Space, emptiness and stage will be examined in the spring performances of the Contemporary Performance Stage
The Contemporary Performance Stage, which encourages diversity and dialogue between the arts, brings works from the free field to the Helsinki City Theatre’s studio Pasila for the second year in a row. In May, the programme includes Milla Jarkko’s TIIKERI, Ami Karvonen’s, Kid Kokko’s and Anna Mustonen’s Movement and Emptiness, and Fjolla Hoxha’s What is seen and what’s (left) behind the scene?In August 2023, the works Dilemma and Nano Steps will be premiered on the stage of the contemporary performance.
In May, the Contemporary Performance Stage, which was born out of an appeal from the free field, will bring works to Studio Pasila that reflect on the relationship between space, emptiness and stages.
“The second-year works on the stage of a contemporary performance delve into the boundaries and norms set by the stage space. In the limelight, the focus is usually on the performer’s actions. But what can that activity be, and who can actually perform? In this year’s works, these boundaries of the stage are dispelled, stretched and scaled,” say the project’s curators Tuomas Laitinen, Riikka Thitz and Suvi Tuominen.
Milla Jarkko’s TIGER – It some@bility stage work, i.e. the consertti and biennial for the Pasila stage and other spaces , ponders when the performance will end in the age of social media. The concert and social media-inspired TIGER is a commemoration of the previous circus fame premiere of the same work, which was performed at the Cirko – Center for New Circus in January 2023. In May, the work will spread to unknown corners of Studio Pasila, harness them for unprecedented use and at the same time swell to social media.
Movement and Emptiness, premiered and sold out at Theatre Takomo by Ami Karvonen, Kid Kokko and Anna Mustonen, is a performance thought, discussed, danced, performed and written by the creators together, with a sense of wonder and ordinariness. The performance situates itself in the areas of empty, spacious, twilight, spacious, small, grids, caverns, deserts, starry nightly skies, ein, exhaustion, omission, farewells and exits.
Of the productions on the stage of the contemporary performance, Kosovo-born Fjolla Hoxha’s work What is seen and what’s (left) behind the scene? will be performed as part of the spring programme. The work highlights those who are rarely seen on stage: a participatory listening performance consists of the Helsinki City Theatre’s employees’ own stories, memories, experiences and feelings in relation to their workspaces. The performance invites you to explore the City Theatre, where the guides are those whose work usually takes place invisibly. The performance aims to highlight the intersection where breaking the illusion of theatre leads to the revelation of its own structures.
The other productions on the stage of the current performance will be performed in August on the stage of Studio Pasila. Trial & Theatre’s wordless puppet theatre performance Nano Steps brings puppeteering microparticles to the stage and tells the story of a strange bilateral relationship across scales and sensory boundaries. The season ends with Dilemma, directed by Masi Tiita, which stages a subtle, stagnant and unresolved conversation between two characters.
The stage of a contemporary performance
The stage of the Helsinki City Theatre’s Contemporary Performance brings various forms of contemporary performance into the theatre’s repertoire, increases job opportunities for independent artists and develops cooperation in the performing arts. The year 2023 will be the last of the pilot project, and from 2024 onwards, the stage will continue as part of the seasonal programme of the City Theatre and Studio Pasila.
The stage’s activities are divided into a visiting stage and premieres and stage residencies aimed at preparing them. The visiting stage will take place in May, the residency work in June-July, and the premieres of the works produced at the residency will take place in August.
The stage design and repertoire of the contemporary performance are the responsibility of a three-person curatorial team, consisting of performance artist and dancer Suvi Tuominen, director, doctoral researcher Tuomas Laitinen and curator Riikka Thitz. At the City Theatre, the project is coordinated by Antti Lahti.
The stage of the contemporary performance was created from an appeal by artists working in the independent field of performing arts. The Helsinki City Theatre accepted the challenge of the free field and aims to develop a new kind of production framework for the field in the form of a pilot project, which could contribute to changing the structures that create inequality and slow down the development of the arts. The purpose of the project is to provide an example and share experiences with other theatres funded by VOS.
The Stage for Contemporary Performance project is supported by Kone Foundation in 2022–2023.
Performances on the stage of a contemporary performance 19.5. – 27.5.2023:
19.5. Milla Jarko: TIGER – It some@bility a stage work, i.e. a consertti and biennial for the stage and other spaces of Studio Pasila
25.–27.5. Ami Karvonen, Kid Kokko and Anna Mustonen: Movement and Emptiness
23.–27.5. Fjolla Hoxha: What is seen and what’s (left) behind the scene?
Stage premieres of the contemporary performance in August 2023:
8.–14.8. Trial & Theatre: Nano Steps
22.–29.8. Masi Tiitta: Dilemma
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