Constructing / Constricting her was made for the Muhos Lifestyle Festival in Muhos in Northern Finland. I was invited to the festival by Jenni Kinnunen, and together with set designer Julia Quante, we created the project "Constructing / Constricting her". The main theme for the festival in 2022 was "construction", bringing to mind the notions of how we seemingly "construct" our lives. This resonated with me, as I have been very interested in how gender and bodies in a way are constructed by humans. 
 

About the project

Constructing / Constricting her was site specific for the downstairs cupboard in Jenni Kinnunen's house, the house is also the main venue for the festival. The performance lasted for 1,5 hours and consisted of very slow changes in movements that centered on being stuck and on cleaning. 

The performer is clad in a pink suit in a pink cupboard and engulfed by pink and grey vaccum cleaners, getting stuck in them and trying to clean the space. As the body almost disappears inside the house, there is both a struggle for getting out, but also a fine tuned "glossyness" to the performance.  You might get the feeling that it is all about the surface; cleaning the surface and managing the surface, and also what lurks underneath the surface and how we can easily gloss over our struggles with some pink paint. The vaccum cleaners are borrowed from Jennis mother, and seem reminiscent of Barbies vaccum cleaners from my childhood in the 90s. 

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Supported by
- 2022 Pohjoinen Oopperakomppania ry / Northern Opera Company

- 2022 Norsk Kulturråd - Arbeidstipend for yngre, nyetablerte kunstnere

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Has played: 

- 2022 Muhos Lifestyle Festival, Muhos, Finland

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