Meet the artists of NoMad House 2022!
We are pleased to finally present the artists selected for NoMad House. Nine different works by 22 artists will be experienced during 2022. Each work will invite a different audience; Nomad House will travel around Helsinki to find you. Stay tuned for the mid-March release of the programme!
The Wild Thing
Wild Thing is a multi-part, exploratory performance project that explores the manifestations of wildness and exercises ecological sensitivity. The team includes dance artists Heli Keskikallio, Taru Koski and Lotta Suomi and light/video photographer Emiliano Verrocchio. They have been working since 2020, creating performances in various forms in Helsinki and Turku.
Heli Keskikallio is a choreographer, performer and dance teacher interested in exploring the processes and registers of embodied thinking. For her, making art is the practice of ecological sensitivity, which she approaches through sensuality, carnality and the extra-linguistic expressivity, fragility and sensitivity of embodiment.
Taru Meri Koski is a dance artist based in Helsinki. In her artistic work she is interested in the materiality of sound, dispersed attention, liminality and the practice of surrender. Taru works as a dancer in free field artistic groups such as Dissenters, Precarious Practices and Gabriela Ariana collective.
Lotta Suomi is a dancer and performer who works in various formations in the fields of contemporary dance, performance art and contemporary theatre. Currently, her work focuses on the practice of sensitizing the body to sensuality and porosity. For Lotta, this is an important skill of being in the world; an embodied and experiential understanding.
Emiliano Verrocchio is a photographer and video maker who loves Helsinki. Through his work he observes the relationship between people and modern urban environments, with an empathetic and poetic approach. By following people, he wonders about the way we live and ponders the meaning of life. He often finds answers - and inspiration - by looking at other animals.
Susanne Montag-Wärnå
Photo by Maria Åsvik
Susanne Montag-Wärnå is a performance artist and dance pedagogue. Susanne was born and raised in Germany and moved to Finland in 2003. In her work, Susanne is inspired by immersion in local communities and the diversity of body relationships. Her approach to experiencing unity in collaborative groups is coloured by curiosity and interest in the 'other'.
"When we observe movement, we remodel familiar and new dimensions."
Susanne is on the board of the European Association for Laban/ Bartenieff Movement Studies. She has also recently collaborated with a large network representing Modern Dance in Central Europe.
Julius Elo & Olga Spyropoulou
Photo by Laura Tolvanen
Julius Elo is a Helsinki-based performance artist who draws his performance concepts and participatory works from audience interactivity. Elo co-founded and is the artistic director of the Reality Research Institute.
Olga Spyropoulou is a performance artist based in Finland. In her work, Olga experiments with different forms of spectator experience and non-hierarchical methods. She is interested in how we experience our relationships with other people in different contexts.
Elo and Spyropoulou started working together through the Bodies of Pleasure platform, which aims to bring together artists to explore the intersectionality of sexuality and art performance.
Mandarina Collective
Mandarina Collective was founded in 2020, when the Helsinki-based Ana Alvarez Piedehierro, Ina Fiebig and Ines Montalvao met while working at the multilingual Children's Festival.
"We are passionate about the known and the unknown; our work combines expertise in science, illustration and experiential design, together with a communicative and interdisciplinary approach.
Since Mandarina Collective was founded, we have performed and held workshops at Kolibri Festival, Pixelache Festival, Bokvillani (Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa) Näkkär in Salo. In October 2021, we were also part of a residency and co-exhibition at Gallery Kääntöpaika."
The Mandarina Collective is an inspiring group full of juicy bits and pieces that wants to bring scientific and artistic insights into the world to everyone, with a low threshold.
Karoliina Loimaala
Karoliina Loimaala: "I am Karoliina Loimaala, a choreographer from Helsinki. My artistic work focuses on the non-human material world in its various forms. I work in the field of material world in its various forms. I delve into encounters with the body, as well as the raging of the inhuman world. My most recent works in this field are ÖLJEKT (2021) at Kera Halls in Espoo and the one-to-one work Flower Bath, part of the NoMad House programme in 2022, previously presented at Kehä-festival and FINFRINGE-festival in 2021. I am also working on manifestations of "Fleshy Poetry", the latest of which is "Moi-femme, je-femme", presented at the Stockholm Fringe Festival in 2021, followed by Je-femme, an unfinished work GARNNN, which will premiere in late 2022. I am currently working with Catarina Neves Ricci and Maya Oliva."
Venla Ilona Blom
Photo by Katariina Salmi
Venla Ilona Blom (b. 1985) is an EMMA award-winning musician and composer. Blom is a singer and Finland's only female professional beatboxer. Blom has been a full-time performing artist, musician and composer since 2007 and is also a sought-after educator and producer in Finland.
In addition to music, Blom combines performance, dance and sound and movement improvisation.
Founded in 2012, Blom's band Tuuletar is one of Finland's most internationally active contemporary folk music bands, and their music has been featured in the trailers of HBO's Game Of Thrones series and Vain Leben. Tuuletar has won numerous awards in Finland and abroad (including Etno-Emma, 2016 and International Artist of the Year, 2019) and the band's two albums have been critically acclaimed around the world.
Blom has performed with various ensembles at festivals and concert halls in 34 countries on four continents and has been a beatboxer with the Vantaa Entertainment Orchestra and the Student Union Singers. Blom has composed and arranged music for several bands and collaborated with numerous national artists and groups. Blom has also written commissioned compositions for series and video productions.
In addition to performing, Blom's artistic work includes combining folk music and beatboxing, sound improvisation, composing new vocal music, developing teaching methods for beatboxing, as well as mixed-cultural education and art activities. Blom has carried out artistic collaborations in Nepal, India and other countries, and has served as a beatbox expert in Taiwan on the jury of a national vocal ensemble competition. At the core of Blom's artistic work is the challenge of the human mind, voice and body, and its use as a mirror of the world and a tool for cultural interaction.
Amanda Hunt & Onur Tayranoglu
Photo by Laura Tolvanen
Onur Tayranoglu: "I am a Helsinki-based artist who has also previously lived, studied and worked in Istanbul, TR and Leiden & The Hague. I have worked at the Istanbul Foundation for Art and Culture (ALTKAT), the Museum of impossible forms in Helsinki, the Vantaa Art Museum Arts, and the Absence Festival in the Netherlands.
In my art, I look for strategies to "hack reality", dealing with power structures largely from the perspective of the oppressed. Critical and performative methods are tools for a future process."
Amanda Hunt: "I am a Helsinki-based performance artist who has also previously lived and worked in Dublin, and New York, where I lived and worked as an artist for ten years. I have performed in spaces such as the Judson Church space, The Queens Museum, at various festivals around the US, as well as in Ireland and Istanbul. I have worked as a sculptor's assistant, and have also been involved in the renovation, organization and residency at Para\\el Performance Space in New York from 2018-2020. I was a recipient of the Franklin Furnace Fund for 2019-2020.
My art explores themes of work, uselessness and the objectification/materiality of the body, examining Western and capitalist ideas of efficiency and failure. I like to make objects for performance that are destroyed or transformed during performance, and I am currently interested in making a variety of sculptural wearable objects.
We collaborated with Onur on a group performance project at the Vantaa Art Museum last autumn, and we look forward to our first duo collaboration with NoMadHouse in spring 2022."
S2 Working group
Anneli Kanninen (she/they) is a queer artist originally from Estonia, working in dance and acting. She is also one of the early influencers of the Finnish ballroom community. For the last fifteen years Anneli has been performing and teaching in Finland and internationally, working in art institutions and with artists, dance and theatre companies and local queer communities.
Jay Jimeno (they/them) is a Cuban-Finnish queer artist. Jay's roots are in music and dance, and recently he has also worked as a model. She is currently studying performing arts and is active in the Finnish ballroom community.
Vera Boitcova (she/her) is a Russian theatre director, playwright, queer performance and video artist and political activist. She is currently studying at the University of the Arts in English in the Dramaturgy and Playwriting programme. Vera also works as a coordinator and programme officer for the Russian feminist arts organisation Eve's Ribs, and is a member of the St Petersburg-based queer organisation Coming Out.
Eero Yli-Vakkuri
Eero Yli-Vakkuri (b. 1981) is a survivalist in recovery. In his past, he did "annoying" street interventions that made people uncomfortable. Nowadays he tries to develop sustainable design through campaigns, workshops and artistic performances. Yli-Vakkuri likes to work in groups and in antidisciplinary collaborations with experts in different fields.
