“We’re in a situation that never ends, that is always feeding fear. What is lacking is the cathartic moment, the orgasm, the moment you start a new life. We long for the end but it is not coming.” (Franco Bifo Berardi)
Ex Ruina originates from the urge to (stage)fantasize a world that has just collapsed. A space and time where bodies, affects, objects, words and symbols continue to coexist but have lost their original meanings. Dancer Karolina Ginman, actor Rasmus Slätis and percussionist, composer Joonas Leppänen meet in this crumbled universe where they commit to subjective and collective processes of un-knowing, rebirth and transformation. Fueled by, and lingering in the tension between creation and destruction, they tempt and explore a playful, absurd and visceral poetic field of occurrences. Figuring and experiencing the world anew.
Ex Ruina is the third artistic collaboration between Ginman, Slätis, Leppänen and visual artist & designer Fabian Nyberg. This time they are joined by dramaturg and writer Heidi Väätänen, with whom Ginman has collaborated since 2018. The stage work will premiere in Helsinki in 2025.
During the residency we deepen our practice of psycho-corporeal free association, engaging with ourselves, one anothers and a range of artefacts and text-fragments as not-yet-familiar. We allow these sensual encounters to provoke and stimulate corporeal and vocal fantasizing, gradually formulating the logics of Ex Ruina.
Berardi, F. 2022. Mental Long Covid and the Techno-Social Unconscious: A Conversation with Franco “Bifo” Berardi. e-flux issue#1
Support: Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Swedish Cultural Foundation, Finnish Cultural Foundation
