TONTTU / Pasi Mäkelä (FIN)

In states of delirium people of all times have seen little men.
(Pasi Mäkelä)

Pasi Mäkelä's reincarnation of the Tonttu, a mythological character from Scandinavian folklore, restores our lost contact with natural order, his wild efforts
revealing those forgotten places of our collective memory, descending into
the "body's subconscious". Is it our potential, our conscience?

This performance of many meanings combines Butoh with Finnish folklore and Mäkelä´s experience with the Muganda dance of Zambia and the rituals of the Njau secret society.
The performance creates a new tradition for the here and now, blending the folkloric with elements of new theatre. Each performance is different, though the improvisation is based on a given theme.
In the guise of the gnome, Pasi Mäkelä can fully engage the full extent of his palette of movement, and his extreme physical approach to theatre.

Tonttu (gnome) is a mythical figure of Scandinavian folklore. It was common belief that in most of the areas of the natural world existed gnomes. Forests had forest gnomes, saunas sauna gnomes, barns had barn gnomes etc. Gnomes were kind of shapeshifter humanoids that were link between natural world and human society. Gnomes helped people if they were treated well, but if treated badly or neglected they could cause all kinds of torment and turmoil. Despite his smallness, the tonttu/nisse possessed immense strenght… (Wikipedia)
In Finnish language word tonttu is also synonym for idiot.

Performance will be performed throughout 2012 in different countries in different performing platforms, including galleries, theatres and site-specific locations.

Pasi Mäkelä (b. 1975) is an Finnish conceptual artist, performer, choreographer, and musician living partly in Prague. His performance work is largely based on butoh, Japanese avantgarde dance phenomena that emerged in early 1960´s. Butoh is known for extreme physical approach to dance performance. Pasi has developed Finnish version of butoh.
During past years he was been working actively on various performance and music projects in Finland, Czech Rep., Germany and Austria.