Nonstop Paradise

Lighting and space design

2025

Turku New Performance Biennale, touring other locations

Performer: Miradonna Sirkka
Sound design: Aleksi Kinnunen
Lighting and space design: Alpi Vaalaja
Dramaturgical support: Bek Berger

 

Photos by Hans Petter Eliassen, Jussi Virkkumaa, Iida-Liina Linnea

The Western idea of paradise has been built on the backs of other people, animals, and the entire planet, and there’s no end in sight. But what kind of happiness, which kind of sacrifices are we really dreaming of when we dream of paradise?

This performance is a hedonistic celebration that destroys everything, just like the lifestyle of the 2020s.  It reflects on the way the euro-patriarchy has shaped our mind, demolished sensuality, and it shakes off the neoliberal storytelling of success and easy-bought, short-term satisfaction. In the work beauty floats upside down and turns into something haunting. The most touching connection is the recognition of the ugliness of the other and of the self.