Stage
My work in stage arts takes the form of these four categories: Mill Theatre, Performance Art – Sida vid sida, Spectacles, and Activism.
Myllyteatteri – Mill Theatre
I founded MYLLYTEATTERI – MILL THEATRE – to create multilayered stage music. I worked as the group’s artistic director and director from 2003 to 2018.
Together with the ensembles I brought together, I developed a physical-visual stage language and poetic theatre, aiming toward abstract stage art and the theatre of the mind.
The productions I directed were always anchored in a specific theme — such as corporeality; the dilemma of escape and encounter; single parenthood; childhood. Yet more important than spoken dialogue has been, for me, the material music emerging from theatrical elements — my stage thinking is connected to the Artaudian tradition.
To deepen my understanding of the human body in space, I studied in Japan and the United States the Suzuki Acting Method developed by theatre director Tadashi Suzuki, as well as the Viewpoints technique, which brings different theatrical elements onto the stage as equal forces.
For each production, I sought a suitable stage either in Finland or abroad. Productions were created not only in Finland but also in Poland, Italy, Scotland, Denmark, Ireland, and Portugal.
“From Myllyteatteri productions one can expect not only deeply philosophical and tradition-aware performances, but also works that situate themselves in place and in the world in compelling ways.”
— Maria Säkö, Helsingin Sanomat, 2009
Näyttämöfilosofiani (pdf).
Performances
“What can you possibly get out of that poem — it doesn’t even have characters or a story.”
Premiere: 2016, Helsinki
Ireland 2017
Italy 2017, Milan: Il Teatro Nudo Award
Helsinki 2018
“it is the synthesis here, the synthesis-synthesis-synthesis-synthesis.”
Premiere: 2014, Helsinki
Cricoteka, Kraków 2015
“Every generation must struggle with Dante.” — Wechssler
Premiere: 2012, Portugal
Skupi ITI Festival, Skopje — Best Performance Award
“Everything is served, for everyone. I am God. Everything is available.”
Premiere: Myllyteatteri 2011
Tiivistämö, Helsinki
“I have often lain on its back. I have stroked its neck and looked at it closely. I have grown used to it, and I love it.”
Premiere: Espa Stage, 2009
Oulu City Theatre 2010
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2010
“Everyone has their fate. But better to speak than to shout endlessly.”
TRAGEDY COMPETITIONS
2008, Helsinki Railway Square
“Is there never any food here!”
Premiere: Myllyteatteri, Ateneum Hall 2005
Myllysali 2006
“This has nothing to do with theatre.”
Premiere: Myllyteatteri, Myllysali 2004
“We have founded a new theatre.”
Based on poems from Lauri Otonkoski’s collection Olo
2004, Myllyteatteri
“In Lapua, megalomania is at its peak.”
Premiere: 2003
Aurinkoteatteri at Kokoteatteri stage, Helsinki
Performance Art – Sida vid sida
The Sida vid sida med havet festival (2022–2025) has produced a multidisciplinary series of performances, each work tailored to churches in the Turku and Åland archipelago.
Performances have taken place on the islands of Jurmo, Aspö, Utö, Nötö, Houtskari, Iniö, Nauvo, Parainen, and Kökar. The works have also been presented at the Helsinki Festival in the churches of Suomenlinna and Lauttasaari, as well as in the medieval church of Pyhtää.
The festival has been supported in different years by the Kordelin Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden, Taike/HAMA funding, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Spectacles
Is there not something within us that longs for the overwhelming? Something in us resonates before a roaring waterfall, the vastness of the ocean, the infinity of the starry sky.
A memory of our own infinity.
A spectacle that overwhelms the senses creates an inescapable experience through sheer decibel force. The volume is turned all the way up, lights blast toward the ceiling, and power is pushed to its limits.
If a spectacle is created with the intensity of the performer and a voice that carries far — as in ancient amphitheatres — its frequency resonates within the body of the spectator.
This is what I sought in creating these spectacles.
And also this: that we always stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and that we must remember where we come from.
A nine-day festival inspired by Ancient Greek tragedy competitions, held at Helsinki Railway Square in spring 2008.
A collaborative European theatre project based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, supported by the EU and realized in Finland and Portugal.
Via Crucis Easter play in central Helsinki in 2009 and 2010.
Activism
We have the right to art and expression. We are culture. Without it, we would not exist.
It is difficult to measure the impact of demonstrations, but giving up is not an option: we have a voice.
During the COVID years, together with the Mitta on täysi working group, we organized two artivist demonstrations demanding the lifting of restrictions affecting the arts sector, February 3rd, 2021 at Parliament House and February 3rd, 2022 at Senate Square.
We demanded the reversal of cuts to the arts and adequate funding for Finnish art in the Sakset seis! campaign on 5 December 2024 at Kansalaistori. The cultural petition we submitted to Parliament gathered over 100,000 signatures.