- camouflage
Camouflage (eng): The use of any combination of materials, coloration or illumination for concealment, disguise, mimesis, simulation or falsification.
camouflage is a multilayered landscape where things are both revealed and covered. Under the variegated surface is a speculative (auto)fiction, where the artist reveals their trick. But not everything is what it looks like.
camouflage, a new work by Sonya Lindfors and working group, examines the act of looking and the politics of the gaze. The stage has the potentiality to reveal and obscure, make things invisible or hypervisible. But how do we recognize what we see? What happens in that moment of recognition when you categorize something as “contemporary”, as “art” or as “Black”?
The work scats with ancestors, slips in meanings and dreams of the right to opacity.Sonya Lindfors is a Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer, facilitator and educator. She is the founding member and artistic director of UrbanApa, an antiracist and counterhegemonic arts community based in Helsinki. She received a MA in choreography from the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2013. In the core of her work is the practice of shaking and challenging existing power structures and empowering communities. Right now she is busy with speculative practices and decolonial dreaming.
- About Sonya Lindfors
Sonya Lindfors is a Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer, facilitator and educator. She is the founding member and artistic director of UrbanApa, an antiracist and counterhegemonic arts community based in Helsinki. She received a MA in choreography from the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2013. In the core of her work is the practice of shaking and challenging existing power structures and empowering communities. Right now she is busy with speculative practices and decolonial dreaming.
- Bios
Tony Sikström is a Helsinki-based sound designer, composer and conductor. He has worked for example in Tampere workers theatre, Svenska teatern, The Finnish National theatre, Vaasa City theatre and Pori theatre. He also studies sound design in the University of the Arts in Helsinki.
Erno Aaltonen (b. 1985) is a lighting designer, scenographer and co-creator working in performing arts. His work is typically situated somewhere in between what is being performed and the audience experience, whether it means artistic dialogue, visual design or technical production. He is interested in how the contemporary stage works and how understanding design can help us understand the ideologies that constitute the artwork.
Sanna Levo is a Helsinki-based costumedesigner and setdesigner who has worked in Finnish National Theatre, Tampereen työväen teatteri, Turun kaupunginteatteri and various independent groups. She is part of 00100ENSEMBLE that creates immersive performances.
Jussi Matikainen (MA) is a Helsinki based sound designer, musician and performer. In his artistic work, Matikainen is trying to open up spaces where the thick and complex entanglements with our environments could be met and recognized.
Julian Owusu is a dance artist and dance teacher who’s artistic core lies in community building practices, pedagogy, Hip Hop, decolonial practices and reimagining. His workfield stretches from working with youth on the grassroot level to work in governmental positions and on boards.
Riikka Lakea is a Helsinki-based dance artist and performing arts producer. Performer- and process-oriented and site-specific practices are at the core of Lakea’s artistic work, alongside an ongoing research on more sustainable and inclusive working methods.
Johanna Karlberg is a Helsinki-based dance artist and instructor in free-time activities for people with intellectual disabilities. Her artistic practice focuses on questions around the phenomena performer and performing and on finding ways for the periphery to redefine what is in the center.
Esete Sutinen is a Helsinki-based freelance dance artist and works extensively as a dancer and performer at various intersections of dance, theater, performance and installation. Sutinen has worked in the Finnish dance field for almost 20 years.
Elisa Tuovila is a Helsinki-based dance artist / mediocre ICT student. In her artistic work, Elisa is interested in both __ and __ but also __ or.
- Credits
Directing and concept: Sonya Lindfors
Choreography: Sonya Lindfors & working groupPerformers: Esete Sutinen, Julian Owusu, Johanna Karlberg, Riikka Lakea, Sonya Lindfors.
Lighting and spatial design: Erno Aaltonen
Sound design: Jussi Matikainen & Tony Sikström
Texts: Working group and Édouard Glissant
Costume design: Sanna Levo & Paulina Sjöberg
Contributors to the process: Elisa Tuovila, Lydia Östberg Diakité, Pauliina Sjöberg, Zen Jefferson, Selma Kauppinen
Production assistans: Tuure Kaukua, Riikka Lakea
Sewing of costumes: Sanna Levo & Elina Tuomisto
Set building: Marja Zilcher, Maija Poskiparta
Workshops: Lehmus Murtomaa, Sara Melleri, Mari Kätkä
Residencies: Reykjavik Dance Festival / NREP ; MDT, Stockholm; Saaren kartano / Koneen Säätiö
Co-production: MDT, StockholmSupported by: Arts Promotion Center Finland, Svenska Kulturfon- den, Nordic Culture Point
Pictures: Tuukka Ervasti
Production: Zodiak, Stoa, Sonya Lindfors, UrbanApa
Premiere: October 2021, Zodiak – center for new dance and Stoa
Duration: 1,5h
Language: English