2016
Performance, concept, dramaturgy by Diana Soria
Sound design by Alejandro Montes de Oca
Live music by Coco Duro Duo (Alejandro Montes de Oca and Alejandro Olarte)
Texts by TaoLin, Aya Chalabee, Polina Kopylova and Ye Yint Thet Zwe as part of a collaboration with Sivuvalo multilingual literature project.
Adaptation of texts by Diana Soria and Daniel Malpica (Sivuvalo)
Instruction texts are based on the user manual for an inflatable boat.
Narrative voice and audio poems by the authors, Stephany Mazon and Maria Bolshedonova
Performance commissioned by Baltic Circle International Theater Festival
Helsinki, Finland
Photo Credits Tani Simberg, Jakob Johannsen
Video by Ignacio Pérez Pérez
In 2012 I made my first work in a sauna, in a very broad way I have thought in sauna as a performative space that through its basic elements such as steam, water, heat, rocks, community and bodies, can relate more to the human than to a specific culture. (A)part is a durational performance that seeks to reverberate with others by combining Finnish based poets in different languages, sound and performance art, embedded in the sauna ritual. Its basic structure is open, fluid and maybe abstract but with some very concrete images and texts that appear over time, echoing and building connections in between. It’s conceived by parts that constantly negotiate with each other: weather, audience, architecture, dramaturgy and performer.
It is very important for me to think who is my audience in different spaces and contexts, and public space represent the possibility of encountering a broader audience. I perceive the potential of art as an affection that can question and influence its surroundings, not only as an art product, but as a practice that can contribute to a necessary social change.
(A)part is about integration, adaptation and perception, not only through building a temporary community provided by the sauna but also by suspending the traditional use of sauna and making it a place for observation and awareness of the others, it is a collective effort.
En el 2012 hice mi primer pieza en un sauna tradicional Finlandés, en un sentido amplio he pensado en el sauna como un lugar performático que a través de elementos básico como vapor, agua, calor, rocas, comunidad y cuerpos, se puede relacionar más con lo humano que con una cultura específica. (A)part* es un performance duracional que busca resonar con los otros combinando poesía escrita en Finlandia en otras lenguas, sonido y performance en conjunto con el ritual del sauna. Su estructura principal es abierta, fluida y tal vez abstracta pero con algunas imágenes muy concretas y textos que aparecen a lo largo del performance, haciendo eco y construyendo conexiones. Está pensado en partes que están en constante negociación entre ellos: el clima, la audiencia, la arquitectura, la dramaturgia y la performer.
Es muy importante para mi pensar quién es mi audiencia en diferentes espacios y contextos, y el espacio público representa la posibilidad de encontrarme con una audiencia más diversa. Percibo al arte como una afectación que puede cuestionar e influenciar su entorno no solo como producto artístico sino como una práctica que puede contribuir al cambio social necesario.
(A)part trata sobre integración, adaptación y percepción, no únicamente a través de construir comunidades temporales provistas por el sauna, sino también a través de suspender su uso tradicional y hacerlo un lugar para observar y tener conciencia de los otros en un esfuerzo colectivo.
Working Group
Alejandro Montes de Oca (Mexico City) is an electroacoustic composer and performer, and a sound artist based in Helsinki. He works as teacher of electroacoustic music and research assistant at the Centre for Music and Technology of the Sibelius Academy. He is doctoral candidate at the same institution, focusing in the creative process that is engendered when the music composition process occurs in tandem with the instrument design process.
Alejandro OLARTE (Colombia) is an electroacoustic musician and researcher working and leaving in Helsinki. His interests include improvisation, synthesisers, digital lutherie, performance arts, and pedagogy.
SIVUVALO is a multilingual literature project directed and produced by Roxana Crisólogo (Peru-Fin) and Daniel Malpica (Mex-Fin) working since 2013 to improve, map, and make visible the position of transcultural language poets and writers based in Finland and the Nordic Countries. Sivuvalo organizes discussion panels, workshops, exhibitions, multimedia literary events and more. It aims to draw the attention of the Finnish literary institutions and cultural policy makers to realise that this is an issue of equality.
www.sivuvalo.com
TEXTS by:
Polina Kopylova (Russia-Fin) is a journalist and poet based in Finland for 13 years. Her poetry talks about the sensitive border between this Finland and Russia. Kopylova's poetry has been published in several journals and collections in Russia and Finland, among others.
Ye Yint Thet Zwe (Myanmar-Fin) is a Burmese poet Based in Helsinki. In 1988 he became part of the student army leaving Burma in 1990. Since then, he has resided in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and finally in Finland. In Tokyo, Ye Yint founded the independent Burmese library ‘Ahara’ with the help of other writers as a way to preserve their heritage. Ye Yint is author of 'We Hate War, Mother' (Sivuvalo, 2016).
TaoLin (China-Fin) Is a novelist and poet based in Finland for more than ten years. Her first novel written in Finnish 'Suomen taivaan alla' (Under the Finnish Sky) was published in 2008. Her first poetry collection 'Tuhat syytä lentää' (A Thousand Reasons to Fly) was published in 2011.
Aya Chalabee (Iraq-Fin) is an emerging poet based in Helsinki. Her debut as writer on an international, multimedia and professional stage was during Satakieliklubi at Vuotalo in Helsinki.