Fri Nilas Lindell is a Finland-Swedish dancer from Helsinki with a strong background in circus. Lindell graduated as a dancer from Live Vocational College in December 2022. Lindell is interested in how dance and movement can be used to get in touch with some deeper level that is otherwise inaccessible. He wants his work to contribute to the inclusiveness of dance and the possibility for everyone to both experience and make dance. Lindell’s work has been performed in the past at the Cultural Centre Caisa, and he has worked in the Janina Rajakangas Project’s performance Dancer as a neurodivergent expert by experience.
For Outsider Art Festival, Lindell brings Research Station Nunatak, which he describes as an experiential and participatory installation. The work is based on Lindell’s dance solo “Nunatak – Liikkeellinen Runo Tiloista” (2022). The word ‘nunatak’ comes from Inuit languages and means a rocky ridge or mountain peak protruding from a glacier. Nunatak is like an island in a frozen ocean, isolated but also a place where it is possible to live. A place with its own fauna and flora. A safe haven where you can breathe and where you can explore the world around you.
In the installation, the viewer can explore the concept of space: how spaces are created, what kind of spaces can we create together, how can we influence the creation of space, what kind of spaces are good to be in and how can spaces expand norms? In addition to Lindell, the working group of Research Station Nunatak includes Hanna Heino and Topi Hurtig.
Curators’ comments: “Lindell skilfully combines many different ways of making art, from poetry to dance and installation. Through these means he invites the audience to reflect on what space can be and how they themselves can influence the creation of space. We are curious to see what kind of space we are invited into and how the experience of space changes with the work!”
