| 1 | Conjoined Fugues | 10.02.2022 | Nicolina Stylianou | Cypros | Tiivistämö / Helsinki City | Helsinki | The last show before getting Codiv. I may have already been infected at the time. | ||||||
| 2 | Bolla | 04.12.2021 | Pajtim Statovci / Tuomas Timonen / Milja Sarkola | Finland (/Kosovo) | Helsinki City Theatre | Helsinki | City Theatre audience, meaning non-artists. People from Ostrobotnia sitting next to me, semi-circular auditorium, a rotating stage. | ||||||
| 3 | Niitty | 02.12.2021 18.12.2021 | Janina Rajakangas | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | My partners choreography in which my dad performed, so emotionally strong and complex. Saw both the premiere and the last show (with her ex). Composed of three episodes. | ||||||
| 4 | Small and Nice Immigrant Shop | 25.11.2021 | Dash Che | Russia / USA / Finland | Vantaa Art Museum Artsi / Gesture of Impermanence exhibition | Vantaa | The performance took place in a store space rented from a shopping center. It was like entering a travel agency. I bought a piece of land by the lake Tuusula. It will be available for me in a hundred years or something. I had Valpuri with me, and she was happy there was candy. | ||||||
| 5 | värähdellä etäisyys | 25.11.2021 | Minerva Juolahti | Finland | Vantaa Art Museum Artsi / Gesture of Impermanence exhibition | Vantaa | In an exhibition space. It was hard for me to follow, since Valpuri was restless and I had to exit the space. | ||||||
| 6 | Space Here We Come | 25.11.2021 | Leena Kela | Finland | Vantaa Art Museum Artsi / Gesture of Impermanence exhibition | Vantaa | In an exhibition space, people seated in the gallery. We received small flags from the artist in the beginning, in the performance she waved a similar but a large one. Valpuri was very attentive. | ||||||
| 7 | Non-performance-performance | 25.11.2021 | Vishnu Vardhani Rajan | India / Finland | Vantaa Art Museum Artsi / Gesture of Impermanence exhibition | Vantaa | In an exhibition space, Valpuri was commenting a bit loud, I fel that we are disturbing and went out for a while. | ||||||
| 8 | Nurture | 22.11.2021 | Samuli Laine | Finland | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Caisa Cultural Center | Helsinki | Being artificially breastfed by Samuli was quite a strong experience. One on one. I wrote about the experience in my own work Time to Audience. | ||||||
| 9 | Lapsipalvelus | 16.11.2021 | Nora Rinne | Finland | Mad House Helsinki / Theatre Academy | Helsinki | Artistic research work, were children are part of the research group. Children were also invited to attend as audience members and I went with Valpuri. She followed throughout, very concentrated. | ||||||
| 10 | Diorama | 12.11.2021 | Ingri Fiksdal | Norway | Moving in November Festival / Hietaniemi Beach | Helsinki | I took part in a runthrough without a proper audience. The environment at the beach became part of the performance, of performers. Meditative. | ||||||
| 11 | Astral Projections | 09.11.2021 | Mikko Niemistö & Sanna Blennow & Teo Lanerva & Olli Lautiola & Justus Kantakoski | Finland | Moving in November Festival / Cable Factory / Valssaamo | Helsinki | It felt like a combination of a durational work and a stage work with a beginning-to-end-dramaturgy. One could step out of the space without a feeling of missing something important and yet it was not just an installation. | ||||||
| 12 | StM | 08.11.2021 | Ofelia Jarl Ortega | Sweden | Moving in November Festival / Stoa Culture House | Helsinki | Audience in two opposite rows of chairs (two rows on both sides), the performer moving in between. The performer played with eye contact with individual audience members. | ||||||
| 13 | Dances of Death | 07.11.2021 | Michiel Vandevelde | Belgium | Moving in November Festival / Espoo City Theatre | Helsinki | Audience around the stage, rituals or quotes of rituals performed in stage. Ritualesque. | ||||||
| 14 | Occasions | 04.11.2021 | Isabel Lewis | Germany / USA | Moving in November Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | A lounge party atmosphere, ambient beats and spoken word. Smell dramaturgy, smells manufactured in a laboratory. Also fine dining style snacks. “Nice”, nothing controversial, kind of boring. I had attended the same show a few years ago. | ||||||
| 15 | Un Bolero | 04.11.2021 | Dominique Brun & François Chaignaud | France | Moving in November Festival / Taidehalli | Helsinki | Duration 17 minutes! This felt a special arrangement, since it was not a double or triple bill, just this one. Four-handed live piano. | ||||||
| 16 | HORDE | 23.10.2021 | Ingri Fiksdal and Solveig Styve Holte | Norway | CODA Oslo International Dance Festival / The roof of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet | Oslo | Great audience formation in the outdoor space, in relation to the architecture of the opera house (check photos). Both passers-by and festival audience. | ||||||
| 17 | Danse staur, danse staur | 23.10.2021 | Kartellet | Norway | CODA Oslo International Dance Festival / Riksscenen | Oslo | Small studio, audience around the stage. The person next to me coughing, weird in pandemic times. | ||||||
| 18 | Hojotoho!(There´s No Place Like Home) | 22.10.2021 | Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt | Norway | CODA Oslo International Dance Festival / Dansens Hus | Oslo | Big, full auditorium and I did not understand why they had come. No masks. | ||||||
| 19 | How to die- Inopiné | 21.10.2021 | Mia Habib Productions | Norway | CODA Oslo International Dance Festival / Bærum Kulturhus | Oslo | Audience around the stage, a strong feeling of being in the moment, a ritualistic choreography happening right now. A second part in the park where performers tell stories by fireplaces and audience distributes to smaller groups. My story abpout Kongo and Leopold II. | ||||||
| 20 | how to like Finland and how Finland can like me (too) | 20.10.2021 | Dash Che | Russia / USA / Finland | Theatre Academy | Helsinki | A fictional institution, to which we took part. | ||||||
| 21 | Käsi | 16.10.2021 | Katariina Numminen | Finland | Mad House Helsinki / Theatre Academy | Helsinki | Two performers working with high level concentration to move forward in the task-based dramaturgy. My companion said later that it demanded a lot from the audience, when it is so close, slow and everyone is quite visible. | ||||||
| 22 | FROM THE DEAD AIR ORGY: On The Nature of Things | 12.-15.10.2021 | Simon Vincenzi | UK | Mad House Helsinki | Online / Helsinki | Part pre-recorded, partly livestream, but I did not know which was live and this made me feel weird. Would it not have been the same if everything was pre-recorded. | ||||||
| 23 | Adventures of Harriharri – Second Episode | 25.09.2021 | Harold Hejazi | Canada / Finland | Vantaa Art Museum Artsi / Gesture of Impermanence exhibition | Online / Vantaa | Watching this game performance at home together with Volta, and both of us enjoyed. | ||||||
| 24 | A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call | 17.09.2021 | 600 Highwaymen | USA | ANTI Festival | remote | A structured phone call with another audience member. I did not really get much even if it is kind of a rare situation. | ||||||
| 25 | Esitysehdotuksia kulttuuriperinnöstä | 04.09.2021 | Suvi Tuominen | Finland | Theatre Academy / National Museum | Helsinki | A show by my colleague. An interesting combination of different elements: a discussion with an archeological professor, some performance art, video, dance. Different audience orientations combined. I especially enjoyed that Tiktok dances were included. | ||||||
| 26 | Suurenmoinen Sotku / A Great Mess | 01.09.2021 | WAUHAUS | Finland | Helsinki Biennaali | Helsinki | A real transdisciplinary work. Bus trip to the site, guided walk, choreography with steam shovels, a performance art act, and a butoh style dance piece in the end. Ice cream with herbs from the area inside, and a letter from a researcher. A total art work, full experience. | ||||||
| 27 | Ocean Ecstatic | 14.08.2021 | Tom Rejström & Otto Sandqvist | Finland | Viirus Theatre / Helsinki Biennaali | Helsinki | The space was special, the old swimming hall of Yrjönkatu. Audience on two sides of the pool. Performers swimming. But I did not get the point, felt that we came there for no reason. | ||||||
| 28 | Metsän huoma, meren ääni | 14.07.2021 | Inkeri Aula & Jussi Salminen | Finland | Volter Kilpi Kustavissa Literature Week | Kustavi | A lecture performance outdoors in a fireplace-kind of setting. Nature, shamanism, research. Summer archipelago. | ||||||
| 29 | Tribute – the outdoor version | 19.06.2021 | Frédéric Gies & Weld Company | Sweden | Moving in November Festival / Tapiola Amphitheatre | Espoo | What an engaging techno dance work out in the bright daylight and people passing by behind the dancers. A beautiful mix of an environment and a work which seem not to fit together but then fit perfectly. In the background a pool quiets down during the show. | ||||||
| 30 | Forecasting | 18.06.2021 | Giuseppe Chico & Barbara Matijević | Croatia / France | Moving in November Festival / Koko Theatre | Helsinki | Can’t recall much from this. | ||||||
| 31 | The Voice of a City | 16.06.2021 | Nada & Co. | Belgium / Austria / UK | Moving in November Festival / Puppet Theatre Sampo | Helsinki | Pandemic was present since we would have been otherwise sitting around a table. Now the audience sat in an auditorium. Vodka and stories of travels were served. A storytelling evening. | ||||||
| 32 | Figured | 14.06.2021 | Sheena McGrandles | Northern Ireland / Germany | Moving in November Festival / Opera Amphitheatre | Helsinki | It was quite fresh to see a detailed dance piece like this outdoors. | ||||||
| 33 | X-over | 11.06.2021 | Ben Fury | Belgium / Marocco | URB Festival / Stoa Cultural Center yard | Helsinki | Artsy street dance outdoors next to Itäkeskus, there was a nice big city vibe there. | ||||||
| 34 | Avoimena sulkeutunut | 06.06.2021 | Mammu Rankanen | Finland | Theatre Academy / Research Pavilion | Helsinki | Mammu moved on the Hietsu beach in the end part and built a sort of sculpture there, with a beach volley game in the background and a lot of teenagers around the beach. This was a great mix. | ||||||
| 35 | Uraanilamppu | 04.06.2021 | Valtteri Raekallio | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Oil Container 468 | Helsinki | Several different worlds / scenes built inside the round Oil Container and audience members could freeely move around the space where several seperate things were happening all the time. | ||||||
| 36 | Tanssivintin kevätnäytös | 21.05.2021 | Janina Rajakangas & others | Finland | Tanssivintti Dance School / Käpylä Sports Field | Helsinki | Dance school show out an a sport field. | ||||||
| 37 | Minä olen Hossu | 20.05.2021 | Hosiasluoma, Kivelä, Pasanen | Finland | Lainsuojattomat Theatre Festival | onlne | This didnt really translate via streaming, I felt I should have been onsite. Some parts were not so suitable for kids so I had to silence it sometimes. | ||||||
| 38 | TM | 22.04.2021 | Onroerend Goed | Belgium | Espoo City Theatre | online | This was the best online show I have seen I think. First a one-on-one job interview with a performer, where my character was evaluated. In the end the screen opened up to other participants whose show had been going on simultaneously. From intimate to community, via remote connection, bravo. | ||||||
| 39 | Mine is to say something small – a live audio broadcast | 21.04.2021 | Ogutu Muraya | Kenia | Mad House Helsinki | Online / Nairobi | “Literary performance practice”. Basically a radio program in the form of reading an essay. | ||||||
| 40 | Prologi | 11.02.2021 | Otso Huopaniemi | Finland | Theatre Academy | online | I remember especially the atmosphere after. This was a welcoming performance by Otso when he started a professorship of dramaturgy. After, there was a really warm and friendly atmosphere in the zoom as everyone was so happy for Otso. | ||||||
| 41 | Consul & Meshie | 13.11.2020 | Antonia Baehr & Latifa Laâbissi & Nadia Lauro | Germany, France | Moving in November Festival / Helsingin Taidehalli | Helsinki | A long, weird show with two monkeys hanging around in front of the audience. The duration, the performance as a mileau or an environment is what I remember. | ||||||
| 42 | Talking in the Rain – An Entertaining Show about the Weather | 07.11.2020 | Todellisuuden tutkimuskeskus & Ferske Scener & Western Norway Research Institute | Finland, Norway | Moving in November Festival | online | An online performance with a package delivered by post. It seemed like learning the new medium of performance, end it was a nice effort although felt a bit clumsy and shallow. Audience taking a shower as a speciality. | ||||||
| 43 | Pääomani | 29.10.2020 | Milja Sarkola | Finland | Q Theatre | Helsinki | Traditional audience setup, a great contemporary theatre work. | ||||||
| 44 | Kasa | 16.10.2020 | Hanna Ahti and working group | Finland | Mad House Helsinki | Helsinki | Slow action, small space. That requires an audience which is accustomed to this kind of patient role. | ||||||
| 45 | Joy Riot | Between 7.-18.10.2021 | Sari Palmgren | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Stoa Culture House | Helsinki | A nice use of space fitting to the pandemic era: the whole of Stoa space is open and the audience is free to wander around and their formation is directed by lights and the movement of dancers. Organic. | ||||||
| 46 | Kuunteleminen | 03.10.2020 | Esitystaiteen seura | Finland | Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum | Helsinki | Audience is situated around a square pool of water. A performer with a hearing disability, using sign language. A rare register of language in a performance. Makes one conscious of sound and the prevalence of spoken language. | ||||||
| 47 | Odd Meters | 02.09.2020 | Mikko Niemistö | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | Excluding the student work below, this the first onsite performance of the pandemic era for me, and as such it was very strong. The audience seated on three sides with masks, the performer moving fiercely in front of each of us, out of breath, sweating, a body. We have gathered to witness this! | ||||||
| 48 | encore no:2 | 26.08.2020 | Minttu-Maaria Makkonen | Finland | Theatre Academy, MA thesis work | Helsinki | A student work, an audience of less than ten people. In the second part a coffee shop setting, and some drinks offered. I don’t take my mask of to drink. I am in an institutional role, to evaluate the thesis. | ||||||
| 49 | We're like one place | 30.05.2020 | Kettunen-Spyropoulou | Finland / Greece | Feel Helsinki Festival / Uniarts Helsinki | Livestreamed | I received a video call from the performer at 00:20 at night and she read a bedtime story to me. We were in our bed with my partner, to whom it was intimidating and she left the performance. I was dozing off. | ||||||
| 50 | Voyer | 08.02.2020 | Neves / Aaltonen | Finland | Sidestep Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I have seen the first version of this on a previous year, and evaluated it as a thesis work. Then there was 10 performers, 10 audience members. Now the audience is bigger, and it changes quite a lot. The show creates an erotisizing gaze as we look at the young, well-formed and able bodies of the performers. It feels somewhat awkward. | ||||||
| 51 | Phantasmagoric | 5.2.2020 | Berstad / Helgebostad / Brun | Norway | Sidestep Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | Sitting on four sides of the large Valssaamo space, in the last part laying down supine looking at the ceiling. I wrote about this in the text “Esityksen vanki”. | ||||||
| 52 | A Selfie Concert | 4.2.2020 | Ivo Dimchev | Germany | Sidestep Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | Freely sitting, standing, moving, taking selfies and posting them into social media. The performer insisted on at least two people taking selfies all the time, or he would stop singing/performing. I wrote about this in the text “Esityksen vanki”. | ||||||
| 53 | Non Existere | 1.2.2020 | Ohj. Antti Laukkarinen | Finland | Helsingin Rudolf Steiner | Helsinki | A student work by the Waldorf high school teenaagers, audience in the old-school auditorium. | ||||||
| 54 | Fight Night | 1.2.2020 | Ontroerend Goed | Belgium | Espoon kaupunginteatteri | Espoo | Audience in the auditorium, each with an electronic voting system. The show was a sort of a social game or a reality show, were the audience would vote one competitor at a time out. Playing with and manipulating the prejudices and morality of the audience. | ||||||
| 55 | #PUNK 100%POP *N!GGA | 31.1.2020 | nora chipaumire | USA | Sidestep Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | Audience partly standing and moving freely around the performers, partly sitting in the auditorium. There was a feeling of a party or a gig, mixed with contemporary performing arts aesthetic. I had the feeling that this was an example of non-white dramaturgy or use of the stage. That there was a sensibility at play which challenged euro-american hegemony. | ||||||
| 56 | Hotel Room Encounters | 29.01.20 | Giorgio Convertito | Finland / Italy | Theatre Academy / Sokos Hotel | Helsinki | One-on-one meeting with Giorgio in a hotel room. He would open the door with a bathrobe on and say that we can use the time anyway I like. So a really clever minimalistic performance experiment, a contemporary classic. I have refered to this in A Reading of Audience. | ||||||
| 57 | Mind Split = Siamese Twins | 25.1.2020 | Nicolina Stylianou | Cypros | Theatre Academy / Universum Theatre | Helsinki | Sitting on three sides of the large space with a noisy neo-mythical ritual taking place. Reminded me of Guillermo Gomez Pena. I was sitting next to Juli Reinartz and was thinking about the argument I had in the same space with Willem Wilhelmus over their piece in the Amorph!14 festival. | ||||||
| 58 | The End | 21.1.2020 | Tero Nauha | Finland | Prologue / Theatre Academy | Helsinki | 1st half: A lecture in the auditorium, commenting the history of the building we were in. 2Nd half: a dance show with some teenagers, with audience on three sides of the dancefloor, Tero as a DJ. So a multilayered audience position. | ||||||
| 59 | Over Your Fucking Body | 17.11.2019 | Janina Rajakangas & Neil Callaghan | Finland / UK | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Moving in November Festival | Helsinki | A work by my partner, and I had been there in rehearsals across the process, with a baby of ours. So I was very informed and deep in the process of the work. Audience sitting on three sides of the stage, and at one point the performers lick some of its members with fake tongues. | ||||||
| 60 | Sparks | 17.11.2019 | Francesca Grilli | Italy | Kirpilä Art Collection / Baltic Circle Theatre Festival | Helsinki | The audience is waiting in the lobby, then child performers get them one by one into one-on-one-encounters. The child does a clairvoyant reading of me. The reading is 10-15 minutes, so the whole thing takes approx. half an hour. A very special encounter due to their age. | ||||||
| 61 | Studies in Non-Human Acting. | 15.11.2019 | Posthuman Theatre | Finland | Kiasma Theatre / Baltic Circle Theatre Festival | Helsinki | The audience sitting both in the auditorium and around the stage, like a musical evening where performers one by one announce what they will act (like “the harbour area of xxx”) and the perform that. I was there with a rope tied between myself and my friend Aapo, as part of his bachelor party. | ||||||
| 62 | Matter | 14.11.2019 | Laine/Nylund/Palo | Finland | Puotila Mall / Baltic Circle Theatre Festival | Helsinki | A prologue in which we were instructed by the perfomers and dressed up in protective overalls. Then we stepped into a room, the floor of which was full of peat. Sitting / lying on it and listening to a sound work. Also a light work and a part of the show in darkness. | ||||||
| 63 | Al2Be3 | 12.11.2019 | Elina Pirinen & Orchestra | Finland | Kallio Church / Baltic Circle Theatre Festival | Helsinki | This was a concert in a church, and our role was similar to any concert in a church, but the music was unlike it would normally be in a church concert. | ||||||
| 64 | In Many Hands | 12.11.2019 | Kate MacIntosh | Belgium | Cirko Center of New Circus / Baltic Circle Theatre Festival | Helsinki | Three long tables in a triangle, the audience sitting in three lines in front of them. Objects moving from hand to hand for the whole duration. First back towards the center, second part front. Washing hands (before the pandemic), in the and a darkness. I wrote about this somewhere. | ||||||
| 65 | Sapiens | 12.10.2019 | WAUHAUS & National Theatre | Finland | National Theatre | Helsinki | A work in the big stage of the National Theatre. The audience role was conventional, but what was special was that it was a work from WAUHAUS, who is from the freelance scene and it is exceptional that someone from there can make a work for this stage. | ||||||
| 66 | Yes, you can | 7.10.2019 | Hanna Arvela | Finland | Performanssipäivät | Turku | The performer as a barista in the lobby through which we went for lunch. Offered caffeine mixed with powder sugar for us to snort. I of course did. | ||||||
| 67 | Ars Erotica | 2.10.2019 | Anna Cadia | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | Sitting on three sides of the stage which was in the middle of the Zodiak space. The show was interested in the erotic desires of the audience. | ||||||
| 68 | Asennot | Anna -Mari Karvonen | Finland | Q Theatre | Helsinki | Part of the audience (by their own choice) was halfway during the performance invited into a semicircular auditorium, which was situated on stage, becoming also performers. The show was in a weird way dealing with the subject of contemporary dance and art, with a mocking attitude, it felt. | |||||||
| 69 | Katkelma 468 | 14.8.2019 | Veli Lehtovaara | Finland | Oil Container 468 | Helsinki | Sitting, standing, laying down, moving in the giant circular space freely. I had the experience of being free to spectate in peace, even without the protection of any architectural structure for the audience. Wrote about this somewhere. | ||||||
| 70 | Turkka kuolee | 24.5.2019 | Ruusu Haarla & Julia Lappalainen | Finland | National Theatre | Helsinki | Sitting in the auditorium traditionally. The work is a self-reflective form of documentary theatre, dealing with the violence that has taken place in the Finnish theatre scene. The title was brilliant (the story is told with two words alreay in the title!) and the final death scene was very beautiful. | ||||||
| 71 | Apparition Apparition | 12.5.2019 | Florence Peake and Eve Stainton | UK | Venice Biennale | Venice | In the beginning the performers move around the auditorium and ask random audience members to draw on their skin. I also drew on one of them. I saw a friend of my partner form London in the audience by accident. | ||||||
| 72 | toxinosexofuturocummings | Between 2.-5.3.2019 | Ana Teo Ala-Ruona | Finland | Asbestos Art Space | Helsinki | Small room theatre, romantic metropolis type. I have a strong feeling of esoteria, of very specific, like-minded queer target audience. I am not sure if I am a welcome part of this inner circle. | ||||||
| 73 | Toinen Luonto | 9.3.2019 | Anni Klein & Pipsa Lonka | Finland | Viirus Theatre | Helsinki | Theatre overlapping with an audio play: the dialogue is pre-recorded and the actors pantomime on top of it. An eerie type of contemporaneity. | ||||||
| 74 | For God | 6.3.2019. | Soili Huhtakallio | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | 16 months later I don’t remember anything. | ||||||
| 75 | Unfamiliar Dialogues | 1.3.2019 | The Pathic Body and the Uncanny – research group | Finland | Theatre Academy / Pathic Body -seminar | Helsinki | We sit in a circle. We are invited to introduce ourselves one by one. When we have gone through everybody, the sound designer plays an audio recording of what we just said. A familiar situation turns into an uncanny repetition. | ||||||
| 76 | Thesis Work | 11.02.2019 | Olga Spyropoulou & Tuomas Laitinen | Greece / Finland | Theatre Academy / Stoa | Helsinki | There is only two of us, no audience. We have a task for ourselves: we both try to avoid audiencing. Meantime we try to remember a situation which we both attended. First a performance of mine in Palestine, the Mette Ingvartsen’s 69 positions. One of us is talking while the other one types. | ||||||
| 77 | 69 Positions | 6.2.2019 | Mette Ingvartsen | Norway | Sidestep Dance Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | We audience a sort of a lecture about sex in the history of performance art, including Mette’s own works. I get the feeling that while the subject and the material is very intimate, the performer keeps a safe distance. She also labels the audience into men and women, which pisses some people off. | ||||||
| 78 | Cock, Cock… Who’s There? | 2.2.2019 | Samira Elagoz | Finland / Egypt | Sidestep Dance Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | Video acts and small performative acts in between, with minimum amount of improvisation. A sort of film performance. | ||||||
| 79 | Graigslist Allstars. | 1.2.2019 | Samira Elagoz | Finland / Egypt | Sidestep Dance Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | This was actually a screening, but somehow it feels like it is considered a performance, since it is pairing with the companion piece Cock cock who’s there, which has a bit more performance content. | ||||||
| 80 | Biofiction | 1.2.2019 | Simone Aughterlony & Hahn Rowe | UK | Sidestep Dance Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | Stylistic example of contemporary European stage art production. Different bodies on stage (queer, plussize). Chopping wood, which touches me personally, and the audio track mixed live on stage. So also gig aesthetics. | ||||||
| 81 | Riita & Rakkaus | Volta Rajakangas | Finland | private home | Helsinki | A private performance at our home, created by my step daughter and her friend. Especially interesting was the program leaflet, which mentioned two parts: 1. explanation 2. performance. (fin. 1. selitys, 2. esitys). | |||||||
| 82 | Megalopolis | 21.2.2019 | Constanza Macras & DorkyPark | Argentina / Germany | Volksbuehne Theatre | Berlin | Stylistic example of contemporary European stage art production. My first time in Volksbuehne and it fits perfectly what could have imagined staged there. I big set like an urban housing project, physical theatre expressivity, tragic moments, energetic group choreographies. | ||||||
| 83 | Medusan huone | 16.2.2019 | Saara Turunen | Finland | Q Theatre | Helsinki | My partner as the choreographer, which made me a highly biased audience member. Engaging stage work with minimum of words and a traditional audience role. | ||||||
| 84 | Station to Station to Station | 29.1.2019 | Mira Kautto | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | Made by a friend of mine. Music had a strong part in the show, was bordering on a concert of electronic music. Art experience. | ||||||
| 85 | Talvi | 29.1.2019 | Laura Jantunen | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I don’t remember anything. | ||||||
| 86 | The Gospel of Christmas | Between 7.-16.12.2018 | Koivuryhmä | Finland | Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | Santa Claus and Jesus on the Kiasma stage, both played by non-male performers. Santa Claus was a friend of mine. | ||||||
| 87 | Blondit | Between 5.-18.12.2018 | Laura Pietiläinen & Paula Tuovinen | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | One of the perfomers and the original author of this remake was the director of Arts Promotion Center Finland. Such institutional power is rare on stage. | ||||||
| 88 | Yleisö | 30.11.2018 | Raekallio Corp | Finland | Helsinki Museum of Technology | Helsinki | The name promised too much. I invited a friend from Palestine to accompany me, because I knew that the show had some militaristic elements, which would have a very different meaning for him. I had asked him and his partner to be my research informants, and we had a post-performance discussion. | ||||||
| 89 | Asu (Näyttämöloru / A Rhyme for the Stage) | 18.11.2018. | Katariina Numminen | Finland | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Kirjan talo | Helsinki | An old community hall, where the audience sat on three sides of the large square-shaped room. The space invoked some nostalgic community feeling in me. It felt like something was rewound open in front of us by the two performers. | ||||||
| 90 | Thresholds | 18.11.2018. | Andersson, Fröysnes, Klein, Nenonen, Nikkilä, Soidinsalo, Virtanen | Finland, Norway, Denmark | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Puotila Mall | Helsinki | Sitting in an empty commercial space in an old shopping mall, looking out to the street. An audiotrack. | ||||||
| 91 | Desert Body Creep | 16.11.2018 | Angela Goh | Australia | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Cirko Center for New Circus | Helsinki | I don’t remember much. | ||||||
| 92 | All the Sex I Ever Had | 15.11.2018 | Mammalian Diving Reflex | Canada | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Espoo City Theatre | Espoo | The performers were non-professionals (and in that way kind of ”part of us”), but the direction and concept were clearly stylistic contemporary European stage art. Audience was a few times challenged to share stories of their sex lives into the microphone. I didn’t feel at all like doing it. | ||||||
| 93 | Death at Work | 13.11.2018 | Pop Up Teatr | Russia | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Kanneltalo | Helsinki | Like the one above, also here ”laymen” performing and telling about their private lives, this time about death. Audience was a few times addressed straightforwardly and asked to make a common decision. I ha a group of research informants with me, whom I interviewed after. | ||||||
| 94 | Princess | 9.11.2018 | Eisa Jocson | Philippines | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | This was an engaging work, with the two performers (one male, one non-male) dressed as disney princesses performed a highly detailed, skillful and exact choreography of repetition and mimicry. | ||||||
| 95 | Brume de Mer | 9.11.2018 | Elina Pirinen | Finland | Moving in November Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I was already familiar with Pirinen’s style of dance mixed with transgressive elements and a strong relation to music. It was a beautiful piece of her style and the music was overflowing, like a prolonged tsunami over us. | ||||||
| 96 | Lifeguard | 6.11.2018 | Benoît Lachambre | Canada | Moving in November Festival / Valssaamo | Helsinki | This is one of the works that stay strongly in my memory even years later. Benoît sitting on the barstool as we arrive, asking us to move about in the space to help him map it. Then he starts moving. An atmosphere is created where we become and organic part of the performance. Two more audience groups enter, one every fifteen minutes. A shamanistic experience. | ||||||
| 97 | Over Your Fucking Body, work-in-progress | 5.11.2018 | Janina Rajakangas & Neil Callaghan | Finland / UK | Moving in November Festival / Taidehalli | Helsinki | Again a work by my partner. It takes place in the art gallery, and I have a student group with me from the Waldorf high school and I collect writings from them after. The performers ask audience members to move them in the space. | ||||||
| 98 | Hominal / Öhrn | 4.11.2018 | Marie-Caroline Hominal & Marcus Öhrn | Switzerland / Sweden | Moving in November Festival / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | I cannot get in to this work, it does not open to me. Using heavy metal music does not become justified to me (I have a heavy metal background) and the show seems somehow arrogant and selfish. | ||||||
| 99 | Radical Light | 3.11.2018 | Salva Sanchis | Spain | Moving in November Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | I have two research informants with me from Diakonissalaitos, which helps people with problems. I wanted to hear comments from people who are not in the art circles. The work is an engaging choreography with very skillful dances, I am just in awe about how movement flows in their bodies. | ||||||
| 100 | Sharing Silence | 22.-31.10. 2018 | Gabriele Goria | Italy / Finland | Theatre Academy | Helsinki | An artistic research performance installation, in which Gabrielle meditates publicly for ten days and invites audience members to join. As an audience member two strongly different levels of partipation: witnessing the effort of the performer and witnessing your own meditating mind. Also Gabrielle later on tells how he became a spectator of the venue, the theatre school. | ||||||
| 101 | Posthuman Days | 18.10.2018 | Jenni-Elina von Bagh | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | Performers reaching to be non-human. For me, it was the ambivalence of not understanding what is going on, both in its enjoyability and annoyability. The theme feels both necessary and appropriated by the art industry. | ||||||
| 102 | Huonosti vartioitu tyttö | Jyrki Karttunen | Finland | Helsinki City Theatre | Helsinki | I felt like this was not at all for me, feelings of symphatetic shame. | |||||||
| 103 | pompom | 17.10.2018 | Simo Kellokumpu | Finland | Gallery Augusta | Helsinki | In a gallery in Suomenlinna, a being with long blue hair is moving slightly by the window. The same being who also is pictured in videos and comics. | ||||||
| 104 | Kanarialintu | 13.10.2018 | Janina Rajakangas Projekti | Finland | Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | A work of my partner. Audience around a circular carpet on the second floor of Kiasma. The speakers also placed in the circle. The four dancers are close and sensitive. | ||||||
| 105 | The Space | 13.10.2018 | Liisa Pentti & Co. | Finland | Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | Don’t really remember this. | ||||||
| 106 | WeSANK Deep Stage As... | Approx. 9.10.2018 | Vincent Roumagnac | France / Finland | Theatre Academy / Vapaan taiteen tila | Helsinki | This was an exhibition, but since Vincent is dealing with the subject of theatre and extending it, it seems relevant here. Prototypes of the stage of the future, both as scale models and descriptive texts, it was impressive. | ||||||
| 107 | DANCE | 10.10.2018 | Anna Maria Häkkinen | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Stoa | Helsinki | This was clearly not challenging the conventional setting, rather it was trying to bring back something that the author feels important in dance but that has been replaced by recent developments. | ||||||
| 108 | Kauko-ohjattava ihminen – RCH 201 Väitetty kosketus | 8.10.2018 | Outi Condit | Finland | Riihimäen teatteri / #digiteatteri | Riihimäki | The theatre is in the same building as a hotel. In the theatre, there is a projection of some hotel rooms. In these hotel rooms, people encounter. On of each pair is an avatar, operated by someone else in another room. An audience member can go and meet an avatar. After doing that, I am offered also the position of an avatar, which I also take. | ||||||
| 109 | I AM IN YOUR MIND | 2.10.2018 | Mikko Orpana | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | A beautiful improvised audience formation emerges as we enter the space and situate our selves so that we are able to follow. I am thinking this is due to spatial design, how the performers elements of the set are placed. | ||||||
| 110 | Distance | Between 16.-22.9.2018 | Alex McSweeney & Simon Pittman | UK | Fine Line / Rough Fiction / Park Theatre | London | A family friend is acting the main role and I emphatize with him. The character is in distress. | ||||||
| 111 | Jungle | Between 16.-22.9.2018 | Old Vic | UK | Playhouse Theatre | London | A partly immersive work, in which we are kind of the customers of a cafe in a refugee camp in Calais, on the French side of the Canal. I am sitting next to a catwalk, on which the actors move. A part of the audience is on a balcony. There is a weird power structure between this upper middle class audience and the characters of the play. Refered in A Reading of Audience. | ||||||
| 112 | Othello | 20.9.2018 | Globe Theatre | UK | Shakespeare’s Globe | London | To visit the Globe is kind of special when researching audience, it portrays one important phase in the development of European theatre architecture.Of course nostalgic, but also touching. | ||||||
| 113 | Ave Virgo, Ave Vos | 8.9.2018 | Detritus & Armi Von Vep | Finland | Universum Theatre | Helsinki | A show combining classical music and burlesque, but I can’t feel it, it feels out of place. | ||||||
| 114 | Silent Show | 5.9.2018 | Corey Pickett | UK | Outlaws Theatre Festival | Pori | Street art clownery | ||||||
| 115 | Healing Words – Mahtavat sanat | 4.9.2018 | Teatteri Quo Vadis | Finland | Outlaws Theatre Festival | Pori | One-on-one meeting with the author-performer Otso Kautto. He helps me to find the right words that would help me with a personal concern. It is like a meeting with a healer, but in the art context. Reminds me of Jodorowski’s Psychomagic. Otso is also just appointed as the head of a big theatre, which contributes to his character in my experience. | ||||||
| 116 | Juha Biitsillä | 4.9.2018 | Juha Valkeapää & Biitsi | Finland | Outlaws Theatre Festival | Pori | A great combination of Juha’s storytelling vocal expression and the sound art of Biitsi duo. In a small commercial store space, which also adds with a feeling of impermanence and melancholy. | ||||||
| 117 | Silent | 3.9.2018 | Fishamble | Ireland | Outlaws Theatre Festival | Pori | Don’t remember much, a basic monologue show, about a homeless character. | ||||||
| 118 | 24H Plays: Pori | 1.9.2018 | Outlaws Theatre Festival | Finland | Outlaws Theatre Festival | Pori | The pace of creation is the main orientation when watching the works: they have been created (written, directed, rehearsed) in 24 hours. A lot of the time I imagine and reflect in my mind their processes. So the imagined making of is exposed over the performance. | ||||||
| 119 | Lapset ja muut radikaalit | 4.9.2018 | Oblivia | Finland | National Opera / Alminsali | Helsinki | The adult live artists performing together with teenagers in the Alminsali of the Opera House. | ||||||
| 120 | Aidatut Unelmat | 22.8.2018 | Sari Palmgren | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Kanneltalo | Helsinki | This is a site-specific guided walk, we move as a group between different acts in the suburb of Kannelmäki, on yards, in the church and finally on a field in a park, where a spectacle with a lot of performers is acted out. | ||||||
| 121 | In the Mood for Frankie | 30.7.2018 | Trajall Harrell | USA | Impulstanz Festival | Vienna | While passing through Vienna, I get to attend this performance buy a highly acclaimed choreographer. I feel the specificity of the audience and the internal power relations. The contemporary dance scene – its students, masters, stars and wannabes. I write about this to A Reading of Audience. | ||||||
| 122 | SMS – Soft message Service | 13.6.2018 | Finland | URB Festival / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | One of the rare performances which use the existence of cell phones in their aesthetic. We are asked to keep our phones and their sounds on. The two performers, who are backstage, chat with individual audience members with text messages. The auditorium is lit with our phone screens and their beeps. | |||||||
| 123 | Tanssivintin kevätnäytös | 28.5.2018 | Ch. Janina Rajakangas | Finland | Tanssivintti Dance School / Vapaan taiteen tila | Helsinki | The dance school students the dramaturgy of their work invites us unintrusively to take part in the joint movement score. | ||||||
| 124 | COSMIC LATTE | 26.5.2018 | Sonya Lindfors | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | The auditorium is built into an angle on two sides of the stage. The audience is mostly white and the work deals with this fact. It makes fun of whiteness and demands attention to structural rasism. As an audience member I am also somewhat attacked and this is also the purpose of the work. | ||||||
| 125 | Subject to change | 12.5.2018 | Katriina Kettunen | Finland | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | The artist invited the audience to draw on her skin. | ||||||
| 126 | Meet me in the garden | 12.5.2018 | Mirna Bamieh | Palestine | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | An artistic event of cooking and eating. As it was happening during an evening, at the same time with other performances, I think it lacked the communality it proposed. I did help with the cooking and ate, but kind of missed the art of it. | ||||||
| 127 | No olvida el corazón cuando se ha dado | 12.5.2018 | Daniela Pascual Esparza | Finland / Ecuador / Spain | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | Cannot recall. | ||||||
| 128 | The way | 12.5.2018 | Rabia Salfiti | Palestine | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | Cannot recall. | ||||||
| 129 | Orientalism: Art, Ideology and the Depiction of the Arab World | 10.5.2018 | Harold Hejazi | Canada | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | A performance lecture on Eduard Said’s book Orientalism, but with a self-ironic vibe, showing the artist as a young rapper in a music video by the Giza pyramids. Taking place in occupied Palestine, performed by Canadian-Iranian-Finnish artisr this had multiple levels of cultural critique. | ||||||
| 130 | Between the sword and the neck | 10.5.2018 | Olga Spyropoulou | Greece | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | The artisti invited, wothout words, audience members to dance with her in the garden. | ||||||
| 131 | Jerusalem | 10.5.2018 | Timo Viialainen | Finland | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | A sound-driven performance, with a musical composition and some action. | ||||||
| 132 | DESAMPARADOS (The Abandoned) | 9.5.2018 | Yuan Mor’O Ocampo | Philippines | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | In the style of classical performance art, the artist has materials on the table, with which he acts (like throwing flour on himself). Dealing with the memory of his late mother, it is touching. | ||||||
| 133 | On collective Memory and Identity | 9.5.2018 | Beate Linne | Germany | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | Performer violating her own body, it challenges the endurance and morality of the audience. | ||||||
| 134 | Translating Generational Knowledge: Collaborative video in a Wixarika community in Mexico | 9.5.2018 | Pekka & Lea & Pyry Kantonen | Finland | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | A lecture performance on their longlasting work in a Mexican village community. | ||||||
| 135 | Ascension : A live performance holding a 9 kilo salmon fish for an hour time until exhustion | 8.5.2018 | Maiada Aboud | Palestine | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium / Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center | Ramallah | The name says it all, the audiencing determination and exhaustion of the performer. | ||||||
| 136 | Unseen | 6.5.2018 | Timo Viialainen | Finland | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium | Al’Arroub Refugee Camp | A visually strong performance, playing with a flash light. In the aftertalk a local man tells how he was touched by it, how it evoked memories of being subject to control and imprisonment by Israeli forces. This was true artistic cross-cultural communication. Refered to in “Esityksen vanki”. | ||||||
| 137 | SHRA-ERÄMAA | 6.5.2018 | Nowat Ensemble | Finland / Palestine | Recall – Reflect – Return – Palestine Performance Symposium | Al’Arroub Refugee Camp | A Finnish-Palestinian collaboration performing in the upstairs theatre in the home of one of the artist, at the refugee camp. This cultural exchange was touching. | ||||||
| 138 | re-membering | 25.4.2018 | Max McBride | USA | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | The performer had pieces of the work appearing along the day, an audio work in the toilet, a video she was carrying around on a small screen etc. | ||||||
| 139 | #CHARP | 25.4.2018 | Simo Kellokumpu | Finland | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | Moving slowly in the Kiasma lobby, someow linking us to celestial movements. | ||||||
| 140 | Rock / Crust / Body / Snow / Face / Buoy | 25.4.2018 | Paula Kramer | Germany | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | The artistic research presentation/performance had a beautiful atmosphere which I remember years later. Paula was sitting by a table on stage, with a projection she could draw on, with a calm, thoughtful style. | ||||||
| 141 | Backdrop (1977) | 25.4.2018 | Vincent Roumagnac | France / Finland | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | Vincent was not there physically, but addressed us through a video, with a text speaking straight to us in this specific situation. Experimenting on or stretching the limits of liveness. | ||||||
| 142 | The Actress | 25.4.2018 | Outi Condit | Finland | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | This was already the third time I audienced this piece, which makes it quite special. It affected me the most the first time, the second I could discern better the structures, techniques and contents of the work, and this third time I started to be more easily distracted. | ||||||
| 143 | Regurgitated Perspectives – an excerpt | 25.4.2018 | How To Do Things With Performance? -research project | Finland | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | This was a sort of funeral service I think, playing with that reference and structure. | ||||||
| 144 | 24.4.2018 | Daniel Oliver | Finland | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / ETLab | Helsinki | Daniel was invited to perform by me and Karolina Kucia, so I felt somewhat responsible as an audience member. He was telling some stories about his practice while doing things with his materials, with an unpredictable dramaturgy. In the aftertalk, it became clear that some audience members had felt Daniel threatening at some point, and I didnt understand at all why. | |||||||
| 145 | Chased - Entering and Exiting the World of Gendered Violence | 24.4.2018 | Susanna Hast | Finland | Spring Research Day / Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / ETLab | Helsinki | A singer-songwriter lecture performance I think? | ||||||
| 146 | Maria-vesper | 19.4.2018 | Anna Mustonen & Marianna Henriksson & Helsinki Baroch Orchestra | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | This was amazing, a intertwining of Monteverdi performed live by highlevel musicians and contemporary dance, also the singers dancing. As an audience member, was just in awe of this sophistication. | ||||||
| 147 | Loppiaisaatto | 12.4.2018 | Theatre students of Työväen akatemia | Finland | Työväen akatemia | Kauniainen | A student theatre work, nothing special to mention. Except that they were my students so I was looking at them warmly. | ||||||
| 148 | crystal pieces: human beings | 4.4.2018 | Mikko Hyvänen & Off/Balance | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I liked this but I am writing this so much later that I do not remember it. | ||||||
| 149 | 80 words | 24.3.2018 | Sarah van Lamsweerde | Netherlands / Sweden | Mad House Helsinki | Helsinki | The author was imagining a language which would have only 80 words. Also, it was originally a solo by the author, but now performed by someone else. | ||||||
| 150 | Nadita | 24.3.2018 | Alma Söderberg | Sweden | Mad House Helsinki | Helsinki | I remember the performer had an interesting presence in her repetitive movement. | ||||||
| 151 | Much Ado About Nothing | 3.3.2018 | Globe Theatre | UK | Shakespeare’s Globe | London | The globe was the attraction, my first time there. It was an imressive experience. The Shakespeare comedy, dont remember that much from it. | ||||||
| 152 | Chiperlatartapart | 24.2.2018 | Daniel Oliver | UK | Steakhouse Live Festival | London | A sincere and puzzling solo work with some kind of hose and containers, and Daniel doing something unexplainable with them. | ||||||
| 153 | Untitled (slick glittery) redux | 24.2.2018 | Kira O’Reilly | UK | Steakhouse Live Festival | London | Kira naked, moving slowly on on a large square carpet which had some glitter and other materials here and there, applying them on her skin. A durational piece of several hours, the audience ocming and going. A very concentrated and peaceful atmosphere, which has stayed in my mind. | ||||||
| 154 | Please note: Requests and Complaints from Under the Weather | 24.2.2018 | Imogen Roberts | UK | Steakhouse Live Festival | London | ? | ||||||
| 155 | Droves | 24.2.2018 | Coney | UK | COLAB Factory | London | An immersive journey in the basements of a building, created by and with children. Meeting characters played by child performers in different rooms of the basement. | ||||||
| 156 | Mass (work in progress) | 22.2.2018 | Robert Clark | UK | Dance4 | Nottingham | Performers and audience members masked with some fabrics, a mysterious choreographic space. Work-in-progress, with my partner as a performer. | ||||||
| 157 | Iron Mouth (Boca de Ferro) | 11.2.2018 | Marcela Levi & Lucía Russo | Brazil | Sidestep Dance Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | The space is surrounded with molton curtains, in one corner there is a table for the DJs who already play music when we enter. Then the dances slips in through the curtains and moves fiercely. He travels between us, coming close , moving, moving, moving like a maniac, a shaman, a techno animal, the audience is organically distributed around, making space as needed. | ||||||
| 158 | minor matter | 9.2.2018 | Ligia Lewis | Germany / USA | Sidestep Dance Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I Don’t remember anymore | ||||||
| 159 | Fist Piece | 8.2.2018 | Pan Daijing | Germany / China | Sidestep Dance Festival / | Helsinki | I Don’t remember anymore | ||||||
| 160 | Sorrow Swag | 6.2.2018 | Ligia Lewis | Germany / USA | Sidestep Dance Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I Don’t remember anymore | ||||||
| 161 | NOBLE SAVAGE | 5.2.2018 | Sonya Lindfors | Finland | Sidestep Dance Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | I Don’t remember anymore | ||||||
| 162 | Ajima | 20.1.2018 | Marc Philipp Gabriel | Germany | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | A high stage, the audience seated on three sides. The dancer Maija Karhunen on stage, her body is not the normative dancer body, she is small in size and has a bone condition, which is why she normally uses a wheelchair. This is impportant to me as an audience member, since it is rare to see this kind of bodies on stage. | ||||||
| 163 | Oneiron | 16.1.2018 | Raekallio Corp | Finland | Cirko Center of New Circus | Helsinki | Composed of different sections, on in an appartment, then a walk to the theatre, then in the theatre a choreography to watch, then we are offered soup. I don’t get a good connection to the work, but they have made a big effort to reflect the content with the format and audience positions. | ||||||
| 164 | Lentämisen alkeet | 18.1.2018 | Totem-teatteri | Finland | Most of the audience are primary school children, which makes it a special occasion for me. It is fun to follow the reactions of the kids, what are the things that spark their interest. | ||||||||
| 165 | Janne Katajan Riihimäki | 16.12.2017 | Ohj. Janne Saarakkala | Finland | Riihimäen teatteri | Riihimäki | The performance is based on a real character, a local celebrity. In the lobby before the show sit in the same table with a friend of Janne Kataja, a celebrity actor as well. He doesn’t seem to be so happy about the show and how it deals with their common history. Also he is portrayed on stage. | ||||||
| 166 | The Visit | 9.12.2017 | Vincent Roumagnac | France / Finland | Theatre Academy | Helsinki | A video work, Vincent has been working with the performer Hanna Ahti. Hanna has visited spaces of Theatre Academy and spent time in them, while camera is filming her. Hanna is pregnant. To me, it is a study of presence, absence, and the relationship between the actor and the performer. | ||||||
| 167 | Teini | 7.12.2017 | Janina Rajakangas Projekti | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | A choreography by my partner, with teenage dancers. I have been present during the process and I am invested in it emotionally. It is very touching, the presence of the performers is exceptional. | ||||||
| 168 | Pygmakofili | 2.12.2017 | Tremmel & Loper | Finland | Viirus Theatre | Helsinki | The authors I students, whose work I am mentoring. It is a performance installation in the lobby. Salla is inside a transparent box, which functions as a table. Vulnerable. Another performer, who is plussize, is also inside a box, dressed as a pig. A christmas reference, I think. The show is provocative, challenging the audience-performer relation. | ||||||
| 169 | Toinen koti | 30.11.2017 | Ohj. Jussi Lehtonen | Finland & elsewhere | National Theatre | Helsinki | Exceptional here is that the performer group is composed of immigrant artists. This is rare, and my relationship to the performance is dominated and oriented by this fact. | ||||||
| 170 | a life - nomadic melodrama | 25.11.2017 | Jenni-Elina von Bagh | Finland | Theatre Academy / Kallio Stage | Helsinki | The space, the old Ryhmäteatteri space, is atmospheric. I think the show was intelligent and funny, but I still felt somewhat disconnected. | ||||||
| 171 | i ride with colour and soft focus, no longer anywhere | 18.11.2017 | Jamila Johnson-Small | UK | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Kanneltalo | Helsinki | The spatial arrangement feels a bit weird in this performance, the fixed auditorium and the wide stage. In the end part audience members are invited also on stage, I remember going. | ||||||
| 172 | Sijdsååbbar (Village Council Meeting) | 18.11.2017 | Pauliina Feodoroff | Finland / Sami | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Konepaja Bruno | Helsinki | This village council meeting is bordering on whether it is a performance, since what takes place is a real meeting, with outsiders like myself witnessing it. I still feel honored to have been there, that I was allowed to take part. To just have the meeting and open it up was enough, and it doesnt really matter, if it is art or not. | ||||||
| 173 | MDLSX | 17.11.2017 | Motus | Italy | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Cirko Center for New Circus | Helsinki | An electronic music performance. | ||||||
| 174 | Think Much. Cry Much | 17.11.2017 | Rima Najdi | Lebanon / Germany | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / YMCA | Helsinki | A gym hall, some marks on the floor, audience with headphones. The audio tracks guide us to move in the space, going through chapters, which invite us to experience some moments non-european immigrants encounter when crossing borders and behaviour they are subjected to. | ||||||
| 175 | Afterlife | 16.11.2017 | Post-MJ Era Institute of Consciousness | Finland | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Viirus Theatre | Helsinki | A kind of spiritual event remembering and honoring the pop star Michael Jackson. A partly installation, partly performance structure where we at times follow something together, like the speech of Tino Singh, sometimes go through stations, like meeting personally a Michael Jackson lookalike. | ||||||
| 176 | Autonomian aika | 15.11.2017 | Pauliina Feodoroff | Finland / Sami | Baltic Circle Theatre Festival / Cirko Center for New Circus | Helsinki | A stage work dealing with the political question of the rights and the treatment of Sami people. This has been shadowed in my memory by the village council meeting, which was more important to me. | ||||||
| 177 | Mercurial George | 4.11.2017 | Dana Michel | Canada | Moving in November Festival / Stoa | Helsinki | Dana Michel’s presence and style of performing is very original and I cant really separate this work fully from Yellow Towel, which was for me a special experience. | ||||||
| 178 | Dark Field Analysis | 3.11.2017 | Jefta van Dinther | Netherlands / Sweden | Moving in November Festival / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | A very visual work about two dancers encountering in an intimate way on Kiasma stage. I think we were seated around the square stage. | ||||||
| 179 | Blab | 3.11.2017 | Sonja Jokiniemi. | Finland | Moving in November Festival / Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | The auditorium was built in an original way as a non-symmetric L-shape. The work was bordering on visual arts, there are even paintings in the set, and the performers are working with materials and substances kind of like performance artists, but with dancers techniques and style of presence. | ||||||
| 180 | Sleeping Beauty (work in progress) | 30.10.2017 | Reality Research Center | Finland | Eskus Performance Center | Helsinki | A highly original audience position: it is a sort of an erotic encounter, a form of passive play, in performance context, framed as an art performance. First a dialogue with a performer, to agree on what will take place. Then an encounter (30 min or so) in which one of us (myself) handles the body of the other, who pretends sleeping. One of the authors is my friend. | ||||||
| 181 | Maailmannäyttely, osa 1: Sinusta tulee koivu | 28.10.2017 | Koivuryhmä | Finland | Culture Center Stoa | Helsinki | A happening mixing different registers of performance from clownery to lecture. Also the audience position changes during the show and we can move. And are seated or laying down on pillows in the end. | ||||||
| 182 | Kokimo Ars17 | 20.10.2017 | Kokimo | Finland | Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum | Helsinki | This was actually an event containing several different performances. I recall two: the ASMR karaoke by Lehmus Murtomaa and the performative dinner by Kokimo. | ||||||
| 183 | Private Dancer | 20.10.2017 | WAUHAUS | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance | Helsinki | The audience on two sides, facing each other, in between the performers Juha Valkeapää and Heidi Soidinsalo. We are wearing headphones, the performers are creating an intimate sound dramaturgy, we can hear everything very well, and the distance between the stage and the auditorium is altered/diminished. | ||||||
| 184 | Channeling | 17.10.2017 | Outi Condit | Finland | Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Theatre Academy | Helsinki | In a studio space, there are podiums of different heights and sizes for us and the performers to use. They are speaking, constantly, “channeling” something, articulating experiences, in a non-loud voice, so I have to move closer when I want to follow the words of a specific performer. | ||||||
| 185 | The Actress | 16.10.2017 | Outi Condit | Finland | Performing Arts Research Center Tutke / Theatre Academy | Helsinki | Pairing with Channeling, the work is taking place on the same corridor and the day before. I audience it twice actually. It has one moment which is similar to a performance I have directed some years ago: a fake mustasche placed on a wall as a sort of male figure. | ||||||
| 186 | Kim, Lekki & Namwaan | 14.10.2017 | Saara Turunen | Finland / Thailand | Theatre Jurkka | Helsinki | A work made with three female thai immigrants who, based on their stories and performed by them. An act of decolonization and thus related to my position as a western, white audience member. My partner as the choreographer. | ||||||
| 187 | Performanssitaidetta Kalervo Palsan hengessä | 6.10.2017 | Katri Kainulainen & Maximilian Latva | Finland | Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | A performance art event inspired by the late artist Kalervo Palsa’s work. They have staged elements from his paintings into acts and actions using different props. An original and memorable atmosphere. Dark (humour). Later I hear that one of them, Maximilian, also knew Palsa personally. | ||||||
| 188 | Miehen Kosketus | 29.9.2017 | Eino Saari | Finland | Kajaani City Theatre/ Culture Center Stoa | Helsinki | A documentary theatre piece based on a large interview material. Men interviewed about their relationship to and experiences of touch and touching. I was one of the interviewed men. Staging male sensitivity, which I can symphatize with. | ||||||
| 189 | Amor Fati | 16.9.2017 | Anna-Mari Karvonen & Anni Puolakka | Finland | Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | A square stage with audience around, on stage a big chunk of clay and mostly two actors, one of them playing the actor Brad Pitt, the other one a journalist making an interview. This was a strong affective experience, the levels of acting and registers of performing overlapping and mutating. When the actor was mimicing vomiting, I could smell the vomit. | ||||||
| 190 | Tight | 10.9.2017 | Joona Halonen | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Cirko Center for New Circus | Helsinki | A choreography which felt ritualistic. It was centered around a rope, which the performers tightened between each other in different ways. Skillful and original in some way. We were sitting around them, on three sides of the space I think. | ||||||
| 191 | Moeder | 31.8.2017 | Peeping Tom | UK | National Opera / Alminsali | Helsinki | A kind of physical theatre/dance. I dont really remember much. This space has a specific aesthetic, the works stay in a kind of distance. | ||||||
| 192 | ”BABY WE CHANGING CULTURE” | 10.8.2017 | Biniyam | Finland | URB Festival / Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | This was a concert, a gig by a young pop/rap artist, but when it was situated in Kiasma theatre and spatially arranged in a way that there was a stage built in the center and we could move around it, the show became in a way a live art work. This affect that the framing in addition to the spatial design had, was intersting. | ||||||
| 193 | Burning Doors | 12.8.2017 | Belarus Free Theatre | Belarus | Tampere Theatre Festival | Tampere | I only remember that one of the members of the Pussy Riot group was performing in this documentary theatre piece, which was dealing with political problems in Russia. | ||||||
| 194 | Garden of Eden | 3.8.2017 | Ima Idouzee | Finland | Zodiak Center for New Dance / Culture Center Stoa | Helsinki | Don’t remember much, just Ima’s skills of moving, the work itself did not touch me I think. | ||||||
| 195 | Church of Internet | 2.8.2017 | WAUHAUS | Finland | Kiasma Theatre | Helsinki | The spatial arrangement was stylistic, like it always is with WAUHAUS: a large, high square stage with audience in one row around it. The Facebook avvounts of the audience was linked to the content, and as I don’t have one (I think there was just about two of us in the whole audience), I was partly an outsider. The audience was invited to perform rituals on stage, but I didnt feel like I wanted. Maybe due to this outsiderness? |