Tuija Kokkonen

Introduction

Shortly: An artist (writer, director), a researcher and a teacher, working as the full Professor of Artistic Research in Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki since 2018. Doctor of Arts in Theatre (Uniarts Helsinki), MA (Theatre Studies, University of Helsinki).

Background: I practice slow art and research. I have been making art (since 1986), teaching & presenting (since 1991) and publishing (since 1992) in my interest areas nationally as well as internationally. From 1996 on I have focused on creating series of site-specific memo performance series, which started from the questions of performance, relationships, and ecology. The series are Kemi – Memos of Trees (2022–23), ongoing Memos of Time – performances with and for non-humans (2006–), Catchment Area – Memos of Freedom (1998–2003) and Maus and Orlovski – Memos of Love in the City (1997). The memo series are explorations on relationships between performance, “nature”, non-human, time and power, and on the role of performance in the age of ecological crises. They chart terrains between genres of art, between species; terrains where aesthetics, ethics and politics are inseparable. Since 1999 the memos have been performed in the program of Kiasma Theatre/ Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, and internationally, e.g. Kampnagel Hamburg, Sophiensäle Berlin, Stanford University, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Teaterhuset Avant Garden Trondheim and various festivals. I have received the Finland Art Prize for my artistic practice.

Doctoral research project in artistic research: Esityksen mahdollinen luonto. Suhde ei-inhimilliseen esitystapahtumassa keston ja potentiaalisuuden näkökulmasta. (The Potential Nature of Performans: The Relationship to the Non-Human in the Performance Event from the Perspective of Duration and Potentiality.) Acta Scenica 2017, in the Uniarts Helsinki. The driving question for this research the meaning and possibilities of performance in the age of eco-crises, and it was executed in and through a series of site-specific, interspecies performances called Memos of Time – performances with and for non-humans (2006–).

My current artistic research project explores events and relations situated at the intersection of performance, forests, borderlands, state and corporate power, and political agency. The first artistic elements of the research projects are Kemi – Memos of Trees performances in 2022–23 at Kemi City Theater, in Helsinki/Kiasma Theater and Tampere Theater Festival (funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Council of Finland, Kemi City Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki Culture Committee and Uniarts Helsinki). The project continues with work in Sápmi and its forests.

Concurrently, I am continuing the new series Hidden – a memo ≈≈ at these borderlands (2025–), starting from Hidden I, Nigula (a memorial and founding words) in Estonia, and happening at the points of encounter of place/space, future and various art forms and methods.

Courses I am and have been teaching include f.e. Practicum and methods in artistic research, Ethics in art and research, Performance in the age of ecological crises, Decolonizing Thinking, Performance Thinking and Plant Thinking, Life after Capitalism: Studying and creating futures through performance, Three ecologies and performance, Philosophy and politics of ecology.
I am supervising doctoral researchers in artistic research on various topics.

Besides the diverse roles in the Uniarts Helsinki organs, I am a member of the board of trustees in the Kone Foundation (2019–), a member of the editorial committee of the multidisciplinary research journal Tiede & edistys (2017–) and a member of the editorial board of the RUUKKU Studies in Artistic Research journal (2025–).