22.1.2026

PULP is a movement-based, installation-like performance work consisting of three dancers, a soundscape and scenographic elements. PULP is an abstract imagining of a bathroom and all the associations and fleeting moments it may contain. Through the work, a visual landscape unfolds in front of the viewer – a view that can be experienced like a moving artwork.

PULP rolls, crawls
and drips

PULP bursts and
decays

PULP breaks apart and
constantly takes on
new forms

Memories from the residency weeks

11–17 August

On the second Monday of August, we arrived at our first day of residency at the Theatre Museum at Cable Factory. Right from the start, we were given a “house inspection” of this inspiring environment, after which we could begin our artistic process.

We started working on the performative installation piece PULP. The starting points of our work emerged from a highly visual world, including a mass formed by dancers, shades of pink and other soft colours, and a bathtub. It was interesting to notice how the piece began to branch out from these initial ideas – for example, how our notion of the bathtub shifted, at least for now, into a small washbasin.

We began the process through movement and writing. Writing was used as a tool to generate movement material. We wrote a stream of consciousness on the topic “Mass and PULP” and then improvised with the text as our base.

“The mass crawls and oozes. An arthropod creature. In the bathtub, a pink being bubbles, spilling over the edges, beyond all limits. It comes towards you without asking and wonders, in its own world. The world of the mass. What or who is it?” 11.8.2025

Returning to movement after some time felt good. We worked with various improvisational tasks and images that emerged from the written texts – including citrus, a crooked pop star, and mass. Some of these movement seeds ultimately made their way into the final demo.

We also explored contact improvisation through different tasks, utilising pushing and pulling, rolling and sliding, as well as negative space (no physical contact allowed, yet the spaces and gaps must be filled). The arena space also made it possible to explore movement under observation: at times we kept the curtain open, allowing museum visitors to follow our work if they wished.

During the first residency week, our goal was to create a short, score-based demo for the Night of the Arts on 14 August. We selected three movement tasks we had been working with: the settling mass, negative space, and an explosive movement quality we called “citrus”. We performed twice in the Glass courtyard of Kaapelitehdas, each time for approximately 15 minutes.

18–24 August

During the second week, we began to consider the structure of the performance, the scenographic elements, and the meanings behind the movement. We worked underneath mosquito netting and chose performance costumes. The soundscape of the piece also took shape during this week. We were finally able to fully immerse ourselves in the world of the work.

Decision-making occasionally felt challenging. There were many ideas, and some had to be trimmed away. We reviewed the movement qualities and scenes we wanted to keep – those that felt important to us. We clarified the themes and the red thread carrying through the entire piece.

We decided to deepen our focus on fleeting moments in the bathroom. This theme opened space for many kinds of ideas and movement qualities. The demo included, for example, a shared moment of conversation during a party, the popping of bubbles after a relaxing bath, the use of bathroom acoustics, and a shower scene in which, exhausted, one ends up staring at the wall.

“The atmosphere after a bath, when the drain fills with bubbling, rose-scented foam…” 11.8.2025

Towards the end of the week, we held our first run-throughs. We invited a couple of colleagues to share their thoughts on the demo. Receiving feedback felt important and constructive. We kept the curtains open for several days, but few people stopped to watch. Our movement thus functioned as a fleeting moment for museum visitors.

25–27 August

During the final week, the demo was complete. It was time to show the audience what we had been working on. The day before the demo, we made final adjustments and refined the movement qualities based on the feedback we had received. On the day of the demo, we also received the lighting, which perfectly supported the overall arc of the piece. Many thanks to Heikki for creating such beautiful lighting states.

The demo was structured so that it could be watched from any direction. Audience members were free to come and go, and to change their viewing position during the performance if they wished.

The dancers slowly enter into movement from beneath the curtain, dripping through one by one into a momentary, explosive, space-consuming state. The moment passes, and the dancers gradually begin to sink out of the positions into a mass that lives lazily, oozing and leaning. In the next moment, one lets water run from their hair while a tiny little heap hums on the floor.

After the demo, we held a small audience discussion, during which we spoke about our working process and answered questions. The audience also had the opportunity to leave feedback or messages on notes. The demo evoked many different images and themes among viewers, such as birth, the climate crisis, and tourists’ irresponsible use of water in Barcelona.

After the residency, the demo, and the feedback, it feels good to continue developing PULP. This was only a surface-level glimpse of what is to come. Thank you to the Theatre Museum for allowing us to begin this process in such a unique space!

Siiri Haatainen, Olga Kastemaa, Pilvi Mäkeläinen

This is an artificial intelligence translation from Finnish.