social choreography lab helsinki

Summer Solstice Celebration minifestival. Photo: Jon Irigoyen

Established in 2020, the Social Choreography Study Group explores the intersections of embodiment, choreography, and political life. Through collective, collaborative processes, it investigates how we might learn and unlearn pre-choreographed aspects of personal, social, cultural, and political lives. By creating accessible spaces for learning and community-building, the Study Group aims to increase collective well-being in present times of increased digitalization and fragmentation of social relations. The Social Choreography Study Group is part of Esitystaiteen Seura’s programme of events and based at The Performance Arts Center Eskus. 

Currently, the network of the Study Group spans more than 300 people in Finland, and we are also taking the first steps towards creating a wider network of Social Choreography in other parts of Finland and the Nordic region.

Since 2020, the Study Group has organized a total of 8 open workshops and 3 mini-festivals. The open workshops are primarily held at Eskus in Helsinki. They are facilitated by the organizers of the Study Group (art educator Emma Hovi and artist-researcher Jon Irigoyen), as well as other artistic and cultural practitioners whose work is centered around the body in any given way. Past workshop facilitators include choreographer and performer Mikko Niemistö, drag artist Betty Fvck, performer Tiia Kasurinen and dancer Pia Lindy.

International network

The Social Choreography Lab Helsinki is part of an expanding network of similar initiatives worldwide, exploring choreography as a tool for mapping and re-arranging social ordering processes. 

Current international collaborators include: 

Laboratory for Social Choreography Laboratory at the Kenan Institute for Ethics (Duke University,

USA)

The LSC was founded in 2020 by artist and choreographer Michael Kliën. The laboratory is dedicated to fostering human relations that are unbound from our assumptions about mind, body, society and environment. Rooted in the premise that in order to meaningfully respond to the challenges of our times, we must move and think beyond the horizon of our understanding, the LSC is a hub for the research and development of experimental ways of learning and organizing. LSC focuses on the equitable transformation of social structures and the articulation of new modes of governance through aesthetics.

https://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/laboratory-for-social-choreography/

In addition to the open workshops, the Study Group organizes one-day mini-festivals. The festivals offer a low-threshold, public space for past workshop participants and other interested people to connect through performances, mini-workshops, and other shared activities.

Mini Festival. Photo: Jon Irigoyen

All activities of the Study Group are open to the public, regardless of background or abilities. Nearly all events of the Study Group have been full in terms of participants, with a high number of non-professionals with no prior training in dance or the arts. A central objective of the Study Group has been to open up established fields of art to a broader public, introducing a more experimental approach by combating the binary of “professional” and “non-professional”.

The Study Group creates accessible spaces for collective learning and community-building. The long-term goal of the Study Group is to branch out beyond the metropolitan region, creating a broad network of Social Choreography in other parts of Finland as well as the Nordic region. At the moment, the Social Choreography Study Group is taking the first steps towards creating a wider network in the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden) by hosting a workshop in Bergen, Norway in Autumn 2023.

The Social Choreography Lab Helsinki is based at The Performance Arts Centre Eskus - Esitystaiteen keskus ry. Kaasutehtaankatu 1, 00540 Helsinki, Finland.

Similar initiatives are already operating in Frankfurt, Germany and Duke University, USA.

The project is part of Jon Irigoyen’s artistic research at Aalto University Department of Art. Project kindly supported by Kone Foundation, and presented in partnership with Esitystaiteen Seura and Aalto University.

Contact information: 
socialchoreography.helsinki@gmail.com

+358442007728

Institute of Social Choreography / Institut für Soziale Choreographie (Frankfurt, Germany) 

First founded in 2012, the ISC is headed by contemporary dance dramaturg and cultural strategist Steve Valk. Located in one of the city´s premiere cultural centers, Mainfeld: Raum für Kultur, the ISC is dedicated to promoting and further developing the emerging field of Social Choreography. The ISC consists of a production office, a library, an archive, conference rooms and a large performance / lecture space. In addition, the ISC offers overnight accommodations for visiting researchers, guest speakers, collaborating artists and special guests.

https://www.facebook.com/InstitutFuerSozialeChoreographie/about/ 

ORGANIZERS

Jon Irigoyen

Jon Irigoyen (Bilbao, 1978) is a Basque-Spanish artist, storyteller and researcher. Since 1996 he has lived and worked in different cities such as Madrid, Bristol, Barcelona and Helsinki, where he currently resides. Irigoyen has been a board member and organizer of the Festival Pixelache Helsinki since 2009, and a member of the visual artists’ association MUU since 2017. He is one of the founding members of the Cluster for Critical Artistic Research (CCARe), hosted by Aalto University since 2019. Currently, Irigoyen serves on the board of the performing arts association Esitystaiteen Seura based at ESKUS Performance Centre, Helsinki.

His research interests and artistic projects span the intersecting relationships between embodiment and political life, autonomy, celebration and ritual. Recently his work has focused on the political and social power of movement through the concept of Social Choreography, which forms the backbone of his current doctoral research at Aalto University, Finland. Since 2020, Irigoyen acts as the director of Social Choreography Lab Helsinki, a collaborative artistic experiment at the intersection of movement and political life. As an artist and curator, he has participated in conferences and given workshops internationally in countries such as Germany, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Spain, Lithuania, Colombia, Latvia, Ireland, Russia, Georgia, Peru, Mexico, the United States and Denmark. He has been selected in different residences as curator, TempleBar Gallery (Dublin, 2011) and artist, ANA Art space (Copenhagen, 2017). Among others, he has curated the exhibitions: Intimate Inmensity Musterzimmer Gallery (Berlin, 2012) and The worker’s hand. HIAP Gallery (Helsinki, 2013). He has participated in solo exhibitions, There’s always room for one more. Oksasenkatu Gallery (Helsinki 2013), Breaking my tableware. Sodų Gallery (Vilnius, 2017); as well as collective exhibitions, Mäntän Kuvataideviikot (Mänttä, 2015). He has taken part in different festivals among which MANIFESTA10 Biennial (San Petersburg, 2014), Narracje Festival (Gdansk, 2015) or Tbilisi Triennial (Tbilisi, 2015) stand out.

In 2015, he was a finalist in the VISIBLE AWARDS with the project Nasreddin in Mobile Discotheque, in collaboration with the artist Olga Jitlina.

Irigoyen is currently developing his doctorate in artistic research at Aalto University under the supervision of Professor Kevin Tavin, Head of the Department of Art. The artist and choreographer Michael Klien, Associate Professor at Duke University, is his current advisor. Previously, his research was under the supervision of Tero Nauha and Italian philosopher Franco Berardi (Bifo).

His artworks can be found in public art collections such as Suomen Taideyhdistys, The Art Collection of the town of Mänttä-Vilppula, and in multiple private art collections.

Irigoyen’s body of work has been generously supported by: Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Spanish Embassy in Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Frame, Nordic Culture Point and Kone Foundation among others.

jon.irigoyen@aalto.fi

More info:  http://www.jonirigoyen.com

Emma Hovi

Emma Hovi (1989, Vasa, Finland) is an artist and art educator with a background in continental philosophy. She received her formal education in Berlin, Montréal, Vienna and Helsinki, where she currently works and lives.

Her experience as art educator spans work both in public schools, museums and other cultural institutions. She has worked with the most established Finnish contemporary art museums, where she has been part of artist collaborations and created pedagogical concepts and workshops for various audiences. She is part of staff at the art center Annantalo in Helsinki and EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art. Since 2019, she has worked on a research project investigating monstrosity and Otherness in pedagogy through the arts under the guidance of philosopher Dr. Tyson E. Lewis.

Hovi’s artistic practices are based in drawing, photography, performance, and text. She is interested in feminine-coded labour, boredom, and performativity as it pertains to social belonging. She has been selected for community art projects and group exhibitions in Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Hong Kong. Her essays and illustrations have been published in various outlets, including Ante and NO NIIN Magazine.  

Since 2020, Hovi has co-organized Social Choreography Lab Helsinki, a collaborative artistic experiment at the intersection of movement and political life based at The Performing Arts Center Eskus in Helsinki. She has also served on the board of the feminist cultural journal Astra and facilitated writing workshops internationally.

Currently, she is working on her upcoming exhibitions in Stockholm Museum of Laundry in Huddine, Sweden, and Pesula Galleria housed in the former Nikkilä Mental Hospital in Sipoo, Finland. The exhibitions are generously supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation. Her work has further been supported by Arts Promotion Center Finland.

hoviemma@gmail.com

More info: https://emmahovi.com/