Riddu Sessions: Starting from staring (cancelled)
STARTING FROM STARING
How to meet without any intention? Allowing the kinship to be enough, as its own, is a primary Sámi value. This is the indigenous ground for the fight against the exploitation of natural resources and of culture.
What if you wouldn’t leave any trace of human activity behind, any material of your own?
These two are starting from staring. A state of being that is nothingness, intense nothingness. Ephemeral, like it is to be as a human being.
A start without talking. Locking the eyes, dragging the gaze along. Reaching the other one. Creating suspense - or is that suspicion? Waiting for something to move. Reacting, intimidating, discovering playfulness. Somehow important, somehow tensed. Leaving.
Landing somewhere else. What is it? A glimpse of the past? A concentration of excitement? A soft fight? A soft fight.
Credits:
Concept & performance: Birit Haarla, Katja Haarla
Dramaturgical assistance: Antoine Dupuy-Larbre
Sound: Nicholas Franchett
Vocals: Katarina Barruk
Recordings and mixing of vocals: Arnljot Nordvik
Light design: Meri Ekola
Photo: in collaboration with Outi Pieski
Duration: 60 min
Biography:
Čiske Jovsset Biret Hánsa Outi Biret (Birit Haarla) and Čiske Jovsset Biret Hánsa Outi Gáddjá (Katja Haarla) are both dancers and performers coming from Dalvadas, Ohcejohka, the Finnish side of Sápmi. They graduated from the Finnish National Opera Ballet School in 2019 and are currently studying their final year in P.A.R.T.S -Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Brussels. Birit and Katja have made several collaborations together, for example with visual artist Marja Helander on an award winning short film Eatnanvuloš Lottit, Sundance Film Festival 2018, with visual artist Outi Pieski on a video installation Guhte Gullá, Helsinki Biennale 2021. They are currently working with theater director Pauliina Feodoroff on a performance Matriarch for the Sámi Pavilion in Venice Biennale 2022. They were nominated as the Young Artists of the Year 2021 by the Riddu Riđđu indigenous art festival.
