Lost cultural heritage, untold stories, silenced traditions: many contemporary migration identities are made of very fragile remains and vanished tracks. Feelings of belonging are scattered, grieving the unknown is made difficult.
The loss of my father, from Ladogan origin, two years ago, pushed me to explore this relationship to our inherited yet stranger ghosts through the non-verbal sensitive transmission. I always respected my father, who was a craftsman. His parents original surname Loginov was changed to a more finnish sounding surname Jokiniemi. The load of his subdued culture was part of his generous but held presence.
The work is a thank you to my father as well as a more general reflection on grief and roots enriched by the performers own memories, burdens and the incomprehensible beauties of their past.
Credits
Choreography, textile art works and performance: Sonja Jokiniemi
In collaboration with
Performance: Leila Kourkia, Krassen Krastev, Marlon Moilanen, Tuuli Vahtola
Lighting and space design: Heikki Paasonen
Music: Gil Schneider
Karelian decorative boards: Hannu Heino, Juha Kurki, Timo Pernu
Guidance to Karelian lament singing tradition: Pirkko Fihlman
Mentoring for Karelian dance traditions: Reetta-Kaisa Iles
Costumes: Working group
Artistic dialogue: Maria Saivosalmi & Harri Kuorelahti
Production: Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Sonja Jokiniemi
Residency support: Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek (Brussels)
Supported by: Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation Mobility grant
PR photos: Eva-Liisa Orupõld
Performance photos: Sinem Kayacan
Thank you
Kiasma-teatteri, Patrick de Rham, Tatu Hämäläinen, Herman Nyby, Anne-Lise Longchamp, Marja-Liisa Jokiniemi, Arvo Jokiniemi, armaat, vanhemmat, isovanhemmat ja esi-isät.
Bios
Sonja Jokiniemi (born in Kuopio, Finland) works as a choreographer, performer and artist. Jokiniemi is based in Helsinki, Finland and Lausanne, Switzerland. She graduated from the Performing Arts programme at DAS Theatre in Amsterdam 2013 and with a BA degree in Contemporary Dance at Laban Centre in London. Additionally she has completed a study in Expressive Arts therapy from Inartes Institute in Helsinki 2020.
The artist’s works are situated in the cross-overs of performances, drawings and textiles. Sonja’s work has been supported by many performing arts venues such as STUK-A House for Dance, music and Image (BE), Zodiak – Centre for New Dance, Moving in November festival and Kiasma Contemporary Art museum (FI), MDT (SWE), BUDA Kunstzentrum (BE). She has recently exhibited at HAM-Helsinki Art museum, Oulu Art museum, Ars Libera gallery, Den Frie Centre for Contemporary Art in Copenhagen and Dr.Guislaan Museum in Ghent.
Leila Kourkia is a Helsinki-based dance artist who has been working in the field of contemporary dance in Finland and abroad since 2007. Her work as a performer and choreographer has been situated in the context of both dance and visual arts. In recent years she has collaborated with Sonja Jokiniemi, Esa Kirkkopelto, Elina Pirinen and Liisa Pentti.
Swiss dancer and choreographer of Bulgarian origin, Krassen Krastev has been based in Lausanne since 1994. In parallel to his work as a performer for several artists and choreographers, he is developing a personal research on gender and sexuality. The culmination of this research is the creation of the show CLSTRS (2019) created at the Arsenic with the collaboration of the visual artist Christopher Füllemann. Krastev also works as a performer for Jasmine Morand, Sonja Jokiniemi, Nicole Seiler, Fabienne Berger, Manolis Tsipos, Yan Duyvendak, Daniel Hellmann, Delgado/Fuchs, as well as for the installation Bright by Christian Bakalov.
Marlon Moilanen is a dancer based in Helsinki, Finland. Performing mainly in the realms of contemporary dance and performance, he works with psychic and soulfully experienced body, which allows the contradictory human being to be seen on the stage – where sensitivity, darkness and humor are often in intimate relations. Recently he has collaborated with choreographers Maija Hirvanen, Sonja Jokiniemi, Liisa Pentti, Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir and Karolina Ginman. Currently in his work as a performer, Marlon works with somatic, energetic and spiritual body practices to express unconscious and subtle realities of life.
Heikki Paasonen studied lighting design at the Finnish Theatre Academy of Finland and at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts earning his Master ́s degree in Lighting Design in 2003. After graduating he has worked as a designer in more than 90 professional theatre, dance and opera productions. In 2012 Paasonen won both the Säde award for “the best lighting design in 2011" awarded by the Finnish Association of Lighting Designers, and Finland Award granted by The Ministry of Education and Culture. Paasonen has designed lights for Sonja Jokiniemi´s three other productions: Blab, Howl and ÖH.
Gil Schneider is a composer, producer and DJ living and working in Berlin. Their compositions and performances are tightly woven, non-linear yet soaring experiences of music’s potential to create haptics and emotion. Their musical output underlines a rich ability to experiment with context - notably, they have released two EPs on Danse Noire and three pieces for Piano Trio on Yegorka. They have composed scores for Akinola Davies’ BBC production Black to Life and Channel 4’s short X US, scored theatre and dance pieces in Germany, Finland, Czech Republic and Switzerland and released singles and remixes on Country Music, PTP, Mixpak and Staycore.
Tuuli Vahtola is a dance and performance artist who lives in Helsinki and works as a performer and choreographer. As a performer Tuuli currently and recently has worked with choreographers Sonja Jokiniemi and Oda Brekke, as well as in her own projects. Her work Here, there, somewhere was shown at New Performance Turku Biennale 2023, and intimate expectations, co-choreographed and performed with Ella Skoikka, at Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, Turku in 2023. Tuuli holds a BA in Dance Performance from DOCH/Stockholm University of the Arts (2017). In 2024 Tuuli was a danceWEB Scholarship recipient at ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival, nominated by Moving in November.
Performance Dates
Tue 8.10. at 19.00 (Premiere)
Thu 10.10. at 19.00*
Fri 11.10. at 19.00
Sat 12.10. at 19.00
Mon 14.10. at 19.00
Tue 15.10. at 19.00
Wed 16.10. at 19.00
*Post-performance discussion
Duration: 75 mins