Limbo is a programme of events curated by the Social Choreography Lab Helsinki, which will be showcased at The Museum of Technology over the weekend of November 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The three-day program, situated at the intersection of live music, cinema, and performance, features artist-led workshops, performances, and screenings where live soundscapes merge with silent classic films.

Musicians like Islaja, Latvusto, Vesa-Matti, and Kuupuu, along with performance artists such as Mikko Niemistö and Marika Peura, will explore the concept of Limbo—a space of uncertainty and transition. This liminal zone, suspended in the present, invites us to embrace the unknown, where the blurring of boundaries between sound, image, and narrative opens up new possibilities. Limbo encourages audiences to navigate this transitional space, allowing unforeseen connections and new realities to emerge.

*** PROGRAM ***

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟏.𝟏𝟏
17.00 Open doors
17.30 Opening and welcome speech
18.00 Film concert. Nosferatu (1922), live soundtrack performance by Kuupuu

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐.𝟏𝟏
13.00 Performance workshop, led by Mikko Koivisto (Registration required)*
18.00 Film concert. A Trip to Mars (1918), live soundtrack performance by Vesa-Matti
20.00 Film concert. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), live soundtrack performance by Miika Kantola

𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟑.𝟏𝟏
13.00 Performance workshop, led by: Marika Peura (Registration required)*
17.00 Film concert. L' Inferno - Dante's Inferno (1911), live soundtrack performance by Islaja

*No previous experience or skills are required. As space is limited, please register as soon as possible via email to socialchoreography.helsinki@gmail.com.

Admission to all events is free.

This programme of events is organized by Pixelache Festival in collaboration with The Museum of Technology.

Pixelache is a cultural association of artists, cultural producers, thinkers, and activists, based in Helsinki and connected to an international network. Since 2002, it has been involved in creating emerging cultural activities.
 

*** ARTISTS ***

Mikko Niemistö

Mikko Niemistö is a choreographer from Helsinki, Finland with a background in various styles of movement and contemporary performance practices. He has showed his work during the recent years both in Finland and internationally e.g. at Zodiak - Center for New Dance (FI), Moving in November festival (FI), Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (FI), Inkonst (SE) and ImPulsTanz festival (AT).

In his workshop, Mikko will introduce a set of exercises that aim to explore liminal states and in-betweenness of the body. In his works, Mikko has explored questions related to the shadow zones of everyday reality, like dreaming, psychedelia and the supernatural. At Pixelache festival, we will dive into durational practices that aim to open up new windows in experiencing and moving, through repetition, soundscapes and imagination. 

More info: https://www.mikkoniemisto.com 

Marika Peura

Marika Peura is a choreographer and dancer based in Helsinki. She works interdisciplinarily in the fields of dance and contemporary performance art, working particularly from the emotionality, poetics, and politics that emerge from the experiential nature of the body in its socio-political context. Her previous work, solo piece Amalgam Melee, 2024, sets off from the artist’s inner contradictions in relation to cultural heritage, Brownness, Whiteness, hierarchies of power and violence in the context of Finnish society. 

In the workshop, we will delve into the questions, practices and exercises central to Peura's previous stage works. We will work with the question of intimacy, experientiality and emotionality of the moving body through movement based somatic work accompanied with rhythmic music. We will explore these practices by directing the attention to the use and play with the gaze. Merging the roles of 'doer' and observer, indulging in a gaze that looks back.

More info: www.marikapeura.com 

 Kuupuu 

Kuupuu is a solo-project by Finnish musician and visual artist Jonna Karanka. Her work blends improvisation, 
 lo-fi aesthetics and electro-acoustic elements to create hypnotic, dreamlike soundscapes. Active in the underground
 and experimental music scenes for over two decades, her work has garnered recognition both in Finland and internationally. 
At the Limbo event she’ll create a layered phantasmal texture of sounds to accompany the journey with Nosferatu.
 Gothic horror will blend with Kuupuu’s unique sonic palette of light and darkness.

More info: https://jonnakaranka.com/ 

Vesa-Matti

Vesa-Matti Kivioja is an electronic musician from Vaasa, Finland. With over twenty years of experience in tweaking knobs and programming music on computers, samplers, and synthesizers, this sound artist has explored a wide variety of environments. His work has taken him to forests, clubs, basements, cafés, warehouses, and galleries. 

For his performance, Vesa-Matti will craft a new soundtrack for the classic silent film *A Trip to Mars (1920)*, using an array of synthesizers and effect units. His music will delve into the concept of Limbo. The soundscape may move from the rhythmic pulses of modern techno to the more meditative, organic ambient textures, possibly incorporating the eerie quiet of deep space. His intricate layering of effects and samples will reflect the vastness and mystery of Mars, capturing the surreal and unknown. 

Miika Kantola

Miika Kantola, also known as “Latvusto,” is an electronic music producer and performer based in Helsinki, Finland. Drawing from his background in Contemporary History, where he explored the concept of “past futures” in his master’s thesis, Kantola views the film as a subconscious reflection of post-World War I Germany. His aim is to immerse the audience in the historical uncertainties captured in the film.

During the Pixelache Limbo 2024 live performance, he reimagines the soundtrack for the iconic German expressionist film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1922). Using improvisational techniques with electronic instruments, Kantola seeks to evoke a subconscious response to the film, weaving contemporary themes into the dialogue of the past.

Islaja

With her haunting vocals and shamanic melodies, Finnish composer and musician Islaja takes her audience on a journey to other worlds. Since the experimental, psychedelic folk music of her early albums, she has long embraced "warped and left-field" electronics. Yet another side of her creative musical universe was revealed with her latest release, modern classical ambient album Angel Tape (other power 2023). Islaja lived and worked in Berlin for over ten years. She moved back to Helsinki in 2022.

For the Limbo performance, Islaja will present a soundtrack for Francesco Bertolini’s L’inferno (1911). This hauntingly beautiful film will receive a sonic treatment that is similarly dark, grainy and analogue in nature.

More info: https://islaja.com/