WAUHAUS, a multidisciplinary arts collective from Helsinki, makes its long-awaited Dutch debut at SPRING with Renaissance, a one-hour performance ritual of transformation, radical imagination, and pleasure.
Change is always relational; it unfolds through making and remaking connections.
The Renaissance era refers, among other things, to a worldview shaped by anthropocentrism and science. Through a series of evaporations, dissolutions, transitions, and transformations, the needing and feeding bodies of the Renaissance are set against old ideals and proportions that transcend the individual human. While human statues are set in stone, human ideals bleed and leak.
In Renaissance, the audience is invited to surrender to wonder, change, and play—an ode to dreaming and the power of the unknown. The messy alienation, animality, and sexuality of human beings burst through. Bodies become streams or fountains, endlessly gushing forth or bleeding dry. Something is destroyed, while something is born and transformed anew.
Dates: Friday, 30.5. at 20:30 and Saturday, 31.5. at 17:00
Location: Theater Kikker, Ganzenmarkt 14, 3512 GD Utrecht, Netherlands
Duration: 60 min.
Language: No language barriers
Themes: Queer future, performing care,fFatigue bodies – exhausted minds, slowing down, mirrored gaze
Trigger-warning: This performances uses stroboscopes, loud sounds and heavy smoke.
Accessibility: Theater Kikker is accessible to wheelchair users, people with a hearing disability and people with visual impairments, among others. Find more information about accessibility on their website.
“Distinctive, meticulously crafted, and movingly performed. [Renaissance is] boundary-pushing performance art, characterized by choreographic thinking that is as eclectic as it is elastic.”
– Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet
About the artists:
WAUHAUS is a Helsinki-based multidisciplinary arts collective founded in 2016. Their work moves between different artistic genres and has been presented in a wide range of venues, from galleries and intimate black box theaters to urban spaces, large stadiums, and the main stages of renowned theater houses.
Known for their comprehensive audiovisual aesthetics and collaborative creative process, WAUHAUS consists of scenographers Laura Haapakangas and Samuli Laine, director Juni Klein, sound designers Jussi Matikainen and Heidi Soidinsalo, choreographer Jarkko Partanen, and managing director Julia Hovi.
Working group:
On stage: Samuli Emery, Samuli Laine (WAUHAUS), Alen Nsambu, Ritni Ráste Pieski & Kauri Sorvari
Direction & Choreography: Juni Klein and Jarkko Partanen (WAUHAUS)
Scenography: Laura Haapakangas (WAUHAUS)
Sound design: Jussi Matikainen (WAUHAUS)
Lighting design: Kristian Palmu
Costume design: Hanne Jurmu
Assistant to the lighting designer: Saana Hannonen
Assistant to the costume designer: Salla Oinas
Costume construction: Linda Seppälä
Vocal coach: Kiia Laitakari
The choreographic material of the performance was created in collaboration with the performers.
Producer (WAUHAUS): Minttu-Maria Jäävuori
Executive director (WAUHAUS): Julia Hovi
Excerpts from choral works to be heard during the performance:
Victoria, Tomás Luis de. O Magnum Mysterium. 1572.
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da. Sicut Cervus. 1604.
World premiere: 3.12.2024 at Pannu hall, Dance House Helsinki
Production: WAUHAUS & Zodiak – Center for New Dance
Residency Support: Kanuti Gildi SAAL
Supporters: Kone Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, City of Helsinki, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finnish Cultural Foundation Residency Program
The performance takes place in collaboration with the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, and is part of the pARTir initiative funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU programme.
pARTir is a collaborative initiative of the Finnish cultural and academic institutes aimed at creating a cultural roadmap towards responsible international mobility.
