I approached my work as audience ambassador with a strong interest in engaging young people and also activists interested in art; people who likely had no previous experience with performance art but may discover new things through it. Both groups of participants were already quite familiar to me. Even if I quite liked the idea of approaching new people, for example from high schools in the Turku region, this turned out to be too difficult because I couldn’t get in touch with any local high school teachers despite several attempts. So I ended up taking my own theater class students to see the performances. I also contacted groups of activists involved in art and environmental issues that I was already a member of.
I started my work by considering topics that could interest the groups and that would work well for this year’s New Performance program. In the end, I ended up choosing identity as the common theme for both groups.
For my activist group, I selected a program that I believed would inspire the group members to explore their own identity and agency. First, we went to watch the documentary film This is Not a Dream, which was part of the festival program and dealt with queer artists’ work in the 1980’ and 1990’ through video art. I felt that the documentary also touched on parts of queer identity, and after watching it, participants praised both the documentary and its topics. In the workshop after the film we considered, among other things, how the working methods presented in the film could be put into practice in our own communities. We wrote our thoughts on post-it notes, and went through the thoughts we had written together in a conversation. The tactic worked well and fueled discussion within the group about DIY mentality and the importance of just doing anything that sparks your interest.
We also went to see the festival’s Fresh Start Club Night, where performance artists used various means to discuss national identity and its construction. In preparation for it, I held a workshop where we considered Finnish society and the kinds of identities it builds, as well as how the conventions it creates could be changed and challenged through performance and national symbols. During the workshop, the participants had to choose a Finnish symbol and brainstorm their own performance idea with a partner. The sketches turned out to be wild and imaginative, moving Finnish symbols out of the ordinary. Ideas included Moomin mugs at a fertility clinic, foresting themes, and literal boxes made of macaroni. Some performance ideas were more in touch with classical theater shows or fine arts, making the ideas an interesting collection of Finnish symbols.
With my group of theater students we attended the opening of the festival and later went to watch the closing performance in Aurajoki. Since they were mostly teenagers, I proposed to discuss identity with them reflecting its construction and fluidity. At the opening, we watched the performance I need my nails done by Latvian Edvinas Grinkevičius impersonating Querelle. After seeing it, we considered what the performance told us about the performer’s identity and how we express our own identity in turn. Writing worked well with the teenagers, allowing everyone to express their thoughts and observations without pressure. Although I did notice some of them copied answers directly from their peers, instead of writing their own thoughts. So if I were to revisit a dynamic like this I would pay more attention to the positioning of the group members. In the workshop, we also reflected on the courage of the artist and their ability to expose themselves to the gaze of others.
At the end of the festival week, we watched the Näkki performance in the Aurajoki River focusing on a mythical figure, a mermaid that transforms in her journey on the boat to Ruisalo. Afterwards, we discussed what we saw and considered how changing one’s appearance and choosing the river as a performance location are linked to identity and its continuous movement. Finally, the following week, when I visited the class, we talked about performance and what we saw and tested how our everyday objects could be made more performative and interesting by using them in unexpected ways. We saw flying notebooks and pencil cases with their belongings used as accessories.
This is the group’s fifth year studying theater, and this year’s curriculum includes getting to know different theatre genres and applied arts, so participating in the festival was a perfect fit for their teaching. Unfortunately, only seven of the 15 students in the group participated in the experience. Maybe it didn’t help that they had only two meetings before his invitation and it is my first year of teaching this particular group, so we were still in the process of getting to know each other. A longer “marketing period” and encouragement would have certainly made them more open to teaching that deviates from the standard program.
Overall, the workshops and visits went well with both groups. Participants experienced something new and many were inspired to get to know performance as an art form better. In fact, at the end of September, I visited a friend who had participated in my workshop and we went back to talk about it and how inspiring it would be to try out the working methods seen in the documentary This is Not a Dream.
I believe that participating in these workshops made my students and activist colleagues think about what they saw in the performances on a deeper level. From the feedback I received from the activists I know the experience fueled their own thinking and inspired them to come up with practical ideas and work. For the theatre students, on the other hand, joining the experience broadened their understanding of the performing arts and challenged them to see beyond traditional theatre spaces and forms. According to the feedback I collected, the workshops and the New Performance Turku Biennale were a positive experience.
What I take away from this experience
I noticed that the volatile nature of the performances in particular posed challenges to the audience work. I have previously worked with audiences in theatre and it is much easier to plan audience work then as a facilitator, knowing the work well in advance and what to expect of it. When working at NPT, the descriptions of the performances were very broad and sometimes unclear, and on the days of the performances I had to worry in advance whether the content I had planned matched what we saw. Sometimes I also had to change the instructions in the moment when the performance was different from what I had imagined. This caused me stress. I also noticed that when I did not know what was expected, I could not trust the workshop I had created a hundred percent and sometimes in these situations I had difficulty finding internal motivation to lead the workshop.
On the other hand, doing audience work for these shows has been rewarding, because as a performing artist, I have also previously done audience work for my own shows. I really want to hear the audience’s thoughts and views on my performances. Since I also lacked a personal relationship with the performances beforehand I enjoyed watching them, but sometimes I would have also liked to process what I saw myself more than to facilitate the process for others. Perhaps facilitation could be more rewarding for me in such works where I could either watch the artist’s rehearsal in advance or discuss with them about the upcoming work and my ideas regarding audience work?
Taking part in the Audience Ambassador training and planning and implementing my workshop was an interesting opportunity for a recent graduate in the performing arts field like me. The comprehensive training provided a lot of new information about performance art as an art form, and in planning the workshops, I immediately got to use the skills learned at school in a concrete way in working life. I also learned a lot about my own authorship and what kind of audience work is meaningful to me and which isn’t.
I left the Biennale with a slightly conflicted feeling. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the festival, get to know the amazing group of ambassadors and learn a lot of new things. On the other hand, I discovered that this one-time experiment with workshops and performances is not altogether the way I want to continue in the future. To enjoy the work and trust my facilitation, I need a deeper understanding of the pieces I am working with. At the same time, I feel that it was a privilege to be able to experience and realize this at such an early stage in my career!
Hellin Karoliina Saastamoinen
Hellin Karoliina Saastamoinen
I am a Turku-based theater artist. I graduated from Turku Arts Academy in the spring of 2025 as a bachelor of performing arts. In my studies I have done audience work for Kajaani City Theatre, Åbo Svenska Teater and Turku City Theatre. This was my first time working professionally with performance art.