Anna Mustonen: Lilluminen

"Beyond memories, a depth opens up, into which everyone eventually falls."
—Pekka Torvinen, review of the film Aftersun, Helsingin Sanomat, 14.3.2023

Lilluminen is a two-part work by choreographer Anna Mustonen, consisting of a performance and a video piece.

This pair of works is built on the artist’s personal relationship with her home region. Mustonen, who spent her childhood in Kuopio but moved to Helsinki as a teenager, constructs her piece from layers of memories and emotions, forming at times a friction-filled relationship with a place she no longer lives in. As a choreographer and dancer, the work is also an attempt to dance in a place where she primarily experiences herself as a family member.

The Lilluminen performance takes place on the outdoor stage on Kuopio market square, a place many locals associate with gathering around dance. It is also the first stage where Mustonen ever performed. In the performance, she returns to the market square stage with the audience, witnessing the city awakening to a new morning, lingering with the slowly rising day.

The Lilluminen video piece is experienced by the waters of Kallavesi, at Luoto, located at the end of the harbor’s breakwater. The piece was filmed in Itkonniemi over three summer nights in June 2024. It captures a reaching toward the water and the time it carries with it.

The works form a pair that undulates toward each other, where the past and present merge and bring to the surface sorrow, nostalgia, everyday life, and boldness—a landscape shaped by Kallavesi, the market square, the changing seasons, flickers of light, and dance, both intimate and shared.

Mustonen has created the works in collaboration with the working group Rea-Liina Brunou, Marianna Henriksson, Tatu Nenonen, and Piia Rinne.

Credits (live performance)

Choreography and performance: Anna Mustonen
Spatial design: Piia Rinne
Artistic dialogue: Masi Tiitta

Production: ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival, i dolci, Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland (ITAK), rendezvous
Supported by: Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation

Lilluminen is part of Kuopio250 anniversary year programme and it has received production support of the anniversary year.

Lilluminen: screening

This page contains information about the Lilluminen live performance. For information about the Lilluminen video work, see here.

Vesireitit (Waterways)

Lilluminen is part of the multidisciplinary Vesireitit (Waterways) project, which features works exploring the mythical, ideological, and emotional dimensions of the waterways in eastern Finland. Vesireitit is curated by Riikka Thitz and produced by i dolci. More information about Vesireitit can be found here.