Some Unexpected Remnants opens at The Helsinki Art Museum HAM

A two-channel video installation by WAUHAUS and Jonatan Sundström, commissioned and curated by The Helsinki Art Museum HAM, opens as part of the group exhibition Shared Space (March 3–August 13, 2023).

Photo: Jonatan Sundström / WAUHAUS

Some Unexpected Remnants is an independent fragment of A Great Mess, a performance that premiered at the 2021 Helsinki Biennial. The video work takes us to the peak of Vuosaarenhuippu, a former landfill that has been transformed into a recreational area, and to an active, partially landscaped waste centre in Kuopio. The video unfolds in a seemingly frozen but ever-expanding moment in time that evokes the idea of cyclicity and circularity.

In addition to Some Unexpected Remnants, the exhibition at HAM presents A Great Mess – The Manual. The manual consists of a script and instructions for restaging the performance at a later time. The multi-part commission has been accessioned to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed by HAM.

HAM’s group exhibition Shared space focuses on art in public space and reflects on coexistence and the sense of place. Along with WAUHAUS the exhibition features artists Alma Heikkilä, Nayab Ikram, Sanna Kannisto, Jan Lütjohann, Other Spaces and Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska. The exhibition focuses on art in public space and reflects on coexistence and the sense of place. For more information on the exhibition, visit https://www.hamhelsinki.fi/en/upcoming-exhibitions/

Working group of Some Unexpected Remnants: from WAUHAUS Laura Haapakangas, Julia Hovi, Juni Klein, Jussi Matikainen and Jarkko Partanen working together with video artist Jonatan Sundström, and in collaboration with voice artists Marketta Tikkanen and Aksinja Lommi, and composer Tomi Pekkola.

A Great Mess – The Manual working group: WAUHAUS members Juni Klein, Samuli Laine, Jussi Matikainen and Jarkko Partanen. The visuals are based on photographs by Katri Naukkarinen and Pekka Mäkinen and video by Jonatan Sundström.

TO BE GIVEN OVER BY TERIKE HAAPOJA AND WAUHAUS

To Be Given Over by WAUHAUS and visual artist Terike Haapoja is a new work that explores different aspects of bodily interdependence and vulnerability. It is based on Haapoja's original concept and has been developed and directed together with WAUHAUS’s choreographer Jarkko Partanen.

Photo: Uwa Iduozee

To Be Given Over takes as its starting point the movement between encountering the other as a subject, in their worldliness, and as an object, a body. The work borrows its title from Judith Butler's 2020 book The Force of Nonviolence. Following in Butler's footsteps, the work reflects on how we are all, as bodily, vulnerable beings, always already given over to others. To Be Given Over will be produced in its entirety as an international co-production. The two-part project comprises a video installation and a stage work. The stage work will premiere at DansiT Choreography Centre's Multiplié Dance Festival in Trondheim, Norway on March 22, 2023. It is co-produced by WAUHAUS, DansiT (Norway) and Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Estonia), in collaboration with Rosendal Teater (Norway).

To Be Given Over is WAUHAUS’s and Terike Haapoja's first artistic collaboration. Haapoja is a visual artist whose work investigates the existential and political boundaries of our world. Haapoja has focused specifically on issues arising from the anthropocentric world view of Western traditions. Animality, multispecies politics, cohabitation, time, loss, and repairing connections are recurring themes in Haapoja’s work. Haapoja represented Finland at the 2013 Venice Biennale and in 2016 they were awarded both the ANTI Live Art Prize and the State Prize for Media Art for their collaborative work with Laura Gustafsson on the piece Museum of Inhumanity.

To Be Given Over will premiere on the 22nd of March 2023 at Multiplié Dance Festival in Trondheim, Norway.

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sky every day premiers at espoo city theatre in 2023

sky every day – a co-production between Espoo City Theatre and WAUHAUS arts collective – will premiere at Revontulihalli on September 13, 2023. In the play written by Pipsa Lonka, the coexistence of seagulls and humans at a beach resort creates a peculiarly humorous and audiovisually striking performance about mortality.

sky every day explores the coexistence of humans and seagulls at a seaside resort over four days. In the performance, flocks of humans gather at a sunny beach resort, pass time in the solitude of hotel rooms, and chat mindlessly on the terrace of an oceanside restaurant. The beach’s idle nostalgia is disrupted by a wall of dead fish that is pushed onto the shore from the murky ocean. The seagulls inhabiting the landscape observe the sunburnt beachdwellers and their activities from different perspectives.

The performance focuses on the reality of seagulls alongside the human experience. A central theme of the performance is the mortality we share with other species. The narration of this peculiarly comical and audiovisually holistic work is driven by documentary video and sound, alongside the space, light, and music of the performance. sky every day also includes Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s piece Cloud trio (2009), which is performed live by the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra.

The working group from WAUHAUS includes Laura Haapakangas, Juni Klein, Jani-Matti Salo, and Heidi Soidinsalo. Working with them are cinematographer Jonatan Sundström and performer Salla Loper. sky every day is written by Pipsa Lonka. The performance includes Kaija Saariaho’s composition Cloud Trio (2009) played by the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra.

Supported by: Kone Foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Uudet Klassikot – Nya klassiker fund, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Theatre Info Finland, Svenska Kulturfonden

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sky every day premieres at Espoo City Theatre on the 13th of September 2023. Get your tickets here.