About

I’ve had the privilege to design the set, lighting and video for this stage work about writer Eeva Kilpi, based on the book of the same name by Anna-Riikka Carlson.

“Nämä juhlat jatkuvat vielä”  (The Celebration Continues) tells the story of a friendship between an editor and an aging author — about intergenerational memories, hidden stories, memory loss, motherhood, love, nature conservation and activism. It’s both tender and raw, and full of Eeva Kilpi’s poetry, beautifully set to music by Maija Ruuskanen.

The stage concept is what I call a “museum of memories.”
If memory illness blurs the whole picture, what if the remaining details were displayed — like in an exhibition — and through these objects, stories begin to fill in what’s been lost?

On stage we see real photographs from Eeva Kilpi’s archive, projected large, and new video material from Piskola cottage, the place she so often wrote about. Light from a filmed window spills into the physical space, connecting what’s real and what’s remembered.

For me, this piece continues my exploration of how light, space and video can merge — how digital and physical realities meet through light. And somewhere in that, I found a connection to my own memory of my late grandmother, and the soft light that stayed with her until the end.

Credit:
Text: Kati Kaartinen
Original work: Anna-Riikka Carlson
Music: Maija Ruuskanen
Lyrics: Eeva Kilpi & Kati Kaartinen
Director: Laura Mattila
Set, lighting & video design: Veli-Ville Sivén
Cast: Eija Ahvo, Jonna Järnefelt & Maija Ruuskanen
Sound Design: Mika Hiltunen
Photos: Veli-Ville Sivén & Otto-Ville

A co-production by Turku City Theatre & The Finnish National Theatre

Reviews:

Turun sanomat (https://www.ts.fi/kulttuuri/6803873):

“Video has long been a familiar element in the world of theatre, but this time it is video designer Veli-Ville Sivén’scontribution that brings remarkable intensity, interest, and electricity to the performance. Together with Maija Ruuskanen’s rhythmically dynamic music, the rich visual content of the videos portrays the worlds of Eeva and Aada in a captivating and multifaceted way. As themes of Karelian identity and displacement naturally belong to the piece, the videos deepen these subjects with greater subtlety than dialogue alone could achieve.”