Nokia´s Möhkäle

About the work

*Nokian Möhkäle* originated as a solo work by choreographer Petri Kekoni. The piece draws its name Möhkäle – (meaning “boulder” or “mass”) or *Erratic Block* – from geology: an erratic block is a rock transported by glacial action that has ended up in a location where it seemingly does not belong. The work uses this phenomenon as a starting point to explore body, mass, and movement—as well as how a human being carries layers, history, and forms that are in constant flux.

Like an erratic block, the piece shifts in November from Helsinki’s Suvilahti to Nokia—near Tampere—settling into the ruggedly beautiful surroundings of the old Nokia factory complex. Through this work, the audience gains a first encounter with the cultural milieu of the Nokia factory island. *Möhkäle* is now undergoing a powerful transformation through both a new venue and a new performer; the deeply personal solo originally presented by choreographer Petri Kekoni is being reinterpreted by Ville Oinonen, a highly acclaimed, experienced dancer from Tampere. With Nokian Möhkäle Oinonen also celebrates his 20-year career as a dance artist. Featuring visually striking imagery and evocative, primal movement, the piece will be performed from November 13 to 21 at the Loft Gallery on the Nokia factory island.

“Man is a woodchip in the stream of history in Petri Kekoni’s magnificent dance piece… the work is full of fine metaphors”

– Jussi Tossavainen, HS

“Möhkäle is a performance that is at once meditative and refreshing—one that both calms and empowers”

– Annikki Alku, Demokraatti

Erratic Block is an interdisciplinary artistic collaboration. Kekoni’s unembellished movement is given a frame by costume designer and researcher Joanna Weckman’s sculptural, shifting and multilayered costume design that obscures the border between the human and the inorganic. The sound and lighting of the piece is by spatial artist and performing arts sound and lighting designer Mikko Hynninen.

Choreographer’s words

“One day, as I was contemplating a new solo piece, I was sitting on a big rock – a glacial erratic block – in southern Finland. I began to think about my own age in relation to that of the rock, and wonder, did the rock have any feeling of its own life cycle? Would it be possible to move like the sensations of this block of stone? At the same time, I realized that this was just about the most baffling subject for a dance piece that one could possibly come up with! However, I do think that this same difficulty has led us on an interesting journey towards some kind of hard-to-define hybrid between a person and an “inanimate” object.

As an unforced form, there is something interesting in the concept of a block or lump (‘möhkäle’, the title of the piece in Finnish). As an artist, it has always delighted me how nature shapes materials through inexorable polishing and stress over long timeframes. I feel that my dance pieces are, in some sense, organic lumps; they are formed from the ideas and thoughts of a given period, and then find their final shape in ways dictated by the work itself. As the piece takes its final form, I try to be just an intermediary. A lump or block is never shapeless, as it always includes precise cuts and fissures shaped by time. But the concept of a lump is always, by definition, somewhat imprecise. So the main question in creating this piece was, what could the movement of a lump be like? Is it internal or external, defined or undefined? This work has made me rethink the performative concept.

In Erratic Block, I want to objectify myself and humanize an object. I’m also interested in performing without the ballast of personhood. This has led to a kind of aesthetic of hiding and veiling; the movement of the ‘lump’ is movement at its purest, open to all interpretations of meaning.”

Nokian Möhkäle 2026 Production Team

Choreography and concept: Petri Kekoni

Dance: Ville Oinonen

Lighting and sound design: Mikko Hynninen

Costume design: Joanna Weckman

Costume execution: Joanna Weckman, Anni Konttinen, Suvi Turkki

Set design: Petri Kekoni, Mikko Hynninen

Photography: Pasi Orrensalo

Producer: Saku Koistinen

Communications: Hanna Romo

Venue partnership: Cireco Finland Oy

Duration: 50 min

Performances: 13 Nov at 18:00 / 14 Nov at 18:00 / 15 Nov at 15:00 / 19 Nov at 18:00 / 20 Nov at 18:00 / 21 Nov at 18:00.

Venue: Nokia Factory Island (Nokian tehdassaari), Loft Galleria; address: Souranderintie 2, 37100 Nokia

Tickets 10/20: Lippu.fi

Tehdassaari in Nokia is easily accessible by bus and train from Tampere and, for example, the Helsinki metropolitan area.

By bus:

The nearest stop is Kumitehdas, located about a 350-meter walk from the island. The best way to get to Nokia from Tampere’s Central Square (Keskustori) is by bus lines 70 and 72. Bus 72 takes you almost directly to the entrance (Kumitehdas stop) in 40 minutes and runs approximately every half hour.

By train:

Trains run from Tampere to Nokia station at intervals of 30 to 60 minutes. It is an 18-minute walk from Nokia train station to Tehdassaari.

Previous performances: Premiere: October 5, 2018, Cirko’s Maneesi stage, Suvilahti, Helsinki. Other performances: Helsinki Kunsthalle (2019) and the Kalasatama environmental art project (under the title *Sörnäistenniemen Möhkäle*, 2019). The work was also featured in the *Performing HEL* showcase of Finnish performing arts in 2021. In 2026, the work returned to the stage at Cirko’s Maneesi in Suvilahti on April 23, 2026.

Production: Petri Kekoni Company / Liikkeen puolesta ry

Supported by: Finnish arts and culture agency, Finnish Cultural Foundation, City of Helsinki