Written by Jonnakaisa Risto as well as performed and puppeteered by her, the tragicomedy Korhonen's Portrait. A Grotesque, Apocalyptic Dystopia and a Really Great Love Story explores through satire the artist’s vocation and their pressure to create. The young and promising visual artist X is plagued by a sense of meaninglessness and unhappiness in a world where the brutal exploitative mechanisms of the visual arts world, and the capitalist world order in general, have established their dominant position.
Until now, X, who is in an existential crisis, has drawn inspiration for his works from the dreams of his muse, but now that source too has dried up. To save the day, X's Karelian great-grandmother Korhonen arrives and makes the young artist paint a portrait of himself. In the process, Korhonen's past and the traumas passed down by his ancestors are revealed.
Korhonen's Portrait is a grotesque adult fairy tale, a sharp satire, and an almost absurd story. The work is an exuberant horn of plenty that lets go of all conventionality.
Korhonen's Portrait is part of the repertoire of the Vauriomania collective, founded by Jonnakaisa Risto and Juuso Timonen in 2024), the work premiered at the Finnish National Theatre in the autumn of 2022.
Korhonen's Portrait has been translated into English by David Hackston and has been selected as part of the digital Second Theatre's international repertoire. In addition to the Finnish National Theatre, the work has toured in Finland at the Kuopio City Theatre, Kajaani City Theatre, Tehdas Teatteri in Turku and the Telakka Theatre in Tampere.
For more info, please see Vauriomania's website.
