Traumavapaa näyttämö

Trauma-free Stage (Traumavapaa näyttämö) is a multidisciplinary and multi-year research project on the relationship of the stage and trauma. At the Saari Residence, we have prepared a workshop for performance art professionals that explores the effects of the stage on trauma and the effects of trauma on the stage with the aim of expanding people’s understanding of the issue. It involves using a variety of physical and linguistic methods and exploring the impact of trauma on the nervous system, writing about taboo subjects, the ethics of making art and imagining what a post-traumatic stage could look like. A trauma-free stage contains a paradox: just as a traumatic experience is impossible and excessive, so is the suggestion of a trauma-free stage.

Trauma can also be seen as inhibited or frozen movement. At the beginning of the residency, we began to look for movements that would break this rigidity or continue what is unfinished. Through this idea, the work has moved perplexingly organically between the corporeal and the lingual, applying shared thinking and its intermingling. A concrete reminder of this natural intermingling of things is the workspace in Jacob’s barn, whose main doors, when opened, are a kind of gateway to the surrounding landscape. This has allowed in a slight breeze while we work, surrounded by flocks of birds and pollen and being aware of the changes in weather.

Throughout the two-week residency, we have been aware of art as a place where people want to ponder and make change happen radically. The potential power of art is massive, and we need opportunities like the ones offered by the Saari Residence to challenge the forces that undermine and destroy art as a significant contributor in the world.

Our working group consists of artists, art researchers and a trauma-informed sex therapist: author and docent of artistic research Susanna Hast, dramaturg and playwright Iida Koro, sex therapist Pale Lius, director and dramaturg Essi Rossi, performer and dance creator Kauri Sorvari, and dancer, curator and researcher Maryam Bagheri Nesami.