Visiting Experts: Latai Taumoepeau
The lecture is part of the Visiting Experts lecture series of the Uniarts Helsinki.
“The more ancient I am, the more contemporary my work is. I am not doing anything new. When I do faiva, I perform space. When I do space, I do :me – they are inseparable. When I faiva, I do form. When I do form, I make content – they are inseparable. Faiva is the art of organising and performing social du:es related to place, the body and environment – they are inseparable. I am an an:-disciplinary ar:st. I am a self appointed Punake. Alive today.”
Abstract
Latai Taumoepeau, winner of the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art 2022, is developing a new work to present for ANTI Festival in Kuopio Finland in Thursday 14th and Saturday 16th September 2023.
With this body I remember, with this body I rewild is a site specific participatory ritual by Latai Taumoepeau and fellow climate emergency and crip advocate Hanna Cormick, who is Finnish born with Sami heritage. The work overlaps their living water identities and genealogy from the Global South and the Global North to continue connectivity and further explore the Tongan doctrine of Fonua that land and body are inseparable.
Following last year’s durational performance of Ocean Island Mine (2015) that considered extractive industries, this new work prioritises positionality and relationality by facilitating an embodied connection to environments as First Peoples to our respective ancestral lands.
With this body I remember, with this body I rewild takes audiences to the water edge of the city of Kuopio into a peninsula with a mini forest surrounded by a lake. Hanna will perform online from her Nunnawal (Canberra, ACT) home via digital streaming to join Latai and Sami Yoik vocalist Elin Kåven (Norway), and composer/sound artists Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey.
Latai will discuss her practice of faiva through her body of work and may be joined by Hanna Cormick via zoom to discuss the process of this work.
You may view this in advance: Latai Taumoepeau The Last Resort.
Bio
Latai Taumoepeau makes live-art-work. Her faivā (body-centred practice) is from her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga and her birthplace Sydney, land of the Gadigal. She mimicked, trained and un-learned dance, in multiple institutions of learning, beginning with her village, a suburban church hall, the club and a university.
Her faivā (performing art) centres Tongan philosophies of relational vā (space) and tā (time); cross-pollinating ancient and everyday temporal practice to make visible the impact of climate crisis in the Pacific.
In 2022, Latai Taumoepeau won the prestigious ANTI Festival International Price for Live Art and will come back with a new piece to ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival 2023.
The open lecture is part of the Visiting Experts series where international experts in the arts and sciences, invited by the Theatre Academy, share their knowledge.
“The more ancient I am, the more contemporary my work is. I am not doing anything new. When I do faiva, I perform space. When I do space, I do :me – they are inseparable. When I faiva, I do form. When I do form, I make content – they are inseparable. Faiva is the art of organising and performing social du:es related to place, the body and environment – they are inseparable. I am an an:-disciplinary ar:st. I am a self appointed Punake. Alive today.”
Abstract
Latai Taumoepeau, winner of the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art 2022, is developing a new work to present for ANTI Festival in Kuopio Finland in Thursday 14th and Saturday 16th September 2023.
With this body I remember, with this body I rewild is a site specific participatory ritual by Latai Taumoepeau and fellow climate emergency and crip advocate Hanna Cormick, who is Finnish born with Sami heritage. The work overlaps their living water identities and genealogy from the Global South and the Global North to continue connectivity and further explore the Tongan doctrine of Fonua that land and body are inseparable.
Following last year’s durational performance of Ocean Island Mine (2015) that considered extractive industries, this new work prioritises positionality and relationality by facilitating an embodied connection to environments as First Peoples to our respective ancestral lands.
With this body I remember, with this body I rewild takes audiences to the water edge of the city of Kuopio into a peninsula with a mini forest surrounded by a lake. Hanna will perform online from her Nunnawal (Canberra, ACT) home via digital streaming to join Latai and Sami Yoik vocalist Elin Kåven (Norway), and composer/sound artists Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey.
Latai will discuss her practice of faiva through her body of work and may be joined by Hanna Cormick via zoom to discuss the process of this work.
You may view this in advance: Latai Taumoepeau The Last Resort.
Bio
Latai Taumoepeau makes live-art-work. Her faivā (body-centred practice) is from her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga and her birthplace Sydney, land of the Gadigal. She mimicked, trained and un-learned dance, in multiple institutions of learning, beginning with her village, a suburban church hall, the club and a university.
Her faivā (performing art) centres Tongan philosophies of relational vā (space) and tā (time); cross-pollinating ancient and everyday temporal practice to make visible the impact of climate crisis in the Pacific.
In 2022, Latai Taumoepeau won the prestigious ANTI Festival International Price for Live Art and will come back with a new piece to ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival 2023.
The open lecture is part of the Visiting Experts series where international experts in the arts and sciences, invited by the Theatre Academy, share their knowledge.