Zodiak Laboratory is Zodiak's recidency concept. In May 2023 the Z-Lab artists are Soili Huhtakallio with their working group.
At Z-lab, the working group of the piece Pro matria is finishing up their working process. The exact premiere location and date are yet to be decided, but the working group has set their eyes on Helsinki and the end of May.
The process of Pro matria began when we were selected for the programme of the Cultural Centre Kanneltalo in 2017. At the time, I wanted to remake a commissioned piece, which featured hymns of Zion, that I had choreographed for the religious festival Herättäjäjuhlat held at Haapajärvi in 2013. However, we didn't receive funding for the piece, so time passed and the idea for it started to change shape. I became interested in the embodiment of trauma, and it became very clear to me that the piece should be realised in a way that the audience and performers are in the same space, overlapping and interlaced. The theatre and concert hall of Kanneltalo didn't seem like the right place to execute this, so we terminated the contract in mutual understanding. However, I want to thank Kanneltalo for placing their trust in us.
In 2019, with the support of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, we were able to start working on the piece in residence. At this stage, I wanted to reflect very freely on applying the concepts of affect and trauma, and theory to some extent, to artistic practice. We spent two weeks at pa-f in France with Mirja Inkinen who was studying psychology at the time. After that, we had another long break from rehearsals, and I applied for funding for us.
The next stages of the process in 2021 and 2022 were made possible with the funding from the City of Helsinki and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland. It’s no wonder that some members of the group have implied that it would be really nice to get this project to premier already. And I agree with that. For a while, we worked in Espoo in an old care home surrounded by banks of snow, and in the spring of 2022, we carried out a demo performance at Maunula House. Thanks to everyone who attended and filled in the feedback forms! During these periods, we wrote a lot, rehearsed by singing a composition that Mikko Sarvanne created for my solo piece For God, though eventually not used in the piece, and built a score and physical characters for each performer based on the physical trauma descriptions.
The Zodiak working period is supposed to be the last one of the project, so before the period begins, my job is to analyse all the material done so far and make decisions. When the rehearsals start, the aim is to be so well prepared that, despite the pressure of the premiere and tight schedule, there will be time for collective discussions and thinking as we have done so far.
Pro matria is quite a thematic piece, although we channel it into the world through physicality and movement. Hence one of the challenges for me as a choreographer has been to find the balance between the autonomous, embodied materility of art and the theoretical framework of the piece. But I think we've pulled it off well. I’m honored to work with such a great group of artists. If I try to explain what I’m thinking, I know that
with this piece I’m trying to shout
To be honest
Maybe it’s a bit like an angry song
A temper tantrum prayer
When I get angry, others scared.
I scream and detonate and I don't mind the shaking
Things falling through because I feel like
I'm craving to know
Who I’m thinking for.
Eeeeeeearth
Some crisscrossing swell
Aaa, aaaaaa (the muscles of the mouth a bit like when you open your mouth at the dentist > affecting the sound)
Say
Contraction, expansion (the mouth contracts and expands according to the words) Aaaaaaaaa
(aa in the same breath after expansion, adding some nasal sound, tuned a bit as if asking for help, the next sentence follows as a thought)
My land your land our land, mammon. Manna from Heaven and amen. Anticipation in the horizon, song of the earth.
In the cellar: soil, sand and jarring.
[as if speaking of the earth, not as a metaphor] Dirt squeezes histories into itself, embraces and preserves them, and at times, gradually spits them out for the world to see.
Working group
Soili Huhtakallio, Mirja Inkinen, Ella Koikkalainen, Teo Lanerva, Katriina Tavi, Elisa Tuovila.