Jonathan Burrows is a choreographer whose focuses on an ongoing body of pieces with the composer Matteo Fargion, with whom he continues to perform around the world. The two men are coproduced by PACT Zollverein Essen and Sadler’s Wells Theatre London. His Choreographer’s Handbook has sold over 15,000 copies since its publication in 2010 and is available from Routledge. Burrows is currently an Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University.
Matteo Fargion studied composition with composers Kevin Volans and Howard Skempton. He has been a close collaborator of Jonathan Burrows for over 30 years, sharing equally the conception, creation, and performance of their work. He has also written extensively for other choreographers, most notably his long association with Siobhan Davies, and his recent collaboration with Norwegian artist Mette Edvardsen on her acclaimed pieces Oslo (2017) and Penelope Sleeps (2019). He has also written music recently for Claire Croizé’s Flowers (We Are) (2019) and Andreas Spreafico’s We have to dress gorgeously (2019). Fargion has also developed a composition workshop for dancers, which continues to be invited to perform widely internationally.
Miklos Gaál (b. 1974, Finland), is a visual artist living and working in Amsterdam and Helsinki. Gaál graduated from the Uniarts Helsinki in 2004. In 2008 and 2009 he was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. In 2015 he obtained a Research Master from the University of Amsterdam. Currently Gaál is a doctoral researcher in the University of Arts Helsinki, making a comparative study of the art philosophy of Jena Romanticism and contemporary art. Gaál’s work has been exhibited in institutions, galleries, and in publications since 2000 in, among others, Aperture Gallery in New York, Kunsthalle in Emden, Kunstverein Göttingen, Huis Marseille in Amsterdam, La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki.
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Dr Lynda Gaudreau is an artist from Montreal. She has been leading an international career in Europe and in Canada. Her work – which encompasses creation, research, and curatorship – examines the choreographic approach and involves a constant dialogue with architecture, visual arts, and cinema. Her many collaborations include a long association with Flemish organizations, and a partnership with the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris which coproduced and presented her work for seven years. In 2018, she completed her doctorate on asynchrony in art. She was a postdoctoral researcher and staff at the Performing Arts Research Centre Tutke, Uniarts Helsinki in 2019–2021. lyndagaudreau.com
Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) was a Swiss-born painter, sculptor, draftsman, and engraver who lived in Paris. He devoted much of his life to portraiture. His models were often members of his family: his wife Annette, his lover Caroline, his brother Diego, and his mother Annetta. He lived through part of the 20th century and made an important artistic contribution. He is known for his sculptures: tall, slender figures.
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster is an experimental artist based in Paris. Since 1990, DGF has been exploring the different modalities of sensory and cognitive relationship between bodies and spaces, real or fictitious, up to the point of questioning the distance between organic life and work. Metabolizing literary and cinematographic, architectural, and musical, scientific and pop references, DGF creates “interiors,” “gardens,” “attractions” and “planets.” Haunted by history and future, DGF’s works become containers where the artist incubates a form of subjectivity that does not yet exist. Through multiple international exhibitions, short films, productions, and concerts, DGF’s mutant work contributes to the invention of new technologies of consciousness.
Dr Hanna Järvinen is currently a lecturer on the doctoral programme of the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki, Finland. She is also Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Dance at De Montfort University, Leicester, and holds the title of Docent in Dance History at the University of Turku. The author of Dancing Genius (Palgrave Macmillan 2014), five edited collections, a number of articles and book chapters, her research combines dance scholarship with performance studies, history, and artistic research. She has been interested in authorship and canonization, postcolonialism and decolonization, and questions of materiality and contemporaneity in art practice.
Kaisla Kyyhkynen (b. 1995, Finland). Bachelor in Fine Arts and MFA student at the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, she is a Helsinki based visual artist, focusing on figurative painting during her studies at the Academy. Kaisla has participated in several group shows in Finland, most recently in the BFA exhibition at Exhibition Laboratory in September 2020. She will take part in the MFA group exhibition at Kuva+ gallery in May 2022.
Saana Lavaste (b. 1976, Finland) has been a professor in directing at the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki for five years now. She is a director and a pedagogue and has studied both arts at university level. She is interested in time and temporality, especially in the shared now of the live performance. Other current interests are leadership in art, new plays, style (baroque and minimalism especially) and Freirean pedagogy. Saana has been studying Zen Buddhism for around 20 years. She has also lived and practiced Buddhism in Zengården, a Zen Buddhist training temple. She is a student of both Kanja and Sante roshi. Through her Zen practice she became interested in ikebana and found it to be a parallel art form to theatre directing.
Ari Benjamin Meyers (b. 1972, USA) lives and works in Berlin. Meyers received his training as a composer and conductor at The Juilliard School, Yale University, and Peabody Institute. Trading the concert format for that of the exhibition, his works as an artist—such as Kunsthalle for Music (2018), Symphony 80 (with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Solo for Ayumi (both 2017)—explore structures and processes that redefine the performative, social, and ephemeral nature of music as well as the relationship between performer and audience. His diverse practice features musical performances for the stage and exhibition space as well as three operas, including a commission for the Semperoper Dresden and a ballet for the Paris Opera. He has collaborated with artists including Tino Sehgal, Anri Sala, and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, and bands such as The Residents, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Chicks on Speed. Recent solo exhibitions and presentations include Solo at Yellow Solo, Berlin (2020). His artist book, Tacet in Concert, was recently published by Corraini Edizioni.
Dr Tero Nauha is a professor in Live Art and Performance Studies at Uniarts Helsinki and a performance artist. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Academy of Finland funded postdoctoral research project, How To Do Things With Performance, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies in 2017. He defended his doctorate at the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki in January 2016. His primary research interest is the relationships between economics, performative practices, artistic research, and writing. In 2015, he published his first fiction novel, Heresy & Provocation, with Swedish publishing house Förlaget. His performance art projects have been presented at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Theatrediscounter in Berlin, CSW Kronika in Bytom, Poland, Performance Matters in London, and at the New Performance Festival in Turku, among other venues around this small world of ours.
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) is an Italian writer, poet, journalist, scriptwriter, and film director. Pasolini has been committed to a lifelong critique of current political events. The radical nature of his artwork has given rise to many controversies. His murder in 1975 will long remain an enigma.
Dr Leena Rouhiainen is Professor in Artistic Research at the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki. She is a dancer and choreographer whose research interests lie in somatics, performance, experimental writing, phenomenology of the body, and artistic research. She has published many articles in these areas. She has likewise coedited the books Dance Spaces: Practices of Movement (2012) with Susanne Ravn, Tanssiva tutkimus: tanssitutkimuksen menetelmiä ja lähestymistapoja (2014) with Hanna Järvinen, and a special issue of Dance Articulated entitled Choreography Now, with Tone Pernille Østern (2020). Her recent artistic research addresses breathing and the element of the air. She has been the Chair of the Nordic Forum for Dance Research NOFOD (2008–2010) as well as a member of the Executive Board of the Society for Artistic Research SAR (2015–2020).
Kenneth Siren (MTheatre) is a doctoral researcher at the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki. Following a pragmatist framework, they aim at creating disruptive theatre practices that allow the identifying and questioning of habits. Siren’s performances are created through devising processes with the dramaturgy alternating between poetry text, movement, and audience participation. A qualified theatre teacher, Siren has lectured extensively on the topic of gender diversity—a theme that often features in their artistic works.