Could you tell us about the background and starting point of this performance?
I have been planning on doing a solo for several years, always saying that I will, that in 2024 I will do it, never knowing more about it than the will – that when I turn 60 it is time for a solo.
Then I saw Mad House’s new space and realised that it was the exact miniature copy of the big HP8 library in Munich where we did the biggest Oblivia piece up to now last June, Turn Turtle Turn. Realising that it is not the easiest thing to bring such a big piece to Helsinki on short notice, I wanted it to have some kind of Turtle presence, so a lecture performance felt like a good idea.
It will be a lecture performance in the broadest meaning of the word, because when I started writing after brainstorming for a week with Oblivia’s Tua and Timo, what came out was my story. So what we will see are references to the Turn Turtle Turn performance within the context of 400 million years, and then we zoom into my life, which is on the scale of a speck of dust, not even a grain of sand on the timeline from dinosaurs to now.
How do you situate your artistic work within the Finnish performing arts landscape?
My artistic work is physically close to the Finnish performing arts landscape. Oblivia’s performances are created here, but they are rarely shown here. And yet, these days I feel that we are appreciated here and that we have an important role here. For 24 years we’ve done exactly what we wanted to do and developed a universe out of how we work and what we do. We also have an international career.
However, it is not easy for us to find venues or partners that show our work in Finland. We share this with most other independent companies and the situation has grown worse over the years. There are too few venues, too little commitment and too few long-term relationships. Of course there is a lack of money, but it would already help if there would be a general feeling of appreciation and commitment to arts.
Together we can do wonders. Today’s situation, when populists have free rein to dismantle the whole society, makes it more and more difficult to talk about a performing arts landscape that does not look like a desert, and this shows a deeply rooted disinterest in arts in our society.