FUGK - Finno-Ugric Garage Kabuki / Bazaar Festival

Part Finnish-Japanese folk mixtape, part homemade Butoh, with elements of DIY Kabuki and some obscure gags, this is Pasi Mäkelä’s solo performance: FUGK – Finno-Ugric Garage Kabuki. Bazaar Festival presents the artist’s unique fusion of cultures.

AUTHOR, PERFORMER Pasi Mäkelä
LIGHTING DESIGN Jonáš Garaj
VISUAL ART COLLABORATION Mimosa Pale, Max Lysáček
MUSIC Vojtěch Procházka, Jakub Švejnar, Elia Moretti
SCENOGRAPHIC COLLABORATION Ester Hotová, Max Lysáček
PRODUCTION Terén, Centre for Experimental Theatre

In his solo performance at the intersection of butoh, experimental concert, noise and free improvisation, Pasi Mäkelä combines seemingly disparate elements: Finnish humppa music, sound and object installation and Japanese theatrical traditions. The result is a ceremonial situation where ritual turns into a grotesque play. Mäkelä’s work explores the “sub-body”, or physical expression, as an equivalent to the concept of the subconscious mind, where our body belongs to all bodies as a whole.

In this latest production, Finnish and Japanese folklore meet contemporary live art. Mäkelä takes inspiration from the Finnish hunting ritual Karhun Peijaiset and transforms it through the stylized expressiveness of kabuki. The result is a performative world of absurdist humour and obscure gags, where tradition collides with the chaos of the present.

Running time: 60 minutes
Capacity: English and Finnish
No language barrier.

Pasi Mäkelä is a Finnish performance artist, director, choreographer, musician, and conceptual artist based in Prague. He studied at the Turku Arts Academy in Finland, where he earned a degree in theatre directing and education. His approach to performing and creating is also inspired by his personal experience with funeral trance rituals in Zambia, Africa. He has been a long-standing member of the Finnish theatre collectives Reality Research Center and Circus Maximus. Currently, he is active in musical projects such as The Spermbankers, Fart Armers, and various improvisational collaborations. His notable original works include the solo performances Tonttu and Walrus Vampire Show, as well as projects with his music and performance group Sabotanic Garden. Additionally, he frequently appears as a guest actor, performer, and musician in various one-off productions and performance pieces.

Terén – platform for contemporary live art and new forms of spectatorship. Terén is a dramaturgical and production platform without its own company or permanent venue. Since 2019, it has operated alongside Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose on a String Theatre) and HaDivadlo as the third stage at the Centre forExperimental Theatre in Brno.

More on Instagram , Facebook and website .

The performance is part of Bazaar Festival .