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Maria Metsalu "Permanent Resident"

Maria Metsalu’s solo theatre work on fear, identity and the body

Event artwork: Maria Metsalu "Permanent Resident"

In short

Maria Metsalu’s new solo work treats fear not as a passing feeling, but as part of identity. Through movement, visual design and poetic text, the piece follows the body as it negotiates an inner landscape shaped by fears, memories and rules. It explores how a part of ourselves we did not choose can become something we live with intimately.

Summary by Eventeeka from the organizer’s announcement. The original text follows below.

17 December 2026, Thursday · 19:00–20:00 · From €9.5 · EN

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Kanuti Guild Hall, Pikk tänav 20, 10133 Tallinn, Harju maakond ↗

Permanent Resident is a new solo work by Maria Metsalu that proposes fear not as a temporary emotion, but as the fundamental architecture of the self. The work unfolds as an internal childlike landscape – one in which the performer’s body negotiates a dynamic and paradoxical relationship with its surroundings.

Through a synthesis of movement, visual design, and poetic metaphor, Permanent Resident maps the geology of a psyche, creating a visually and physically demanding exploration of what it means to live intimately with a fear that has become home. The core of the work is a simple question - how do we live with a part of ourselves that we did not choose?

The piece moves on from fear as an emotion, and rather presents it as a building block of an identity.

The Permanent Resident delves further into one of the central questions in Metsalu’s creations - how does the internal landscape of the mind with its fears, memories, and rules externalise itself physically upon the body?

Maria Metsalu is an artist whose work centers around the body as an archive of lived experience – a focal point where social and political issues merge. Her performances delve into the tension between abject embodiment and flawless design. Rather than defining meanings, Metsalu cultivates ambiguity – opening space for expanded interpretation instead of offering a conceptual closure.

The artist co-founded the performance collective Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG) in 2014.

Concept, performance, text: Maria Metsalu

Sound: Rodrigo Sobarzo de Larraechea

Landscape: Maria Metsalu, Madlen Hirtentreu

Production assistant: Madlen Hirtentreu

Technician: Henry Kasch, Kalle Tikas

Construction: Konesko Autotarvik

Light: Maria Metsalu, Henry Kasch

Outfits: Kirke Talu, Liisa Kanemägi

MUA: Kristiine Kaljurand

Photographer: Kertin Vasser

Advisor: Jaakko Pallasvuo

Project manager: Kaie Küünal

Co-production: National Museum (Norway), Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Maria Metsalu

Supported by: Estonian Cultural Endowment, The Ministry of Culture of Estonia, Estonian

Embassy in Oslo, OÜ NOBE

Premiere: 14.04.2026, National Museum, Oslo

Duration: approx 75’

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