Saija Nojonen

I have an MA in Lighting Design (Theatre Academy, 2011) and am a trained carpenter (Turku Vocational Institute, 2003).

At the Saari Residence, I will be working on the production design for a dance piece with the working title Claustrofunctionalism. During my residency, I will be designing and making recycled furniture from discarded wood materials that I have collected from the dump and from various renovation sites.

The lifecycle of set pieces is short in modern Finnish theatre and the ecological footprint large. My intention is to turn this fact on its head by using abandoned wood materials and by making objects that will be auctioned after the performance has run.

Modern dance is often characterized by a lot of empty space that is staged primarily with lights. The spaces of our everyday lives, however, are often full of objects and so, I am interested in how dance and physicalness are impacted by a space filled with furniture.

The furniture I will make at the Saari Residence can be seen in the finished performance at the beginning of April 2013 in Helsinki.

For more information about my work, visit WWW.IKI.FI/SANO