KAHR. KARH. Spacifying – Part: Sewing Motion

If you think that this life is a bit like that.

So, you have to be a little above yourself all the time in order to cope with things.

Somehow relate to them.

That there is always some problem that you have to react to.

Collect.

You want to put things together, somehow keep them together.

Like what do you have to cope with?

Sewing Motion is a performative work that combines sewing performance, dance acts located in several different spaces, and video projection. 

The interdisciplinary work by two performers asks where there is space and how do different art forms appear as spatial phenomena alone and in relation to each other? The project and working group’s joint conceptual work focused on examining spaces have clarified the themes of the work: the effort to keep everything together, reaching out to one another, and building together. The work has sparked a struggle between raw and funny on the one hand, and site and subject oriented art on the other.

In the performance, two art forms meet in an attempt to create a physical, visual and meditative weave that takes place in the moment.

Funders, space support: Live art society, City of Kuopio, Pirkanmaa Dance Centre, Kuopio Museum, City of Tampere, Hiljaisuus ry, Kokko1721 residency, Routa Company, Finnish institute in Athens, Old Mine Residency

In collaboration with: Pirkanmaa Dance Centre (performances in Tampere), Meidän Kuopio Festival (performance in Kuopio)

Thanks: Yilin Ma, Sonja Korkman / Live art society, Maija Hoisko / Pirkanmaa Dance Centre, Sari Palmgren / Routa Company

The audience rooms for the performance will open 15 min before the performance.

Other performances:
Kuopio Museum: Wed 26.8.2026 at 4:30 pm, includes after talk

Helsinki: autumn 2026, time and place to be announced later

In connection with Tampere performances, a hybrid workshop and sharing aimed at art professionals and those interested in the themes of the work will be held at Liikelaituri in Tampere and remotely on Fri 31st July. from 2-4 pm. Registration by Wed 29th July: , you will receive a remote link when registering if necessary.

Information of the working group and Spacifying concept

Tampere-based dance artist Hanna Kahrola and Kuopio-based visual and textile artist Maijariitta Karhulahti form the working group KAHR. KARH., whose work is based on long-term artistic and producing collaboration. The working pair has been collaborating for over 10 years. The group is supplemented by professionals from different art fields on a project-specific basis. The working pair works both thematically and conceptually. In their joint practice, the key element is to perform actions that, both when composed together and randomly, create a common performative weave.

The group has worked on its latest performances within Spacifying concept. Spacifying continues the performative and site oriented work that merges visual and dance art. In the concept, artistic work is done from spaces. The work also examines the artistic identities of the two artists and how the artistic fields communicate with each other. The focus is also on the sustainability of the work and the new directions and contents it brings to making art: within the concept, recycling and repetition are used, and ways are found to combine visual and dance art, also in remote work.

The group’s previous work is a thematic work combining visual and dance art, a living exhibition, Bypassed – Moving Pictures of Trafficking in Human Beings, which has been on tour in Finland and Sweden in 2021-2023.

The previous part of Sspacifying concept, Retrospective, premiered in 2023. Sewing  Motion is the latest part of the working group’s space oriented work series.