Tuija Lappalainen

HUM delves into exploring the poetics of the unknown and the inexplicable experience. The title of the piece comes from a phenomenon or a collection of phenomena associated with narratives of a low-frequency hum, sound, or noise that is not audible to everyone and whose source is unlocatable.

In the work, moments of being moved collide with the materialities of everyday existence, creating alienating and immersive ruptures and resonances. The theatrical events make visible the streams of humanity and corporeality in relation to questions of existence, time, and mortality within the grandiose framework of everyday horror.

Duration 50 minutes

Choreography, concept, direction and dramaturgy Tuija Lappalainen
Dance / performance Maria Mäkelä
Light design Aku Lahti
Sound design Atte Olsonen
Costume design Pauliina Sjöberg
Set design Tuija Lappalainen

Picture Tuija Lappalainen
Video Christoffer Collina

TUIJA LAPPALAINEN works in a multidisciplinary ways as a choreographer, director, actress, dancer and artist in the fields of new dance, contemporary performance art and theatre art. Her work has been seen in the repertoire of various performing arts stages and festivals, such as Zodiak, Ice Hot Helsinki, Barker Theatre, Kutomo, Tehdas Theatre, New Performance Turku Biennale, ITAK Stage, Teatteri Vertigo and Joensuu City Theatre. Most recently, she has worked as a performer in works by choreographers Jenni-Elina von Bagh, Sara Grotenfelt and Lindon Shimizu, and as an actress with theatre director Ishwar Maharaj. Her work focuses on the possibilities of agency and diversity, as well as strategies for dismantling these obstructive structures. As a performer, she explores the multi-material limitations of corporeality, text, choreography, scriptwriting and stage elements. Recently, her work has focused particularly on themes of desire and alienation.

AKU LAHTI is a lighting designer living in Helsinki. Lahti currently works as a lighting master at the Helsinki City Theatre. Lahti’s works have been seen in, among others, Tallinn (NÜÜD VÕIB SELLEST RÄÄKIDA – 2023), Helsinki City Theatre (Silence – 2024 & Nimetön – 2023) and on the stage of the Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland – ITAK (Vakavasti otettavaa nykytanssia musikaalin ystäville – 2020).

MARIA MÄKELÄ is a dance artist living in Helsinki who thrives in the field of dance in many different roles and constellations as a performer, co-creator, choreographer and teacher. Her recent performance work has been seen at the Barker Theatre and Kutomo in Turku, Kiasma Theatre, the CODA Festival in Oslo, the Helsinki City Theatre’s contemporary performance stage and in the context of contemporary art at the HAM Museum and Kiasma.

ATTE OLSONEN is a sound and media artist from Helsinki. Her latest works include Koneistos by the Mechanit Project, a performance entirely performed by machines, which premiered at the Lux Helsinki 2023 festival. Her orchestra of 180 electromechanical solenoid motors has been seen, among others, in the Hurjaruuth Dance Theatre’s performance Winter Circus Super at the Dance House in December 2023.

PAULIINA SJÖBERG is a dance artist, performer and costume designer working in a multidisciplinary way in the fields of new dance and performance art. In her current work, Sjöberg reflects on conventional and queer parenting, parent-child interaction, the child’s perceptual world and family formation in a time of eco-disaster through multimedia, weaving connections between autofictional experientiality, cultural phenomena and social trends. Sjöberg has worked as a performer and creator of performances since 2014 with the following artists: Teo Ala-Ruona, Sonya Lindfors, Emmi Venna, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Marika Peura and Anni Puolakka.