This resource provides information on export ready Finnish productions that are tourable and suited for the international market right now. It offers a brief introduction to each of the featured shows, along with promotional photographs and video clips, technical information and contact details for further enquiries.
Kemi – II Memo of Trees
| Theatre: |
Tuija Kokkonen |
| Premiere: |
9th December 2022 |
| Produced / co-produced by: |
Kiasma Theatre / Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki Supported by: The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Helsinki Culture and Leisure Committee |
How do we enter the future? How do we remember the forests, our time, our actions? What are the memories of the now 19-year-old in the future? Remembering is becoming increasingly difficult as destruction of the other than human beings and our habitats accelerates. As the environments of memory disappear, so does our understanding of life as a whole.
Kemi – II Memo of Trees approaches and widens the horizon of possibilities through delicate, individual encounters of spectators and young environmental activists, those who are putting their entire future at stake by defending forests and other preconditions of diverse life – and living with the consequences of ecological crises in the future. Encounters, performed after a short prologue, include narratives, music, photos, poetry and an old herbarium.
One performance can seat four people, and there can be multiple performances per day. Spectators are not expected to participate any other ways than listening and watching.
Kemi – II Memo of Trees was preceded by Kemi – Memo of Trees in Kemi City Theatre, set in the Kemi region 100 years into the future. Kemi is a small town in Southern Lapland, with a history of strong paper and pulp export industry, the current structural change and a new pulp factory, the biggest in Northern hemisphere, requiring massive deforestation in Finland.
“Kemi – II Memo of Trees is a significant political act in giving a voice to activists. Its voice is not a direct cry. It does not preach. [...] The work clears space for understanding, acceptance and the ethics of civil disobedience." Hanna Helavuori, hannahelavuori.com
Kemi – Memos of Trees is the latest of Tuija Kokkonen’s memo performance series (since 1997), which are explorations on relationships between performance, “nature”, non-human, time and power, and on the meaning and possibilities of performance in the age of ecological crises.
Touring information
| Running time at full length |
40 min (to be performed several (3-5) times per evening for changing audiences) |
| Interval |
no |
| Stage required (height/width/depth) |
Any big enough space, where an adaptation of the lighting design can be built (min. 10 + 10 + 4 m ) |
| Scale of show / Special requirements |
Flexible |
| No. of people on tour |
6 |
| No. of performers |
5 (one of them is the director) |
| Used language |
English |
| Requires a clear understanding of Finnish or another language |
English |
| Subtitles |
--- |
| English synopsis |
--- |
| Simultaneous translation |
--- |
| Touring season |
(open) |
| Availability for workshop and educational work |
Yes. |
Key personnel
| Directed by |
Tuija Kokkonen |
| Written by |
Tuija Kokkonen, with Nanna Pulkkinen, Joonas Kokkonen, Auri Castrén, Leo Castrén |
| Concept by |
Tuija Kokkonen |
| Performers |
Nanna Pulkkinen, Joonas Kokkonen, Auri Castrén, Leo Castrén, Tuija Kokkonen |
| Lighting design |
Tomi Suovankoski |
| Sound design |
Tomi Suovankoski and the performers |
| Stage design |
--- Designed by Tuija Kokkonen |
| Costume design |
the performers |
| Video design |
--- |
| Other credits |
Composed (music) by Frederic Rzewski and Kuopus |
Contact information
| Contact |
Tuija Kokkonen |
| Position |
director |
| Telephone |
+358-(0)50 3693203 |
| Email |
tuija.kokkonen@uniarts.fi |
Links
