Verta, pornoa ja propagandaa, JUMALAUTA!

Performers:
Amanda Kauranne – voice, percussions, wind instruments, double bass
Helmi Camus – voice, double bass, keayboard instruments
Minna Koskenlahti – voice, percussions, wind instruments
Sini Siipola – dance, choreography, voice, percussions
Verta concert featured by Maija Kauhanen – kantele, voice
Propagandaa concert featured by Hildá Länsman or Pirita Näkkäläjärvi – yoik, voice, kantele
Concept – Amanda Kauranne
Live sound – Pauliina Saarman
Lights and projections -Ina Niemelä
Assisting director – Elina Lajunen
Production – Mari Pääkkönen
Logo – Paula Susitaival

Verta premiere in 19.3.2018 in Space for free arts (old air-raid shelter)
Pornoa premiere in 1.9.2018 in Lapinlahti Hospital
Propagandaa premiere in 18.9.2018 in SKS, Centre for Finnish Literature
JUMALAUTA! premiere in 20.1.2019 in Music theatre Kapsäkki

Supported by Kone Foundation, MES, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, City of Helsinki, Heluna Shop

Duration 4 x 90min

More information: vppj2018@gmail.com

VPPJ! won the phenomenon of the year price in Etnogaala 2020

Verta (Blood) starts a feminist folk music concert serie Verta, pornoa ja propagandaa, JUMALAUTA! The first concert explores the blood line, menstrual fluid and child birth blood, as well as blood shed throughout the centuries, aggression as a destroying and creative force. The mood of the performance swings between bang and clatter, small and sensitive, amusing and frightening.

Different Finnish folk music traditions and stories from murder ballads to childbirth spells, from old hymns to ancient catfights are played.

Pornoa (Porn) concert celebrates sexuality, body and the wandering mind.
Traditional love chants, old runosongs about the hatered and powers of the cunt, folk songs of the genitalian joys and new compositions to enrich the variety sexy songs are combined with movement and surprising performance art. If Steve Vai’s guitar solo makes one think of male ejaculation what could be the female equivalent as a musical act.

Propagandaa (Propaganda) concert investigates the nature of propaganda with the means of performance and song. What kind of propaganda has been used to depict the ideal woman in the course of history, what has been censored and how folk music was harnessed for the Finnish narrative? What is propaganda today?

In the concert one hears songs from the era of civil war, yoiks, lyrics made from the room flat for a young woman, as well as internet trolling and hate talk concidering Blood concert transformed into songs lyrics.

JUMALAUTA! contemplates the concept of holy and looks into the archaic and newer systems of beliefs. What divides material and spiritual? What was the role of a woman in the history of religions?

Violence, sexuality, propaganda songs and the experience of sacred – in 2018-2019 the concert serie takes up topics that are widely sung in the historical folk music, but are rarely sang today with a female voice. If we remain silent about these issues, what kinds of representations of women manifest or have been manifested? What happens if we give a voice to them?

Photos Sanna Breilin

Dál lea vejolaš gullat olles feministalaš álbmotmusihkkakonseartaráiddu Varra, porno, propagánda, JUMALAUTA! Konseartaráidu ovdána syklalaččat. Dat addá ođđasit jiena olmmošeallima áššiide, mat leat muhtumin čiekŋalat ja muhtumin fas geahppasat. Perspektiiva lea nissonin navdojuvvon olbmuid geahččanguovlu.

Varra-konsearta dutká eallima láiggi, man ng. varraárbi, mánodávdavarra ja mánáriegádahttinvarra duddjojit. Lassin konsearta guorahallá vara golggaheami ja vel aggreššuvnna. Dát leat fámut, mat sihke duššadit juoidá ja duddjojit ođđa nissonolbmo eallimis. Bargojoavkku ovddabealde rahpasa ovttalágan veahkaválddi kataloga maŋimus čudiid jagiid áigge. Mii álggahit vuohttunlávlagis ja loahpahit riegádahttinlohkosii – jos veahkaválddi ii botke, nu joatkášuvvágo dat?

Porno-konsearta gieđahallá seksualitehta girjáivuođa ja máŋggabealátvuođa. Seksualitehta birra leat olbmot lávlon álo. Mii goittotge buktit dasa ođđa geahččanguovllu: feministalaš perspektiivva, nissonin navdojuvvon olbmo historjjá ja geahččanguovllu, mii rahpá dálá áiggi. Mii álggahit diktalávlumiin ja ovdánit das cinná vašiin ja fámuin gitta 2010-logu seksualitehta govaide ja dan deaddagiidda.

Progagánda-konsearta dutká dáidaga bokte, ahte makkár propagánda olbmot leat don doloža rájes gullan ja buvttadan. Mo propagánda báidná nissongova iešguđet áigodagas? Mo álbmotmusihkka ja árbevierut leat ávkkástallojuvvon, go muitalus Suoma birra lea huksejuvvon? Main áššiin dán áigge galggašii lávlut dahje jávohuvvat?

JUMALAUTA!-konsearta suokkarda basi vásáhusa ja dutkada dološsuopmelaš ja dan maŋŋá boahtán oskumušortnega. Mii earuha eatnanlačča ja vuoiŋŋalačča? Mo nissonolbmot vásihedje vuoiŋŋalašvuođa dolin, go almmáiolbmot dávjá hálddašedje oskkoldagaid virggálaččat?

Stadin naisten laulut

Anna E. Karvonen – research, singing, violin, production
Milla Viljamaa – composing, piano, harmonium, singing, coding
Elsa Saisio – dramaturge, directing, singing, monologues
Ina Niemelä – space, lighting and projection design
Satu Riikonen – costume design
Ville Liukkonen – studio recoding and live sound

Song texts – Marja-Leena Mikkola, Pirkko Saisio, Kanerva Pasanen, Inka Nousiainen, Mercedes Bentso and Trad.

Supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation, Yhteishyvä, Music Theatre Kapsäkki

Premiere 8.2.2019 at Music Theatre Kapsäkki
Duration 2 hours with intermission
Performance language Finnish

The theatrical concert is a time travel in 101 years into the lives of women in Helsinki. Monologues, pictures from photo archives:
Helsinki City Museum andFinnish Wartime Photograph Archive,
new and old folk songs form an emotional and rich documental journey where stories of different generations connect.
Today’s artists bring the voices of women to be heard and remembered.

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Posthuman days

https://posthumandays.info

Choreography – Jenni-Elina von Bagh & performers
Performers – Jenna Broas, Karoliina Kauhanen, Anni Koskinen, Outi Markkula, Pinja Poropudas
Costume design and bacterial cellulose – Ingvill Fossheim
Lighting design – Ina Niemelä
Stage design and videos – Fabian Nyberg
Sound design – Tom Lönnqvist
Dramaturge – Otto Sandqvist
Photos – Katri Naukkarinen
Video documentation – Teemu Kyytinen
Production – Zodiak – Centre for New Dance, Jenni-Elina von Bagh

Supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundatin, Norsk- Finsk Kulturfond, RadArt Marked, CHEMARTS, Aalto studios

With thanks to Gary Numan for the use of Tubeway Army´s  ”I nearly married a human”

Premiere 18.10.2018 at Zodiak Stage
Duration 60 min
Performance language English

Link to full-length video here. Pw: post2018human

What is a post-human human being? What does it mean to let go of anthropocentrism? The world is breaking before our very eyes, but what is this inevitable state of change?

Posthuman days by choreographer Jenni-Elina von Bagh and her workgroup is an ambitious and impossible attempt to bring a topical philosophical notion of ‘post-human’ into the stage context.

Posthuman days explores questions relating to a breaking of categories such as subject/object, nature/culture, human/non-human and life/death. It assumes a form of embodied, choreographed question articulated by five young female dancers.

Posthuman days does not want to convey or represent anything. It wants to open an artistic platform for dissident thought. It admits to being awkward, emotional and melancholy while remaining superficial.

Photos – Katri Naukkarinen

The performance is based on a topical philosophic writing; it is the moment of translation between philosophical discourse and stage action. It plays side by side with works such as Rosi Braidotti‘s Posthuman (2013)and Donna Haraway‘s Cyborg Manifesto (1984). As a performance, Posthuman days is a network-based hybrid. It proves that the notion of post-human is already here.

In her recent works, von Bagh has explored questions of a state of dislocation on the stage and the performance as an event that does not fit neatly into any known category.

Von Bagh combines the body, the language and the action on stage into compositional textures where no element assumes a superior position in relation to the others. Simultaneously with this, she operates in the dynamic flow between different expressive registers, allowing the comic and the tragic to intertwine in radical, sometimes bewildering ways. (www.zodiak.fi)

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MADONNA

On stage – Kaisa Leppänen, Jarkko Niemi, Annika Poijärvi, Tatu Mönttinen, Sara Melleri ja Saara Kotkaniemi.
Director – Sini Pesonen
Writer – Jussi Moila
Music and sound design – Pauli Riikonen and Juho Alajuuma
Choreography – Sonya Lindfors
Lighting and video design – Ina Niemelä
Costume design – Henna-Riikka Taskinen
Set design – Salli Kari and artist Jani Leinonen.

Madonna is a carnivalesque performance about feminism, femininity, motherhood and roles in a nuclear family and in a society.

Premiere 28.10.2015
Lasipalatsi POP-UP –THEATRE Helsinki, Mannerheimintie 22-24
Performance language Finnish

Captures from the Mummonainen projections:

critiques in finnish