National Project is a performance about the Finnish national soul and "Finland," its discrepancies, fickleness, and gender.

National Project reminisces about current and well-worn Finnish myths, remembers them wrong and makes up the rest. It finds and creates national paradoxes. It puts a log into a woman's hand, removes her national dress, takes her money, language, gender, and continent and then gravely asks which part of the Western imperial heritage belongs to Finland. And then we find ourselves in Africa, the birthplace of man, in the beginning of time and the core of the Finnish national soul. Pop music plays and the American flag flies.

The performance centres on the ideas of being separate and connected, being involved and uninvolved. It invites the audience to drink coffee and eat traditional carelian pastry while seeking a postmodern approach to issues related to (national) identity, community, and coming together: How has the identity of those in power and those looking for power been built? Who gets heard today, in this country, in this world? Who is left without a voice? Who can vote and on what? Who and what do the defence forces defend? In what way is Finland my home country? And why does she need to undress?

Concept and performance by Aune Kallinen and Laura Murtomaa.
Visual art by Jaana Kokko.