Work-in-progress: Creeping Thistle showing during Runoviikko poetry festival in Kajaani

Creeping Thistle is a new performance project choreographed and visualized by Sonja Jokiniemi. The work is initiated by two dance artists, Inka-Leea Hakkarainen and Ville Nylén. The work is a dystopian picnic where painting, bodies and materials immerse into each other. Liquid and slime blur forms and identities and smudge binaries.

A work-in-progress showing of the work is organised during Runoviikko poetry festival in Kajaani, Finland on 6.7.2018 at 15. The event takes place in Generaattori space. Free entry, welcome!

Creeping Thistle premieres in December 2018 in the Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.

Interview: Sonja Jokiniemi on Blab in Scenkonstguiden

Swedish online journal Scenkonstguiden spoke with Sonja Jokiniemi about the upcoming performance of Blab and Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival. Read the full story here (in Swedish).

Workshop: Expressive art therapy for freelance artists in Kuopio 25.-26.8.18

Sonja Jokiniemi is leading a workshop for freelance artists based on the methods of expressive art therapy. The workshop deals with the participants' relation to work and their plans for the upcoming season though art. The workshop is part of Jokiniemi's expressive art therapy studies at Inartes Institute, Helsinki.

The workshop is organised by the Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland and held in Sotku Theatre, Kuopio.

Sign up for the workshop by 15.6., more information here.

Exhibition: Lumps, ghosts and other jimble jamble by Sonja Jokiniemi in Lausanne

“Dear Pen,

I´ve been thinking about the trip we made together on the crumbling, trembling surface. Where you lost your ink and I became afraid of everything.
That pond, where your ink sank into the depths of the dark muddy water.
I tried to catch it with my hands and it diffused into the cracks of my fingers and escaped through the gaps.

Since then, spending time with you has felt less meaningful.

I feel as if I don´t understand you any longer. You lost your language. Became mute.
Your transparent skin only shows the void of what once was, the structure that maintained your content, the metal wires and the transparent plastic tube.

Where is your language now?”

Sonja Jokiniemi's drawings can be seen at standard/deluxe gallery in Lausanne. The exhibition Lumps, ghosts and other jimble jamble opens on 11 May and can be visited until 26 May 2018. For more information, see here.

Review: Blab gets four stars from Theaterkrant

“Blab is a poetic parade, a moving three-dimensional painting”

— Fransien van der Putt, Theaterkrant 22.12.2017

Blab was reviewed in the Dutch Theaterkrant during the two-performance visit to Veem House for Performance on 21 and 22 December. Read the full review online (in Dutch).

Review: Blab in Belgian Etcetera magazine

“The power of this performance is elusiveness, the inherent queerness, which does not allow itself to be in any way ‘accommodated’ or silenced by linguistic categories.”

— Elke Huybrechts, Etcetera 27.11.2017

The performance of Blab at NEXT Arts Festival in Kortrijk was reviewed in Belgian Etcetera magazine for performing arts. Read the full article online (in Dutch).

Review: The beauty of blabbing - Sonja Jokiniemi's new work Blab premieres in Helsinki

“Sonja Jokiniemi’s new work captures the beauty of blabbing - Blab is like living sculpture”

— Maria Säkö, Helsingin Sanomat, 8.11.2017

Sonja Jokiniemi's new work Blab premiered on 3 November at Moving in November festival in Zodiak - Center for New Dance in Helsinki. The work was reviewed by Helsingin Sanomat daily newspaper on 8.11. Read the full article here (in Finnish).