<3° STORK
WHEN: Premiere: 9.11.2024. Performances: 12-16.11.2024 & 19-23.11.2024. All performances begin at 6:30 pm
WHERE: Meritorni (lobby), Haapaniemenkatu 9, Helsinki
How to get to Meritorni: You can take a tram or bus to Siltasaarenkatu in Hakaniemi, or take the metro to Hakaniemi station. From Hakaniemi, walk along Miina Sillanpäänkatu towards the Näkinsilta bridge, cross the bridge, the first building on the right after the bridge is Meritorni.
TICKETS: Book your tickets HERE
WHAT:
Blaue Frau’s new participatory performance <3° STORK is a research clinic.
“We at <3° STORK explore hope in relation to the eco-catastrophe and the revolutionary potential of the middle class. Is hope a feeling that is naive and pacifying? At the <3° STORK research clinic, we know that hope is a skill, something that can be taught and sustained. To turn hope into action, you need goals, an action plan and motivation. Join <3° STORK and become an active part of a revolution in which the middle class has a key role.”
Participatory doesn’t mean you have to play a role, it means you get to be part of a performance on your own terms!
<3° is a Nordic collaboration between Blaue Frau (FIN), Bombina Bombast (SE) and Sydhavn Teater (DK). All partners will create a performance on the theme of eco-catastrophe and reduction. The performances will take place simultaneously in three different cities (Helsinki, Malmö, Copenhagen) and will be linked via video and audio.
LANGUAGE: The performance will be in English with elements of Swedish
DURATION: 2 h 40 min
AGE RECOMMENDATION: All participants must be at least 18 years old
WHO: Sonja Ahlfors & Joanna Wingren (Blaue Frau), Wilhelm Blomberg, Iida Hägglund, Johan Isaksson, Salla Loper, Helka Saariniemi, Sofia Strandberg, Autuas Ukkonen, Alpi Vaalaja and Nina Vuori
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Johan Isaksson
Sydhavn Teater describe their performance <3° NO MORE BAB!S like this:
“There are too many people for the planet to carry, but too few to maintain the current welfare society. We should give birth to fewer children for the sake of the climate, but more for the Danish Nation. The uterus has recently become the subject of a nationalist, political campaign in Denmark. Technology meets the carnality of the body in a gigantic 3D animated womb, when Sydhavn Theater examines who is in power.
In a fertility clinic that has been embraced by a giant womb, we get a serious, humorous and deeply relatable insight into what fertility means to us, when feelings about fertility and infertility are pitted against current fertility trends and a political agenda. We meet the futuristic woman who can impregnate herself, the fertility doctor in crisis, and all the outside voices that characterize the place. Interactions between the characters play out through personal stories and political slogans from the ongoing debate.
All the senses are stimulated in a fertility clinic, where in the end only the body, the voice and the story remain.”
Bombina Bombast describe their performance <3° The Less Than Three Degrees Show like this:
Can art help with saving the planet from burning up?
Maybe, maybe not.
We can always try to sing to decrease the average temperature.
Or prepare ourselves for a life underwater with the help of a certain imagination.
Or switch off the lights, turn off the amplifier, write shorter scripts – to save on paper.
We need to reduce something to stop environmental destruction, but we don’t really know what.
We are very sure that something radical needs to be done, but still we go on singing and swinging, splashing and inventing.
In “The Less Than Three Degrees Show,” linguistic problem formulations collide with playful answers in the form of movement and sound. Welcome to an exploration of the connection between intention and action that desires to be a show of activism but gets trapped in the game.
Short description of the working group in <3° STORK:
Wilhelm Blomberg is a performing artist and environmental activist. Blomberg trained as a dancer at the Amsterdam School of the Arts, graduating in 2015. Since 2008, he has worked professionally as a dancer and performing artist on various projects, ranging from musicals and live art productions to producing his own works. Blomberg is also an educator with a special interest in transformative sustainability education and environmental activism. He is curious about the emotions that ecological thinking evokes and seeks opportunities for us to take action against the ecological crisis.
Iida Hägglund is a sound designer, sound artist, composer, musician, writer and performer. She has studied music and film sound design in Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and performance art sound design in the Theatre Academy, Helsinki. Hägglund works as a freelancer and is interested in feminist practices and themes. In her work she is constantly exploring what could feminist sound design and art could be like. Hägglund’s work have been heard in the collectives’ Blaue Frau and Poste Restante work, in Tampere Theatre Festival, Hangö Teaterträff, Finnish National Theatre, YLE, Tron Theatre in Glasgow, The Hope Theatre and Underwire and Raindance film festivals in London.
Johan Isaksson has worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for 25 years. Isaksson has been working for Blaue Frau since 2011, creating Blaue Frau’s distinctive graphic expression. In addition to his work for Blaue Frau, Isaksson has collaborated with various organizations including STIM, the Swedish Academy, Futurniture, Edisen, the Swedish National Bank, Prime, Intellecta, Boom, OK-forlaget, SEKWA, the Swedish Literary Society, Schildts & Söderströms, and the Swedish Theatre.
Salla Loper graduated as an actress from the Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, in 2018 (MA). Loper has been employed at Kajana City Theatre and collaborates continuously with the artistic collective W A U H A U S. In 2022, Loper was awarded the prestigious Ida Aalberg Prize at the Tampere Theatre Summer.
Helka Saariniemi is a Helsinki-based set designer and performance maker whose thinking is fuelled at least by curiosity, writing, wondering, sensitivity and attention to detail. In their artistic work they’re interested in spatial dramaturgies and taking a close look. In addition to set design Helka works with costume design, video design and animation. During the past year they has been a guest scenographer at Rovaniemi Theatre and performed in Runokuu with sound designer and composer Iida Hägglund, making a live video.
Sofia Strandberg graduated as a Cultural Manager from Arcada University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki in 2024. During her studies, Strandberg gained experience in theater and event production from Unga Teatern, Hangö Teaterträff, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She has a particular passion for creating environments where performing arts and event production meet and collaborate.
Autuas Ukkonen is currently studying Fashion and Textile Design at Aalto University (MA). They are a multidisciplinary artist whose work critically explores contemporary issues with a humorous and analytical approach. Ukkonen has a recognizable and stylized visual language. Personal reflections on queer identity, good taste, and materialism create colorful and playful surfaces that simultaneously contain both depth and seriousness.
Alpi Vaalaja is currently studying lighting design at Theater Academy in Helsinki (MA) . They work with everything from club and café lighting to performing arts and exhibitions. Alpi has worked with several artists and groups at the forefront of both aesthetics and content, including Janina Rajakangas, Recovery Laboratory, Meri-Maija Näykki, Geoffrey Erista.
Nina Vuori is a makeup artist and cosmetologist (Makeup forever Academy 2019, Stadin ammattiopisto 2022). Nina has worked on opera and TV productions, such as Rantabaari (2022) and Sibelius Academy’s Cosi Fan Tutte (2020). Currently Nina works mainly with make up for private individuals for various parties, weddings and for portraits.