
How do ecological poetics perform between dance, site and image? Nature Untitled is a new work by choreographer Veli Lehtovaara, visual artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila and sound designer Jani Hietanen with an international group of artists. The work is presented in the form of a triptych – each of the three movements discharges on stage in a particular mode.
The first movement, inside an empty oil silo, dances out the ghosts of exhaustion and energies consumed. The bodies fold and crackle, the steel structure purrs, the phantasms of the oil era burn only to vanish.
In the second movement, we traverse on a field road and in interstellar space. The stage is both enveloping and infinitely extending vacuum, space and ship at the same time, governed by the sound of artificial intuition. Dance wobbles and weaves, recalls and regrets the earth and its beings.
The third movement juxtaposes a primeval forest with a shopping mall. The human-made technological environment plunges into the restful depths of the old growth forests. Dancing bodies graph the divergence of forms and minds emerging within this border zone.
One can see all three parts or decide to just experience a single one. The second part is a choreographic installation organized in loops of 45min each, starting at every full hour: 15h/16h/17h on the 6th and 18h/19h/20h on the 7th. One can enter and exit the performance whenever one likes.
The work is part of Veli Lehtovaara’s artistic research (PhD) at the Theatre Academy Helsinki.
Veli Lehtovaara
Veli Lehtovaara is a choreographer and performer working in the international field of dance and experimental theatre. He lived and worked in Brussels in 2010-2018 after graduating from P.A.R.T.S. Lehtovaara’s stage works and choreographic installations have been seen in central venues and festivals around Europe, as well as in North and South America. For the last five years his work has been focused on the interstices of choreography, ecological thinking, and diversity of corporealities. Lehtovaara conducts his artistic doctoral thesis at CfAR in University of the Arts, Helsinki. He also works as a visiting teacher, mentor and expert at Theatre Academy Helsinki.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Visual artist and filmmaker Eija-Liisa Ahtila experiments with narration and form in her works that address the gendered, colonial and anthropocentric structures haunting the everyday and its representations. During the last decade she has explored what an ecology of drama could be, that includes also more-than-human actors and their perspectives: how to allow another animal than human, or a tree or the wind, to take the centre stage in cinematic narratives? Works such as Horizontal (2011) and Studies on the Ecology of Drama (2014) experiment with expanding representation and narration towards these coexisting diverse temporal rhythms and spatial scales of lived experience. Ahtila’s current work is concerned with how to depict and make sense of reality at the time of urgent ecological crises. How can art and moving image adapt to the changing world? What kind of shifts in perspectives and perceptions could align with the ongoing transformations in worldviews and in our interdependent relations?
Jani Hietanen
Jani Hietanen is a sound designer, musician and media artist who’s practice extends to different fields of sound art and performance; to dance, installation works, cinema, radio, contents of extended- and virtual reality as well as the interfaces of auditive and visual media. His interest in immersive strategies, self-generating systems in sound computing and interplay with sound and other media is valuable for this creation.
Location
Movement I Oil Silo 468, Saaristolaivastonkatu, 00590 Helsinki
Movement II Zodiak Stage, Kaapeliaukio 3, 00180 Helsinki
Movement III Redi Shopping Center, K1-kerros, Hermannin rantatie 5, 00580 Helsinki
Time
Movement I
30.10.2022 18.00
31.10.2022 18.00
Movement II
6.11.2022 15.00
7.11.2022 18.00
Movement III
12.11.2022 16.00
13.11.2022 16.00
Soup Talk 13.11. at 12
Liput
30 € / 15 €
Movement II is a choreographic installation organized in loops of 45min each, starting at every full hour: Sunday the 6th at 15h/16h/17h and Monday the 7th at 18h/19h/20h. One can enter and exit the performance whenever one likes.
Movement III – When coming to the performance, you will receive a QR code, via which the soundscape of the performance can be accessed. Please bring your own headphones and a phone or a tablet with you.
Duration: Movement I 35mins Movement II 45-180 mins Movement III 45 mins
One is welcome to experience only one or two parts of the triptych.
Choreography: Veli Lehtovaara in collaboration with the performers
Performers: Elias Girod, Anni Koskinen, Sofia Simola, Matilda Aaltonen, Erik Eriksson, Inga Huld Hákonardóttir, Kevin Fay
Space, scenography and moving image: Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Sound design: Jani Hietanen
Costume design: Piia Rinne (movement I & III, movement II adaptation & black fragments)
Knit cpas and neckwarmers: Anja Lehtovaara
Light design: Luc Schaltin (movement II), Anton Verho (movement I original design, adaptation Anna Pöllänen)
Dramaturgical support: Merel Heering
Environmental educator: Riitta Nykänen (movement III)
Cinematography: Pekka Uotila (movement I), Arto Kaivanto (movement II)
Edit: Heikki Kotsalo
Production assistant: Sofia Charifi
Production: Entirely Moved
Co-production: Zodiak, Moving in November, Institut finlandais
Productional support: Arts Management Helsinki
Photo: Liisa Takala, Veli Lehtovaara, Joma Richter, Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Special thanks to: Laatikkokauppa | Kirsi Pitkänen, Pro Av Saarikko Oy, Eventgear Oy, Ilppo Pohjola | Crystal Eye, Jaakko & Pirjo Lehtovaara, Kauppakeskus REDI, Lauri Supponen (musical contribution), Joma Richter & Tove Lehtovaara-Richter
Recidencies: La Briqueterie CDCN Val-de-Marne (FR), wpZimmer (BE), BIT Teaterngarasjen (NO)
Supported by: Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arst Promotion Centre Finland, Dance House Helsinki / SPARKS, TelepART Mobility Support Platform & The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, Tutke | Uniarts Helsinki