Rea-Matere by Teo Ala-Ruona and collaborators

Rea-Matere is a staging of a body as the stage, in acts that are caught between the inescapable room inside and the inescapable one outside. A room that seems to precede and exceed the figure that speaks.

The walls begin to fall and the figure eats the mask off its face. And what is left of this stage: is it possible to speak from it, or even to act? This is the physical task that is offered and scorned. A bodily intensification just before words are formed; in a speech, in a circle, maybe the end of dialogue. A reminiscence of an inquisition cell, staging the ones who separated from speech to reveal a sound that no one wanted to begin with. It is a figure now within and now without walls. The defendant who laughs at her own trial. She who is in it is also the begetter of it, the room, the body: Rea-Matere.

Questions and terror, my beloved ones, and in between the laughter.

Rea-Matere continues Ala-Ruona's study into how conceptions of the body, inside and out, become neutralised and subject to the violation of language and its unending mechanisms. At its centre is a performer practice that moves, voices, and undergoes metaphysical transformation, while desiring to empty itself.

The material is part of an ongoing development of body practice and stage work in dialogue with dancer Mina Tomic, culminating in a production called Damnat, premiering at Zodiak Center for New Dance, Helsinki, in May 2027. The working group of Rea-Matere also includes sound designer Tuukka Haapakorpi, stage and costume designer Teo Paaer and producer Sanna Ritvanen.

The exhibition and performance are generously supported by The Finnish Institute UK & Ireland, Zodiak Center for New Dance, Taike, FRAME Finland and Kordelin.

Image: Teo Ala-Ruona & collaborators: Rea-Matere, Hunajanjyvä 2026, photo by Robert Ra.