28.08.2024

The Theatre Museum's next artist-in-residence in September is sound and performance artist Juha Valkeapää. He is working on the second version of his work Animal beings.

The work was first seen at the Palazzo Lucarini Contemporary, in Trevi in March 2023. Now Animal beings will be shown at the Theatre Museum in a further developed version. Animal beings! is a performance that will resemble a guided tour of a museum. It looks into how we exist in this world and explores different ways of existing from the perspective of non-human animal species. Valkeapää’s instruments include nonverbal and verbal sounds with and without amplification, as well as the use of body and movement, poems, performance scripts, and soundscapes.

The residency will end with a series of performances that gently engage the audience, i.e. the performance will sometimes "flock" with the audience. It is also possible to simply follow the swarming without participating. The performance is in Finnish and/or English and is suitable for all ages.

Ollaan eläimiksi! / Animal beings
Script, direction, performance and other unmentioned matters by Juha Valkeapää
Dramaturgical assistance and majority of the translations into English by Heidi Soidinsalo

Fictional texts Eeva Kilpi, Matsuo Bashõ, William Blake, Anni Kytömäki, Sirpa Kyyrönen, W. S. Merwin, Maila Pylkkönen, Henriikka Tavi, Suomen kansan vanhat runot
Other texts Eva Meijer, Juha Valkeapää

Performances:
Sat 7.9. at 15
Sun 8.9. at 15
Wed 11.9. at 18
Thu 12.9. at 18

Duration approx. 1 hour. For the price of a Theatre Museum ticket (16/8/6 €) or a Museum Card.

Juha Valkeapää is a sound and performance artist born in 1967. During his 30-year career, he has created performances, installations, radio works, and soundscapes of different shapes, sounds and looks all over the world. The key elements of Valkeapää's art are sound, presence, playfulness, improvisation, and live contact with the audience. From 2022–2026, his work is supported by a five-year artist grant from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
(www.juhavalkeapaa.net)

Photo by Mara Predicatori