Plants and Monsters

Plants and Monsters is a collage of bodily experiences of heat by artists Lotta Suomi and Heli Keskikallio, where skins, memories, sweat, traces, sproutings, decays, life and death come together.

The name of the piece refers to the celebration of life and, on the other hand, to the destruction and the monstrous side of heat and human action. It brings forth the contradictory experience of heat where enjoyment, vitality, and destructive forces meet.

The collage is an installation-like and choreographed space in which different kinds of mediums and studies on the topic, études, are placed side by side, overlapping each other. The work attempts to liberate, revitalize, and invigorate the poetics of the body at a time when human actions have been condemned many times.

Plants and Monsters invites audiences to experience and ponder on the topic multisensorially, and to make their own connections through the different fragments that compose the piece. It offers intimate, poetic, and sensuous openings to the bodily experience of heat.

The artists will host performative activations and an open practice activity for audiences on set days. During performative activations, the artists inhabit the exhibition through bodily études or explorations. The open practice is a guided workshop during which participants can try out bodily exercises Lotta and Heli have developed during the working process.

Exhibition opening hours: Wed 4.12. Vernissage at 18:00 Thu 5.12. 12:00-18:00 Fri 6.12. Closed (Independence day) Sat 7.12. 11:00-16:00. Performative activation starts at 16:00, duration appr. 30 minutes Sun 8.12. 11:00-16:00. Open practice activity at 16:00-17:00 Mon 9.12. Closed Between Tuesday 10.12 and Thursday 12.12. the exhibition is open every day between 12:00-18:00. Thursday 12.12. Performative activation starts at 18:00, duration appr. 30 minutes Where: Pertin Valinta (Hakaniemenkuja 2)

Tickets: free entrance to the exhibition | 5€ for the performative activations on Sat 7.12. and Thu 12.12. and the open practice on Sun 8.12.

The work is supported by Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Arts Promotion Center Finland. Residency: Trois C-L theatre and JoJo Oulu Dance Center co-work residency in Luxembourg 2022.

Pictures from the performance:

Photos: Kastehelmi Korpijaakko