Person taking part in Fenced Dreams Take Away can choose their own route and do it alone at any time. The participant only needs a (smart) phone and headphones for this. The duration of one walk is less than an hour, and the walking distance is about 3 km. The participant is instructed to choose, if possible, a route that runs from an urban environment to a natural environment.
During the radio play walk, the participant can themself regulate the pace their walk, stopping from time to time to observe the environment. The performers of the radio play walk are the local environment, nature and other living things that come on the path of the experiencer.
Through text, music and sounds, the performance opens up the environment familiar to the experiencer in a new way and sensitizes one to see performative things in, among other things, the movement of leaves, the rhythm of fellow travelers and the nature of animals. Walking itself creates a certain cadence and sets a rhythm to the whole.
The texts heard in the performance are compiled from philosophical walking texts as well as garden and nature memories of different people. There are also real recorded sounds from different walks, which have been recorded using binaural technology. This brings a sense of history and the future to the present moment; what has the place been? What can it be? In the performance, the environment opens up for the viewer to be seen again and to be experienced freshly.
The work deals extensively with boundaries and responsibilities. Boundaries and responsibilities for the use of the common space, our environment and other people, and the extreme boundary: death. Where do your own boundaries and responsibilities begin and where do they end? During the journey, various memories and spaces open up, creating a ground for solidarity.
The language of the radio play is Finnish. It will be published in SoundCloud on Sat, Feb 13 at 13:00.
Background of the performance
The walking performance Fenced Dreams (Aidatut unelmat), has been produced twice (2017 & 2018) in Helsinki in the area of Kannelmäki and Kaarela, as a collaboration between The Helsinki Festival, Zodiak – Center for New Dance and Kanneltalo. In 2019 it was produced in Hyvinkää, in collaboration with local organizations. The main producers were Zodiak and Cultural Centre Villa Arttu. All performances were sold out.
While working on the performance, the working group walked along the routes of the performance while only listening to the audiotape. This brought about the idea to produce also a radio play version of the performance. Now, as during the Covid pandemic it is not possible to bring the full performance to new locations and cities, this format of a radio play for one person in a location of their own choosing feels highly topical and desirable.
Artistic team:
Choreography: Sari Palmgren
Sound designer: Esa Mattila
Music: Tuomas Norvio and Mikko Perkola
Readers/voices: Anna Koskela, Jukka Peltola, Seliina Riikonen, Vappu Tuomisto and Niina Virkkala.