Our next work "A GREAT MESS" is Part of Helsinki Biennial 2021

We have had a year of cooking new work! The first of our three new works: A Great Mess.

A Great Mess is a site-sensitive performance on a hilltop called Vuosaarenhuippu, a former landfill that has been converted into a recreational area. Over decades of urban development, the site has served as a dumping ground for surplus excavation material – earth, boulders, stumps, and trees – in a process during which the park has evolved into a unique ecosystem shaped through continuous human interaction.

The performance approaches the site as a historically unique multispecies meeting place. It looks at how the place came into being through the interaction of soil, countless organisms, and human imagination. A Great Mess visualizes how the vast web of interdependencies in which we exist with other species has gradually evolved and continues to evolve each day.

A Great Mess forms part of a series that the WAUHAUS collective will be working on during the upcoming years. The works will transport viewers to locations ranging from landscaped landfills and seagull-populated beaches to a silent, abandoned power plant. Their performances mark an uncompromising attempt to understand how humans fit in as part of a multispecies continuum. Their works are not narratives lamenting the destruction wreaked by modernization, but a sincere effort to fathom how we can foster new life skills in the era of eco-crisis.

#wauhaus⁣ #suurenmoinensotku #agreatmess #ettväldigtvirrvarr

#helsinkibiennial #helsinkibiennial2021 #newbiennial #contemporaryart #vallisaari #HAMhelsinki

W A U H A U S shortlisted for International Prize for Live Art

W A U H A U S has been shortlisted for the 2020 ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art! Congratulations to the other nominees Geumhyung Jeong, Ingri Fiksdal and Brian Fuata. Thank you @antifestival for the honour. Flashdance will be part of the Shortlist LIVE! programme on the 30th of October at 21 in Kuopio. See you there! pic 1: Katri Naukkarinen pic 2: Samuli Laine #ANTIprize#prizeshortlist#flashdance

5 becomes 7

We are proud to announce that W A U H A U S has two new members! We’d like to introduce scenographer Laura Haapakangas and new media artist Jani-Matti Salo!

Laura’s work is often characterized by the investigation of material hierarchies and tactilities. The scenic images of her works evoke questions of power, and that which is natural and unnatural, as well as familiar and unknown. Her work has been seen on the big stages of Finnish theatres, for example at The Finnish National Theatre and Lahti City Theatre, and on the stages of smaller theatres like Q-teatteri, Theatre Viirus, Theatre Takomo and Zodiak – Centre for New Dance.

Jani-Matti’s work is often defined by simplicity and a comprehensive idea that penetrates all layers of the performance. At the moment he is interested in illuminating structures and invoking different viewing experiences. Since 2007 Jani-Matti has worked as a designer in over 80 productions that have been presented in more than 25 countries. His work has been recognized with an award for Best Design of the Year in Finland in 2014 and 2018.

Both have been collaborating with us for many years in productions such as Flashdance and Sapiens, and now we are happy to make it official! Welcome Jani-Matti and Laura!