Being tattooed is both pleasurable and painful. Perhaps through the hole made in the skin, a distressed body can momentarily find solace. We sense something that reason cannot explain; it feels like the touch of a spider web on our skins.
Parachorale speaks to the experience of inner dissonance. At its heart lies the desire to share an under-the-skin world and to create a new understanding of the reality with the audience in the moment of the performance. Parachorale challenges the othering gaze that views transcorporeality as exceptional in society. It asks how private the experience truly is, and how many genuinely feel at home in their own skin.
The performers weave a web with the audience, stripping and shaking loose the frames of conventional reality. Parachorale trusts in our capacity to reimagine ourselves and our communities, transcending the limits imposed by language. It calls us to feel and listen more intently, to surrender to the absurd spectrum of corporeal existence.
Parachorale is a new work by Teo Ala-Ruona and the working group, continuing Ala-Ruona’s series of works addressing the psychosomatic extremes of transcorporeality and paranormal potential.
Working group
Concept, direction: Teo Ala-Ruona
Text: Teo Ala-Ruona, Even Minn, Tuukka Haapakorpi
Performance: Teo Ala-Ruona, Caroline Suinner, Anni Puolakka, Pauliina Sjöberg, Tuukka Haapakorpi
Choreography: Teo Ala-Ruona, Raoni Muzho Saleh
Dramaturgy: Even Minn
Sound design and composition: Tuukka Haapakorpi
Costume and set design: Teo Paaer
Light design: Sofia Palillo
Performance dramaturgy: Ami Karvonen
Featuring tattoo artist: Spider Nykänen
Costume designer assistants: Nour Ainasoja, Pauliina Sjöberg
Sound designer assistant: Linda Lazarov
Production: Baltic Circle, Teo Ala-Ruona, Even Minn
Supporters: Kone Foundation, Taiteen edistämiskeskus, Finnish Benelux institute
Residences: Ehkä productions, Kunstcentrum BUDA, SODAS2123, Tuo Tuo
Parachorale is a part of Baltic Circle’s multi-year project Coming Stage, funded by Kone Foundation. There are multiple working groups in the project
Keywords: tattoo, paranormal, tactile hallucination, transembodiment