DUSK (working title) is a collaboration between visual artists Venla Helenius and Anna-Sofia Nylund and the actors Astrid Stenberg and Emilia Jansson from the theater collective 4 FLOORS OF WHORES. Their shared interest lies in merging performance methods, collective creation and film.
Unlike performing arts, filmmaking is often very hierarchical. We are interested in how the collective working methods of experimental performing arts can be used to create a video work where everyone is an auteur.
In the work Dusk, we explore fear through the metaphors of horror films. We are interested in how fictional fear in film reflects our dystopian social climate, where trust has been replaced by suspicion.
During the residency, we will work with a compiled list of different speculative and fragmented scenes that springs from our collective discussions, horror film imagenaries, art history references and the theme of fear. We will improvise around these, testshoot as many of them as possible and document the process with film cameras. This way of working is inspired by the legendary filmmaker David Lynch’s method of writing 70 scenes on a sheet of paper and selecting the best ones to create a film. The material will be used as the basis for a short film script to be shot in 2026. The work will premiere at the Titanik Gallery in Turku in 2026.
4 FLOORS OF WHORES is a theater collective based in Helsinki, including Emilia Jansson, Riku-Pekka Kellokoski, Herman Nyby, and Astrid Stenberg. The group’s aesthetic and methods operate at the intersection of physical theater, contemporary dance, sound art, and performance art. Obscenity, sensuality and transgression have been central aspects in their artistic practice.
Venla Helenius and Anna-Sofia Nylund are visual artists working with moving images, media, and performance art methods, both independently and as an artist duo.
Helenius' works have been exhibited at amongst others; the Mänttä Art Festival, the Pori Biennial, Ars Libera, Ars Häme, the Taidehalli Young Artists Exhibition. Helenius's video and photographic works are characterized by a sensual and physical relationship with the world, art and cultural historical intertextuality and staged fiction.
Nylunds' art spans the biomes of documentary film, performance art and experimental film. Her video works have been screened at international film festivals. Nylunds' most recent solo exhibition, The Transformative Figure, was held at Galleria Sinne in 2024. Nylund is driven by curiosity, the aim is not always to find the answer, rather the pleasure of searching. Observation plays a pivotal role in her artistic work.
The working group is united by an interest in exploring how stage thinking, performance art methods, collective creative processes, and content generated through physical exercises can be translated into filmmaking.
