Kekäläinen & Company Hysteria Mundi – Improvisations on Global Politics

The intriguing multidisciplinary working group will enjoyably collide different art forms, from classical music through digital music and physical performing arts to Finnish schlager and stage poetry. And behind it all is global politics.

As a pioneering auteur in contemporary dance Sanna Kekäläinen’s 1991 work Studien über Hysterie is an undisputed classic in the history of Finnish contemporary dance and performing arts. The work, which sparked heated public controversy, concretized a sharp paradigm shift in Finnish performing arts, as well as Sanna Kekäläinen’s profound significance as a paradigm-shifting auteur. 

In retrospect, it is amazing to see what amount of resistance the hysterical and naked body, conceived as an object of feminist and psychoanalytical gaze, could arouse in 1991. Now, the classic original work is brought to the present in a completely new way.

K&C is creating a new premiere work that embraces the classic original work so that it is within the new work Hysteria Mundi. New materials are created around the work and different art forms providing a wide physical and emotional scale of expression create new meanings layer by layer, bringing the original work into the present time. This creates a completely new, exciting and amazing work that mirrors the 35-year history of the original work to the current state of the world and changes in Earth and biosphere.

The intriguing multidisciplinary working group will enjoyably bring together different art forms, from classical music through digital music and dance to Finnish schlager and stage poetry. And behind it all is global politics.