Amalgam Melee by Marika Peura at the ICA

Choreographer Marika Peura presents a one-off performance of Amalgam Melee, a work that explores the artist’s inner contradictions in relation to cultural heritage, Brownness, Whiteness, and the hierarchies of power and violence embedded within the Finnish society. These frictions operate as a double-edged force, exposing how the body is shaped by, and implicated in, the mechanisms of white supremacy.

On stage, Peura wears pink tsinelas (flip-flops in Tagalog) and a hela belt (helavyö in Finnish), a decorative knife belt traditionally part of the South Ostrobothnian regional costume worn by men. These objects, drawn from distinct cultural lineages, become charged symbols of heritage. Through them, Peura explores the body where the mechanisms of white supremacy are present both as the exerciser of power and the subject of it.

amalgam melee refers to a chaotic or unstable condition where multiple elements merge into a single, disorderly mass. Here, “amalgam” implies a mixture and combination, while “melee” evokes a confused situation involving struggle and conflict. The work delves into the emotional and expressive body; within the conflicts of this third space, as the means and potential to reach a political sense of self.

Photo: Haliz Yosef