I traveled to Helsinki to work with Studio Total for creating the experimental site-specific live performance. Bestiario blends medieval texts about beasts and monsters together with modern visual aesthetics and pop culture - into a contemporary performance framework. Through the performative, ritualistic means (actions?), strange characters on the stage call out for a meeting with the audience's very own inner beasts.
My role
set and costume designer
Credits
Production: JALOSTAMO² (Anna Lipponen, Jenni Ripatti, Jaako Lenni-Taattola)
Director: Riko Saatsi
Set and light design: Petri Tuhkanen
Sound design: Kristian Ekholm
On stage: Anna Lipponen, Tuomas Kiiliänen
Photography: Petri Tuhkanen
About
The performance was created at the studio with large shopping windows, on the 1fst floor of tourist beloved Unioninkatu street located by the famous Helsinki's Fishmarket. The audiences could watch the show from the inside of the room, by purchasing the ticket, or simply stop by the window while passing by and observe it straight from the street.
The concept
A well-groomed incognito superhero, in a Baywatch suit, is running a hipster barbershop in downtown Helsinki. A hairy homeless creature stops by to get a decent full haircut. The transformation reveals the beast who looks very much like the barber himself. The fight for power and dominance begins.
Location
Bestiario took place in a historical site - the first and the oldest Hesinki's department store nowadays functioning as a business hub with restaurants, cafes, jewelry store and more. We took advantage of such a location as well as of a huge shopping window and decided to arrange the space as a trendy and urban pop-up barber spot.
The Beasts
The whole performance was played without words, but the electronic music soundtrack. at one moment, the prerecorded voice has pronounced the names of the demons and their physical as well as behavioral attributes. The listed were Catoblepas, Jinni, Vegetable Lamb of Tartary-Borometz, Squonk, Martikhoras, Basilisk, Chimera, Harpy, Hydra, Campe, Kraken, Kerberos and Ammit.
The fight
The bestial battle ends with a murder scene.
The winner demontakes off the 'skin' and
disappears through the door into the street.
The details
We used vinyl records, also some old industrial tools to decorate the pop-up shop walls. Next to them, we hung a collection of portraits, representing the ''groomed clients'' as one would occasionally find at the regular barbershop. The portrets, however, also reflected the bestiario style.
