as an umbrella term is usually translated as esittävät taiteet. Esa Kirkkopelto has brought attention to the fact that this phrasing does not convey the desired meaning as its direct translation back to English would be rather representative arts. Kirkkopelto has suggested a new translation esiintyvät taiteet to replace it. See Hulkko et al. 2011, 5 and Kirkkopelto 2015, Esipuhe.

4  Hans-Thies Lehmann’s term postdramatic theatre describes similar processes in Central Europe during 1970s-1990s (Lehmann 2009).  In the postscript to the Finnish edition Pentti Paavolainen suggests that unlike in American English, in German and Finnish theatre works as an umbrella term of performing arts. Paavolainen also mentions that “in Lehmann’s book performance and performance-oriented esitys(taide) are included in postdramatic theatre” (Paavolainen, 2009, 429, my translation and italics). In my opinion, this kind of operation of including esitystaide/beforemance art in postdramatic theatre is possible. However, the proposal made by me regarding esitystaide/beforemance art has somewhat different focus than Lehmann’s analysis—geographically, historically, linguistically and artistically. The Finnish translation as well as the preface by Timo Heinonen and the postscript by Pentti Paavolainen use the terms esitys and esitystaide less precisely than I do, and in the light of my historical analysis sometimes anachronistically. In a way, I am suggesting localized expansions on and modifications to Lehmann’s, Heinonen’s and Paavolainen’s thoughts.

<—  2.2  The formation of an audience body

Table of contents

2.4  Beforemance  —>