Extramaterial

Jenni-Elina von Bagh and working group

Premiere 11.10.2024 at Viirus GUEST program

A work about surplus and the miracle of performance

What is left over or missed, what is born out of nothing and comes to life?

Extramaterial is a stage for a complex and re-forming body that surrenders to the perception of surplus and impossibility in relation to the future and to being in the world.

The work draws on the ephemeral meanings of living in our times and reaches out towards a new, undefined subject. Extramaterial breaks categories and spreads out into a joyful eventfulness full of waste and futility. The performers bring to the fore what is not at the centre, but at the same time perhaps at the core of our being.

The work moves between rehearsal, tuning and performance – on the terrain of choreography, drama, situation and abstract composition. Raiskinmäki and von Bagh draw from what is already there and what emerges from what is at hand. The performance materials include recycled elements and details from the group’s previous works, different layers of life, and the body’s own materials such as skin and hair. 

Extramaterial sheds light on a contemporary philosophical perspective on the fate of the human subject, being connected to the universe and our immediate surrounding reality. What is the surplus that participates in the event of life?

Choreography and concept Jenni-Elina von Bagh in collaboration with Hanna Raiskinmäki

Performance Hanna Raiskinmäki and Jenni-Elina von Bagh

Scenography and costume design Ingvill Fossheim 
Sound design Tatu Nenonen
Light design Ina Niemelä

Producer Susanna Arola
Picture Anna Antsalo

Language Not a problem, the work includes small fragments of different languages as Finnish, Swedish and English
Length approximately 60 minutes
Age recommendation adults 12 years and older
Content warning partly high volym in sound

Liisa Pentti +Co & rendezvous: Baroque Pearl – Dances for Spring and Silence

Premiere at Kiasma theatre 3.5.2024

Concept, choreography and direction – Liisa Pentti

Dancers – Maija Mustonen, Anna Torkkel, Anna Maria Häkkinen, Hanna Ahti, Anna Mustonen

Sound design – Jouni Tauriainen

Light design – Ina Niemelä

Costume design – Siru Kosonen

Costume making – Siru Kosonen, Reija Ruotsalainen
Choreographic support – Pia Lindy

Choreographer’s assistant – Nelia Naumanen

Photography – Kansallisgalleria / Pirje Mykkänen

Video – Aurélia Steiner – Vancouver, ohj. Paulo Branco (4:40-6:22)

Trailer – Kansallisgalleria / Aleks Talve

Production – Liisa Pentti + Co, rendezvous ry, Kiasma-teatteri

Thank you – Soile Lahdenperä

Supported by Taiteen edistämiskeskus, Helsingin kaupunki, Koneen Säätiö, Svenska kulturfonden

Baroque Pearl – Dances for Spring and Silence is a work choreographed for five dancers, Hanna Ahti, Anna Maria Häkkinen, Anna Mustonen, Maija Mustonen and Anna Torkkeli, and it is inspired by Japanese composer Susumu Yokota’s album Baroque and French writer Marguerite Duras’ work.

The performance is based on the relationship between dance and silence, music and the associations created by textual excerpts. Commissioned by the rendezvous collective, it continues choreographer Liisa Pentti’s exploration of the fundamental questions of sound, space and movement in dance.

Baroque Pearl – Dances for Spring and Silence is a poetic choreography in the space between the human and the inhuman, a landscape that is difficult to verbalise and where the place of dance is constantly reshaped. Perhaps it is a spatial love story – for dance.

I’m trying to achieve that beautiful thing. There is always fear, rage, and ugliness existing behind beauty. I have been trying to express ki-do-ai-raku (the four emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness) through music. I would like to express even one’s hidden emotion with reality. It’s my eternal goal.” – Susumu Yokota