Vieraat – ‘strangers’ or ‘guests’ – is a playful yet deep look into how animals of different species could take part in the performance on their own terms.

I wanted to perform a dance for my dog. I chose a flower meadow as my stage. First, I tried to perk up my ears and scent the direction of the wind. Then I got down onto all fours, chased after my imaginary tail and rolled around on the ground, shaking all my limbs. As a finale, I did a series of light jumps from rock to rock.

My dog turned to look away. He found a dead, rotting mouse and rolled all over it. In the meantime, a crow ate all our snacks.

Vieraat is both a playful and deep study on what an interspecies performance could look like. The work considers how other animals could take part in the performance on their own terms, with their own rhythm, motion language and preferences.

Composition of the performance
The performance lasts a little over an hour and has two parts. In the first part, the audience will move around in the Kanneltalo surroundings, listening to the audio piece through their own headphones. The second part is a lecture performance in Cultural Centre Kanneltalo’s theatre hall, which also attempts to invite animals of different species to join in – with a varying rate of success.

Vieraat is an experimental show by Eliökollektiivi, a performance art collective specialising in multidisciplinary art. The team comprises the scriptwriters and performers Maija Linturi and Camilla Anderzén, the sound designer Aino Juutilainen, video designer Olli-Pekka Jauhiainen and the dogs Mai and Vilppu.

Instructions
We meet in front of Cultural Centre Kanneltalo, on Sitratori Square by the Unelma statue. Please arrive at the meeting place at least ten minutes before the start of the performance. The performance will take the audience outside to the surroundings of Kanneltalo and then to the Kanneltalo theatre hall. Please wear weather-appropriate clothing.

The first part of the show features audio that the audience will listen to on their own mobile phones and headphones. Remember to bring your headphones! The sound file will be sent to your email one day before the start of the performance. If you do not have a phone suited to downloading the file, please let us know by replying to the email message.

Language of the event: Finnish
Duration: 1 h 15 min