On stage at Cultural Centre Caisa in Helsinki: Moving in November - Johanna Karlberg, Antonia Atarah & Alen Nsambu: Swedish Asshole feat. Akademiska Sångföreningen

Provocative, unrestrained, and absurd, the creation works for its makers Johanna Karlberg, Antonia Atarah, and Alen Nsambu as a character, a mindset, and an artistic practice with the motto “art is easy, anything can be art”—vouching for artistic freedom. Three shapeshifting antagonists with both inferiority complexes and delusions of grandeur struggle their ways to win, be seen, and heard the most. A sweetly singing quartet’s heartbreaking harmonies rise up into the skies. Swedish Asshole reveals a delusion about immunity, whiteness, and the need of belonging. It is a landscape in which the cultural identity of Swedish speaking Finns as a liminal space rules; caught somewhere between east and west, the Finnish and the Swedish.

Swedish Asshole premiered in March 2026 in Teater Viirus and returns now to take the stage in Caisa.

The performance is part of Moving in November 5.–15.11.2026. As part of the festival, there will be an open Soup Talks discussion with the artists and local host on the 10th of November at noon in Caisa.

Languages: Swedish, English, Scandinavian

Please note: The performances involves the use of blinking lights, nudity, bodily fluids, and citrus fruit.

Age recommendation: +16 years

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Johanna Karlberg is a Helsinki-based choreographer, performer and performance maker whose work is rooted in embodiment and dance practices. She graduated from the contemporary dance program at Riveria Outokumpu in 2016 and the Master’s Programme in Dance Performance at the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy in 2022; she has been active across the Finnish art scene since 2017. She has worked as a performer and collaborator with choreographers Sonya Lindfors, Suvi Kemppainen, and Heli Keskikallio, as well as visual artist Venla Helenius; as a dance teacher for children and adults with intellectual disabilities; and as a curator and facilitator for UrbanApa, an anti-racist and feminist art platform.

Antonia Atarah is a Ghanaian-Finnish freelance actor, artist, and pedagogue with a master’s degree from the acting program of Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy, with additional studies in musical theatre and internship in Accra, Ghana. In addition to her debut leading role in Ronja, the Robber’s daughter at Svenska Teatern, Atarah has worked across diverse performing art forms, methods, and collectives in Finland, Germany, Ghana, and Tanzania. She has explored decolonial and feministic performing approaches in pieces such as Armageddon (Sara Melleri, Sonya Lindfors, Elina Pirinen) and ONE DROP (Sonya Lindfors), and in her own touring work, performative installation Don’t thank for the food.

Alen Nsambu is a Helsinki-based choreographer and performer who has graduated with a BFA degree in dance and choreography from Den Danske Scenekunstskolen in Copenhagen in 2022 with Rasmus Ölme as head of programme. Since graduating he has collaborated internationally with artists such as Alma Söderberg, Sonya Lindfors, Marie Topp, WAUHAUS and Young Boy Dancing Group, and has performed in productions of the Finnish National Theatre and Helsinki City Theatre.

Nsambu’s artistic practice is centered around identity, optics, and the ways different bodies are granted varying degrees of visibility, opacity, and transparency in society.

Concept, artistic idea, and facilitation: Johanna Karlberg

Directing, choreography, and performance: Antonia Atarah, Johanna Karlberg and Alen Nsambu

Sound design and music: Nicolas Leissi Rehn

Choir: Akademiska Sångföreningen

Light design: Kristian Palmu

Spatial design: Mikko Salminen

Costume design: Mirjam Yeboah

Dramaturgy: Even Minn

Production: Johanna Karlberg

Supported by: Kone Foundation, Arts Promotion Center Finland, Svenska Kulturfonde