The summer is over.
We did it, our show is ready and we are proud of it. So for us it’s only the beginning now. We premiered in Lapland. It always seems a great idea and it sounds good to go there but thisyear we had the pleasure to experience a snowstorm in june, followed by few thousands of mosqitoes. We got the chance of playing the show one day after when it was supposed to be, the weather was cold but the forest was magical.
After i was filled by lot of happiness and party mode and i had a great festival experience once again in Hiljaisuus(silence festival) This festival is always in somehow pretty extreme.
Before the big premiere we had been playing twice in saarenkartano a demo version, it was a great experience as well and we got to test the ideas in front of people. Also we had the photo session with our beloved Isla in Mustarinda and we got to spent some time in ancient forests with her.
Also we spend one day filming with Jouni Ihalainen in Sipoonkorpi national park. Jouni lately had an inspiration and in one day he did 7 videos of the material that we filmed that one day and night. Its coming out soon, be ready to experience some video art!
Viivi in St. Medard en Jalles, butterfly haven
So we were really happy to premiere the show in june, and it all went really well and we had a lot of positive feedback from people.
Later in the summer we returned in La Grave where we were in residency last year to have our french pre-premiere. Got to experience the enormity of the nature and how small our lungs were while climbing uphill and trying to sing at the same time.
We performed in Vallisaari, on an island next to Helsinki. Running naked to peoples picnic tables and trying to fit the show in a bit more urbain background than a pure forest.
Last weekend we were in Saint Medard en Jalles next to Bordeaux in a beautiful forest. I must say that im really happy with the show. Im happy of the process that we went through and where it lead us, i feel like we succeeded in doing a show like we wanted to and we are saying important things by doing it the way we are doing it. Of course the show works better in some places than in others, but that was the deal, the forest is the third performer.
I’ve never had as much strong feedback from the audience than with this show. It has been touching and it has made me feel that doing this is important.
Now i feel that the next question is what are we ready to accept and who is ready to accept us? Because we did a site-spesific show in the forest it’s not that easy for everybody to buy it. Or it would be with a bit of organisation. So who is ready to go through the trouble of taking an audience somewhere in the nature and bringing them back? And if they are ready to do it, how well they will do it?
What are we to say when people want to “buy” us but they propose us to play in a park or in a really nice bush next to the theatre? Isn’t it the same than asking me to do a tissu gig when i have spent 10 years of my life climbing a rope? Are we ready to change and leave our third performer out or replace it by something we don’t know? And for what? Why?
Also who dares to program us? It seems that the idea of some nudity and a walking performance is too much for some, too much new things, too much politics. But who decides? Has someone asked from the people who have seen us? To hear that no one has been shocked, to hear about their experiences. It’s always easier to be surfing on a wave of something than to actually take any actions.
But watch out, we are going to do this until we are old and we hope that someday there would not be anything to be shocked about anymore.
Happy winter everyone, we are organizing photo expositions in places and times that we will reveal when it’s the time for it.
Viivi