Ashla – Collective Inquiry into Repetition as a Form of Hidden Violence

Application summary

Ashla is a multidisciplinary project bringing together choreography, video art, sound design, scenography, lighting, and comic art to explore how hidden forms of violence are carried in and through the body. How does violence manifest when it is not spectacular, but quietly embedded in breath, posture, exhaustion, or repetition? What happens when repetition itself becomes violent—when fear shapes movement as both a strategy for survival and a site of further tension? Building on my earlier research Shattered Shelter: The Oppressed Body Without Organs, which established personal foundations, Ashla develops this inquiry collectively with a diverse working group of nine artists. Their varied cultural and disciplinary backgrounds allow hidden violence to be examined from multiple perspectives. The project has grown beyond individual research into a collaborative creation that requires the time, intensity, and resources of a dedicated team. In this expanded phase, the work unfolds in two interconnected outcomes: a full-length dance performance and a comic exhibition. The comic narration and its text will be developed during rehearsals and continue after the intensive working period, translating the performance into a drawn narrative. This experiment—bringing live choreography into the context of comics—is rare in the Finnish art field and enables the project to reach audiences far beyond the theatre. Ashla can move beyond experiment into a fully realized performance and exhibition, making visible the hidden forms of violence that shape everyday life