PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST TALK
Wednesday 25 June 2025 at 7.30pm, Institut finlandais
Free entry – reservation required
Institut finlandais and Ehkä-production welcome you to an evening of performance, the outcome of a correspondence between artist-choreographers in Finland and France.
The performance is a continuation of the collective diary-writing practice that the artists shared during two months of spring when nature started to bloom and sprout. In the diary they shared their inner landscapes through intuitive daily writings, about ordinary and extraordinary life as well as more invisible things. During the performance that takes its form through text, movement and sound, the diary continues to be written.
Could inner landscapes dissolve into a collective experience and create moments of interdependence? What kind of connections could be created through artistic-spiritual practices between two countries, through a correspondence that travels under the earth? What kind of energy, questions and ideas could be transmitted underground and what kind of topics rise to the surface?
”Monday 21 April: I placed my hand to hold that branch, and we started to rock together.
The wind, the tree, me and my daughter. The massive movements of the wind, the tree in its entirety and us. Like a soft and gentle dance. A comfort.”
”Wednesday 30 April: Traveling back in time, experiencing spring again, a new spring, second spring, now in Finland. I’m enchanted by the growth, the neon green, the small humble flowers. Steps forward, steps backward. I think I’m really, for real, feeling the distance between the south and the north. I’m feeling the position of myself, my body, on the map, in the world.”
”Wednesday 21 May: For a long time I have had this image in me of going under the Earth. In this image I am squatting and having my hands touch the ground. And then the feeling or urge to go inside, to dive or dig inside. Because it’s where I want to be. Because it’s soothing.”
The diary designed by artist Lia Pradal (Editions Païen) will be distributed for free at the event.
For this project, artists Tilhenn Klapper, Anna Torkkel, Ella Skoikka and artist facilitator Saija Kangasniemi work collectively at the intersection of somatic practices, choreography, writing and language.
Tilhenn Klapper is a French-American performer, artist and researcher based in Paris. Her work reintroduces mythologies and folklore into the field of political ecology, employing a multidisciplinary practice that includes performance (voice, music, dance), sculpture, and film. Her multimedia works have been exhibited and performed at MUDAM Luxembourg, Kanal Centre Pompidou, Théâtre National de Chaillot, and the Czech Cultural Center in Paris, among others. She is a founding member of the Paris-based collective crème soleil.
Ella Skoikka is an artist working with dance, performing, choreography and music. Ella has been making performances in the contexts of dance, visual arts and music. In the last few years her work as a performer and choreographer has been visible and audible e.g. in Kiasma (ARS22), Ehkä-production’s Kutomo, Mad House Helsinki and Moving in November festival. She is drawn to the sensitising, rousing, suggesting, and connecting power of art that moves the body and the world.
Anna Torkkel is a dance artist working as a choreographer, dancer, co-creator, teacher, and artistic director in the field of new dance and performance. In her choreographic practice, dance intertwines with music. She sees dance as both an everyday and wondrous activity—a form of play where the body’s boundaries and textures continuously shift and transform. Her works have been presented at various venues, festivals and exhibitions in Finland and abroad. She is the founder of Ehkä-production (est. 2004) and a member of the artist community rendezvous in Helsinki.
Ehkä-production is an award-winning, 20-year-old community, operator, and employer within the independent art scene. Since its founding in 2004, Ehkä has promoted non-commercial, unique, and experimental art by co-producing works by creators of new dance and performance. The community also supports projects in children’s culture, sound art, music, visual art, and performance art. Born from the long-standing, innovative efforts of independent artists, Ehkä curates and operates the interdisciplinary Contemporary Art Space Kutomo in Turku, Finland, which it established in 2009. The activities benefit the work of well over a hundred artists each year.
Saija Kangasniemi is an artist working in the fields of visual and performance art. She has worked as a producer at Institut finlandais this spring. She is interested in participatory and collective working methods, and creating bodily practices that can open new relations with the interconnected realities of the Earth. Her practice of body, movement and material often explores the notions of consciousness, presence and concentration.
Date : Wednesday 25 June 2025, from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. Doors opening at 7pm, Café Maa will be open!
Place : Institut finlandais, 60 rue des Écoles, 75005 Paris.
Please note that the event and discussions will be held in English.
Limited number of seats, free booking required to attend → online ticket reservation.
The event is produced and financed by Institut finlandais.
The project Correspondance sous terre is supported by Institut finlandais within the framework of the pARTir initiative, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
