ARKIPÄIVÄN SYYHY – NYTE AND THE WORLD MÄNKERI ORCHESTRA ETNOPOJAT
Arkipäivän syyhy (Itches of Everyday Life) speaks of people—of us—seeking relief from the irritations of life and the forces that hinder recovery. It reflects our yearning for a more textured, imperfect existence, away from the mundane itchiness and excessive lightness of everyday life. We long to live our own carnival, trying to forget the itch, yet life feels too short to truly learn to forget. Our human desire to please, to meet both real and perceived expectations, drives us. The personal carnival may be fleeting. It’s easier to follow others, to obey orders without questioning.
“For this performance, we explored folk traditions, customs, habits, and beliefs, such as bear feasts, healing with perforated water, cemetery spirits, and children’s rhymes—some of which may trace back to ancient religious rituals.”
The performance features 12 actors and the ensemble Etnopojat.
Duration: Approximately 25 minutes.
Perforated Water: Water poured through a perforated object, such as an animal’s windpipe, believed to gain healing properties.
Cemetery Spirits: The spirits of the dead who linger near burial grounds, whispering among themselves. These spirits could be called upon, for example, to haunt an enemy.
Founded in 1984, Etnopojat is a free-form ensemble dedicated to improvisation and self-directed music creation. Based on their homemade instruments, the group could easily be classified as a folk music band or a “world music” ensemble. Etnopojat uniquely masters nearly forgotten Finnish folk wind instruments, such as the Liru, Mänkeri, Mäntyhuilu, and Lävikkö.
ETNOPOJAT
Heikki Syrjänen: Wind instruments
Pekka Westerholm: Wind instruments and kanteles
Olli Penttilä: Bass and jouhikkos
Jussi Mansikka: Sound engineering
Pertti Hannus: Percussion
Markku Penttilä: Percussion
Janne Kankaanpää: Vocals and harmetti
Founded in the late 1980s, the Pori-based artist collective NYTE is renowned for its large-scale group productions. Works such as Juhlatanssi (performed at Pori Art Museum in 1991) and the PORU AKTIO series, presented both in Finland and internationally, including in Hungary, are prime examples of productions that fuse diverse forms of expression into cohesive and dynamic wholes. Since 1989, NYTE has also operated its own gallery, 1h+k, in Pori.