Actions x Figures
What could the embodiments and agencies of a body assumed to be masculine look like in 2020? Could the definitions of masculinity be overcome or rewritten? How does a body that is assumed to be masculine look at the world, and how is it looked at?
Actions x Figures, a performance by a workgroup directed by choreographer Mikko Makkonen, takes critical analysis and deconstruction of hypermasculinity as its starting point.
Hypermasculinity refers to the social and cultural construction of masculinity by putting emphasis on aggression, power, sexuality and a limited scale of emotional expression.
The performance aims to strip hypermasculine iconography of its forcefulness and to revolt through the body. It exhibits symptoms, reflects, strives for a balanced bodily existence and gives certain attributes a shake-up through multi-voiced assertion.
Actions x Figures is a study motivated by personal histories, body images, bodily qualities, cultural repetition, interactions, the private and the collective body and the construction and the interpretation of their meanings.
Choreography: Mikko Makkonen & working group
Performers: Geoffrey Erista, Simeoni Juoperi, Pie Kär, Iiro Näkki, Oskari Turpeinen
Dramaturge: Eira Virekoski
Scenographer: Kristian Palmu
Sound designer: Viljami Lehtonen
Production: Zodiak, Mikko Makkonen
Photo: Katri Naukkarinen
The premiere and the performances between 19.3.–1.4.2020 were cancelled due to the corona virus epidemic. We managed to premiere the piece in August 2020 to limited audiences, and toured in the cities Jyväskylä, Kuopio and Outokumpu during autumn.
My work was nominated for the Säde Awards in lighting design.
