Satu Herrala

I am writing a doctoral thesis on embodied curating and transformative agencies. I go through the materials of the artistic component of my research – Forest as a Geopolitical Stage public event – and I reflect on the different phases of the 4-year art and research initiative leading to the public event and performance Metsä Furiosa at the Finnish National Theatre in March 2024. I also want to discuss with artists residing at Saari their experiences of bodiliness in the production and presentation of art and share some bodily practices with other residents. In between writing, I look forward to mushroom and berry picking and following the birds’ migration.

Satu Herrala is a Helsinki-based curator and researcher with a background in dance, choreography and somatic movement practices. She is interested in exploring how attuning to bodily coexistence informs ways of being, knowing and acting and how collective action emerges from embodiment. Currently, she is working on doctoral research on embodied curating at Aalto University School of Arts and Media. Together with Anna Karhu-Cormier and Maija Mustonen, she founded and co-curated the Love Harvest Festival at Frantsila Herb Farm in 2024. She is a performer and a member of the working group of Pauliina Feodoroff’s performance piece Matriarchy, which premiered at The Sámi Pavilion in the 59th Venice Biennale. Together with Hans Rosenström, she co-curated a contemporary art programme called A I S T I T / coming to our senses consisting of exhibitions, performances, discursive events and public art in 2021. Between 2015 and 2019, she worked as the artistic director and curator of the Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival in Helsinki. She is a regular guest lecturer and mentor at the University of the Arts Helsinki, and a board member of Helsinki International Artist Programme HIAP.