We are proud to support Biret Haarla Pieski’s performance Päähenkilö / Main Character / Oaivámuš as it premieres at URB Festival 2026!
This year, Kiasma Theatre’s annual festival of urban art and culture turns its focus to a rising generation: creators who are shaping the future of performance art in this moment – from their own starting points, in their own languages and on their own terms. URB26 brings together social choreography, dance art, and experimental music. The festival programme is curated by Yilin Ma.
Biret Haarla Pieski: Päähenkilö / Main Character / Oaivámuš
6.6.2026 at 19:00–20:00
7.6.2026 at 19:00–20:00
Sinne Iso Roobertinkatu 16, 00120 Helsinki.
Tickets: 5 € (Tickets online only until the performance begins.)
You can find more information about the accessibility of the performance in Sinne’s Accessibility Statement.
Main Character is a dance performance that explores the everyday experience of being watched in public space. It invites us to look more closely at the distinctive choreography of everyday movements as they intertwine with a subtle yet powerful soundscape, gradually transforming reality into fiction. At the same time, the piece makes us aware of the power inherent in looking—or choosing not to look—even when our gaze appears free to wander. On stage, small fragments of ordinary movements encounter the vastness of one’s inner world, beginning to grow into something larger, something unnameable.
The piece follows people walking through the streets, appearing as the main characters of their own lives – supposedly the main characters of this world. Slowly, the head begins to disappear, the body falls apart, and the spirit sets free. Gazes are exchanged, met, and released. Main Character explores human responsibility in relation to this world and, perhaps, rewrites the role of our species.
Artists
Biret Haarla Pieski is a choreographer and performance artist from Utsjoki, the Finnish part of Sápmi. Her practices span performance, film, installation and dance, with works presented at venues including Beursschouwburg Brussels, Kiasma Theater Helsinki, Black Box Oslo and ISSUE Project Room New York. She has collaborated with artists from different fields, including Pauliina Feodoroff, Marja Helander, Outi Pieski, Niillas Holmberg, Jakop Janssønn, Hayden Dean and Gáddjá Haarla Pieski, with works presented at venues such as Tanssin Talo Helsinki, Sundance Film Festival, Helsinki Biennale, Munch Museum Oslo, KINDL Berlin and the Venice Biennale. She was awarded the Young Dance Artist Award by the Kuopio Dance Festival in 2024.
Raul Aranha is a Berlin based artist born and raised in Bangalore, India. Starting with breaking and hip hop Raul studied at Attakalari (Bangalore), SEAD (Salzburg experimental academy of dance) and Mystery school of Choreography (pacap 8), among other institutions in India and Europe. Aranha has performed with choreographers such as Milla Koistinen, Meg Stuart, Paper Tiger Theatre, Rosanna Rebeiro and more, across Europe and Asia. His work is deeply influenced by embodied research and collaborative exchange, with key mentors including Keith Hennessy, Maria f. Scaroni, Kirstie Simson, Manuel Ronda, Jozef & Linda and many more.
Hayden Dean is a British-Irish artist based between Helsinki and Berlin. His practice centres on sonic writing, incorporating audio, text, and video to create works that move between performance and installation. By focusing on indirect forms of communication through sound and language, he explores the nuances of interaction and engagement. Alongside his practice, he maintains ongoing collaborations with artists including Aziz Hazara and Biret Haarla Pieski. He is currently conducting artistic research at Aalto University, in association with the Berlin University of the Arts. His solo and collaborative work has been presented internationally at venues such as ISSUE Project Room, ZKM Center for Art and Media, the British Film Institute, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, and the Venice Biennale.
Satu Herrala (MA in Choreography, Uniarts Helsinki, 2014) is a Helsinki-based dancer, choreographer, curator, and researcher. In the past 25 years she has worked in numerous collective processes, and the resulting works have been presented at venues such as Tanzquartier Wien, brut Wien, Impulstanz, Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Kunsthalle Helsinki, KINDL Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Baltic Circle Festival, Helsinki Festival, ANTI Festival, and Spielart Festival in Munich. As a dancer and performer, she has appeared in, among others, “Matriarchy” by Pauliina Feodoroff at the Sámi Pavilion / Venice Biennale 2022, “WE” by Meg Stuart at the German Dance Platform 2020, as well as works by Maija Hirvanen, Tomi Paasonen, Liisa Pentti, Jaana Turunen and Nicole Peisl / The Forsythe Company. Between 2006 and 2008 she worked in Company Willi Dorner in Vienna.
Ching Shu Huang is an artist born and raised in Tainan, Taiwan, and based in Brussels since 2019. Their multidisciplinary work focuses on themes of re-inhabitation, spanning movement, craft, poetry, community building, food-making, and more. They are an active member of the St1ckyr1ce and Pushing Hands (推手屯) collectives, which create safe(r) spaces and foster exchange for the Asian diaspora in Brussels and beyond. Their choreographic work has been presented at STUK, Pianofabriek, Het Bos, among others, and their duo work 荒衍 received a prize at SANCF (Taiwan 2019). Huang has collaborated and performed with Desiree 0100 (Kaaitheater); Osamu Shikichi (Aichi Next Festival, Japan, 2025); Young Boy Dancing Group (TRACK Brussels 2025); and in Lydia McGlinchey’s The Flooded Garden (Tate Modern, London 2024), as well as in Miet Warlop’s After All Springville (European tour 2022–2023) and 鄭皓 LAB – New Points on Stage (Taiwan 2018).
Teo Paaer is a Helsinki based artist and designer.
Credits
Concept and choreography: Biret Haarla Pieski
Performance and choreographic collaboration: Raul Aranha, Satu Herrala, Ching Shu Huang, Biret Haarla Pieski
Composition and sound design: Hayden Dean
Costume design: Teo Paaer
Photo: Marja Helander
Trailer: Aleks Talve
Research in collaboration: Belmon / Therese Bendjus, Marta Marja Ruszkowska
Artistic dialogue: Hayden Dean, Polina Joffe, Gáddjá Haarla Pieski
Supported by: Culture Moves Europe – EU Mobility Support, Jenny & Antti WihuriFoundation, Sámi Artist Council, Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, Finnland-Institut in Germany, Taiteen edistämiskeskus
Residencies: Lake Studios Berlin 2024, Eskus Residency Helsinki 2025, Zodiak Laboratory Residency Helsinki 2026
Thank you: family and friends
URB Festival
URB Festival is produced by Kiasma Theatre, which is part of Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and Finnish National Gallery. URB festival’s partners are Cultural Centre for Eastern Helsinki Stoa, Sinne and is supported by City of Helsinki.
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Cover image: Päähenkilö / Main Character / Oaivámuš by Biret Haarla Pieski. Photo: Marja Helander.