SomoS alumn Ilana Palmgren returns to SomoS with RED – ROT – a live performance created in collaboration with Joni Salmela and Jaakko Sirainen. Through sound, movement and light, they explore dissociation and transformation as sensory states and invite the audience to a synaesthetic experience of colour, emotion and embodied presence.
Image above: Ilana Palmgren, RED-ROT, Photo: Joni Salmela
RED – ROT is a haunting performance in which sound, movement and light merge into an intense dialogue. The work explores dissociation both as a psychological reaction and as a survival strategy. It asks: What does it mean to be seen and to feel safe? What happens when change is understood as a form of existence?
Palmgren, Salmela, and Sirainen transform dissociation into presence—into a field of sound, movement, and language that constantly dissolves and reassembles itself. Color becomes an emotional and poetic medium that connects perception and the body.
“Why is red considered an erotic color? Perhaps because it is erotic to be alive. You burn—or rot—and burn again. “
The performance expands the dialogue that Palmgren and Salmela began with Red Cues (2024, SomoS Arts) to include the visual dimension of Jaakko Sirainen. After its acclaimed premiere at Galleria Toinen Silmä in Helsinki, RED – ROT is now coming to Berlin. With this work, Palmgren is one of the finalists for the MAE Artist Award 2025.
About the artist:
Ilana Palmgren (born 1995, Finland) works at the intersection of theater, performance art, movement, and text. Her work is based on Stanislavski’s psychophysical acting technique and explores transitions between classical acting and experimental performance. Palmgren strives for a democratic, feminist, and ecological stage.
She holds a master’s degree in theater and drama from the Petrozavodsk State Glazunov Conservatory and the Helsinki Theater Academy. Her most recent works include BLAU (2025) and Les Bonnes Bonnes (2023).
WHAT?
Live Performance – RED – ROT by Ilana Palmgren, Joni Salmela & Jaakko Sirainen
WHEN?
Friday, 14 November 2025, 7–9 pm (Free entry)
WHERE?
SomoS Arts
Kottbusser Damm 95, 1st floor
10967 Berlin
(U8 – Schönleinstraße, Schinkestraße exit)
