Elolliset

Iida Turpeinen - WAUHAUS - Pipsa Lonka
ELOLLISET

"Steller's sea cow, Stellers sjöko, Hydrodamalis gigas: the first animal that forced humanity to look at itself."

In Helsinki, in the exhibition hall of the Natural History Museum, stands the skeleton of a Steller's sea cow. Its journey there has crossed centuries and the entire globe - and within these bones lies a history intertwined with both imperialism and the development of modern conservation thought.

Elolliset takes the viewer on a research journey to the moment when the concept of extinction was born. The performance reveals how Western humanity confronted the crushing truth that we can, if we wish, erase both individual creatures and entire species from the book of life. Through museum display cases that are built and dismantled on stage, a view opens onto the past, where the first tremors of the sixth extinction wave begin to strike a distant shore. The performance observes these events without blame, yet with unavoidable responsibility - and examines with both humorous and melancholic gaze the human who trusts in their own intellect and the feverish search for true knowledge.

Iida Turpeinen's novel Elolliset was published in 2023. It won the Helsingin Sanomat debut prize, was nominated for the Finlandia Prize, reached the New York Times list of recommended historical fiction, and its translation rights have been sold to nearly 30 language territories. The novel has been dramatized by Pipsa Lonka, and the artistic design of the work is the responsibility of the WAUHAUS collective.

Cast: Rauno Ahonen, Noora Dadu, Heidi Herala, Sanna-June Hyde, Unto Nuora, Mikko Paloniemi, Justus Pienmunne, Aino Seppo, Alexander Wendelin

Direction and design: WAUHAUS and Erno Aaltonen | Dramatization: Pipsa Lonka | Dramaturgy: Ari-Pekka Lahti | Choreography: Kauri Sorvari | Mask design: Jaana Nykänen | Copyright supervision: Agency North