Transit

The vast, but vulnerable forces of nature and alienation from the environment have been starting points for my works before. In one of my earliest choreographies, Vajonneet (1993), I longed to get back to a deeper, more responsive contact between humans and nature. The inspiration for the work was the way humpback whales communicate underwater, a kind of singing. The same theme recurred in my solo piece based on George Crumb’s composition Vox Balaenae (2011), in which the last traveller alienated from nature drowns in plastic. Transit (2020) carries on this treatment of the fragile relationship between humans and nature.

I have been following IC-98’s work for years now, but the major exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki in 2018 stopped me in my tracks. The slow-moving, poetic, yet incisive mirrorings of the consequences of the loss of natural diversity caused by human actions touched me deeply. The thematic depth, scale and architectonic quality of the works, and the distinctive use of timespans prompted me to think about getting their works onto the stage – and into a dialogue with dance. 

Around that same time, I had developed a great interest in Sebastian Fagerlund’s production, and especially in a composition that had just been premiered, Drifts. In the end, the entire piece was rounded off by two of Fagerlund’s other compositions, Tuomas Norvio’s sound design, Teemu Muurimäki’s costume design and Minna Tiikkainen’s lighting design.

Transit is a frenzied ritual, a fight for survival in the face of great change. Even though it is dystopian, I wanted hope to be a powerful presence. I believe that a new prospect will rise out of the ashes – it is time to rediscover a connection with nature.”

– Tero Saarinen

Listen to Episode #7 of Dancepod by Skånes Dansteater! Samuel Denton discusses the themes and the creative process in depth with Tero Saarinen.

“IC-98’s practice in recent years has focused on addressing the environmental crisis and artistic-political methods of finding solutions to it. The animations Nekropolis (2016) and Epokhe (2017), as well as the film Omnia mutantur (2018), are allegorical descriptions of time, climate, and how environmental and cultural histories merge in different eras. On the other hand, the site-sensitive projects House of Khronos (2016–), Mare tranquillitatis (2020), IÄI(2020) and the ongoing Misi-Raaka Park of Natural Destruction (2019–) have instead of mere artistic depiction sought to create tools and zones to help a new kind of community based on the interdependence of all organisms emerge from the crisis.

The narrative of images created for Transit stems from Nekropolis, an animation which shows a cloud of carbon released into the atmosphere over a barren, rocky landscape. The dead and buried have risen to the skies, but the earth is desolate. The energy of the sun gives life, but also suppresses it. The world is ruled by the eye of Father Sky who maintains separation, distance, and well-defined borders when the survival of all living things would require touch, entanglement, rooting together, and a return to Mother Earth.

The second scene’s wide panorama explores this possibility of a new community as life rains back down to Earth. Small particles in the atmosphere turn into rocks; rocks turn into seeds and seeds into new worlds. These worlds assimilate and pollinate, grow shoots and stalks that reach towards and mutually support each other. It is as if the ancient cyclopic eye were finally dividing, infinitely.

The heat of the sun creates a whole new world and atmosphere. Everything cross-pollinates, and a community based on reaching out and rooting together emerges from these encounters and entanglements; in minerals, soil, mycorrhizal associations, between cells and within cell walls. Our human bodies are animal bodies, and our animal bodies are composed of carbon and water, supporting and being supported by myriad worlds of other organisms. We touch and we are touched, we care for each other and we are cared for. Everything in life vibrates.”

– Patrik Söderlund (IC-98)