Laura Jantunen (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist with an MA in Choreography from the University of the Arts Helsinki. She has worked as a choreographer, dancer and textile artist since 2011. Laura has been developing her own somatic-phenomenological movement practice, Somagics, since 2022. Currently, she is researching how the practice translates into a choreographic method where choreography is seen as a thinking, organic, and multidirectional assemblage. In addition, she creates rya rugs and designs performance costumes for her works using various crafttechniques.
In her artistic work, Laura is fascinated by odd everyday events, becoming aware of the unconscious, not-knowing, and the feel of getting lost. Her thinking is characterised by the oscillation between extremes, such as the recognisable and the unrecognisable, or the possible and the impossible. Laura aims to perceive things and situations on a spectrum, acknowledging contrasts while actively probing them. Laura’s latest works include Talvi (eng. Winter, Zodiak 2019) and Kevät (eng. Spring, K17-space for art and ecology 2025) from the Neljä vuodenaikaa (eng. The Four Seasons) series, the solo work The Idiot Gardener (2022–present), and the artistic thesis Outoliini (eng. Oddling, The University of the Arts Helsinki 2023). Her Finnish ryijy rugs have been exhibited in galleries such as Titanik and Poriginal and as part of Rya.Now. exhibition is Finish Craft Museum own 2025.
ympyrät, jotka kuvittelevat olevansa viivoja (circles that imagine they are lines) is a dance performance that explores the bodily sensation of disorientation, where the recognizable and unrecognizable, the known and unknown, and the located and unlocated are simultaneously present. The concept of Dis/orientation arose from the need to find new ways of coping with the instability generated by war, climate change, and polarization in politics. Throughout the process of creating the piece, disorientation is approached as a swaying, perspective-opening, and creative space, as described by researcher Sara Ahmed in her book Queer Phenomenology (2006). The performance proposes that what if instead of aiming toward a stable, familiar, and secure state, we would surrender to the swaying sensation caused by confusion and instability.
Working group – choreographer Laura Jantunen, dancers Pauliina Sjöberg, Pääsky Miettinen and Arttu Halmetoja, composer Leevi Räsänen, lighting designer Ilmari Paananen, sound designer Mitja Nylund, costumes Kasia Gorniak and Laura Jantunen.
