Postgraduate in Performance Research Studies.SOZO vim, Kassel, Germany (2017-18)
MA Theatre and Performing Arts. Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain (2016-17)
BA in Visual Arts and Contemporary Dance. Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain (2010-14)
Lighting Technician Assistant. Zodiak Centre of New dance, Helsinki, Finland (2023-ongoing)
Hip Hop and House Dance Teacher. Saiffa - Flow Mo Dance School. Helsinki, Finland (2023-25)
Website Designer and Social Media Coordinator. Tanzwerk Kassel e.V., Kassel, Germany (2020-23)
Stage Lighting & Web Development Teacher. SOZO vim Dance School, Kassel, Germany (2020-23)
Office Assistant/Coordinator. Tanzwerk Kassel e.V., Kassel, Germany (2020-21)
Administrative & Technical Assistant. SOZO vim Dance School, Kassel, Germany (2020-2022)
2024. Goethe Institut. Culture Moves Europe. Individual Mobility Grant.
2023. Kulturförderung Kulturamt Kassel.
2023. Fonds Darstellende Künste. NEUSTART KULTUR. #TakeHeart Rechercheförderung.
2022. NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ - STEPPING OUT.
2022. Kulturförderung Kulturamt Kassel.
2021. Goethe Institut - Nachwuchsförderung.
2021. Brückenstipendien - Hessische Kulturstiftung .
2021. Kulturförderung Kulturamt Kassel.
2021. Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst.
2020. Kulturförderung Kulturamt Kassel.
2018. AC/E Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE).
2024. Sonnenstein Loft. Linz (AT).
2022. ON DISPLAY. Lake Studios Berlin (DE).
2021. Studio Practice and Artistic Process. Stockholm University of the Arts (SE).
2018. Atelier Real (REAT). Lisbon (PT).
2017. Oulu Dance Hack. Oulu (FI).
2016. DOCH Summer Residency. Stockholm (SE).
2026. On the Urgency to reIMAGINE, reCLAIM, and reSTRUCTURE. 3-week programme. Redukt Studio, Helsinki (FI)
2025. A4CT Zine #2 Launch. Publication. Dodo ry, Helsinki (FI)
2025. Super Supper, Public Programme. Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki (FI)
2023. Kulturhaus Dock4. check your body at the door. Kassel (DE).
2021. Stockholm Fringe Festival. anverso. Stockholm (SE).
2021. Gothenburg Fringe Festival. anverso. Gothenburg (SE).
2021. Galeria Kollektiva. late for laundry, again. Kassel, (DE).
2019. Oops Festival. anverso. Brighton (UK).
2018. RandFilm Festival. anverso. Kassel (DE).
2017. Stockholm Fringe Festival. Wortenlust. Stockholm (SE).
2017. OT301 Highs and Lows #22. Wortenlust. Amsterdam (NT).
2023. Fresko, Malla. Music video. Tallin (EE).
2019. Theater Spektakel. Terrain. Boris Charmatz. Zurich (CH).
2019. Staatstheater Kassel. Ares (statisten). Johannes Wieland. Kassel (DE).
2016-17. Reflections: Triple Bill. Body Politic Dance Company. Oxford (UK).
2024. NEFES & Global Music Master’s Transcultural Ensemble. Vapaan Taiteen Tila. Helsinki (FI).
2023. Zipora and Friends. Sibelius Academy. Kalliosali. Helsinki (FI).
2023. STREAMS #4. Aura Antikainen & Niv Melamed. Halle 2. Kassel (DE).
2023. Sie starb und sie lebte. Rosalie Kubny. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel (DE).
2022. DIE FLACHE ERDE. Lauren Rae Mace. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel (DE).
2022. Silken Veil. C/O Mareike Steffens. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel (DE).
2021. Visitors. arenas&antikainen. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel, Germany (DE).
2021. EPILOGUE. Deborah Smith-Wicke. Halle 2. Kassel (DE).
2021. Could you stay for tea?. Aura Antikainen. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel (DE).
2021. Body of land. TANZWERKE '21. Aura Antikainen. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel (DE).
2021. Protrahere. Deborah Smith-Wicke. Halle 2. Kassel (DE).
2020. Rock, water, spell. C/O Mareike Steffens. Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel (DE).
2019. Choreografische Werkstatt, Staatstheater. Kassel (DE).
2025. SILENCE – A Multilingual Performance. Post Theater Collective Studio. Helsinki, (FI)
2025. Amalgam Melee. Marika Peura. Zodiak Center of New Dance. Helsinki, (FI)
2025. Side Step Festival. Zodiak Center of New Dance. Helsinki, (FI)
2022. tonwerkstatt kassel. anverso. Kassel (DE).
2022. Pilotenkueche. anverso. Moving surreal curiosity. Leipzig (DE).
2022. 4bid Gallery. anverso. Amsterdam (NL).
2022. CreativQuartier Fürst Leopold. anverso. Dorsten (DE).
Video Art
2022. Tanzhaus Temporär Nº1. Bergpark. Kassel (DE).
2022. LAKE Studios Berlin. ON DISPLAY Screening. Berlin (DE).
2022. Staatstheater Kassel. Queeres Kurzfilmkino im TiF. Kassel (DE).
2020. United Cowboys. Seasoning Summer. Eindhoven (NT).
2019. NB Film Festival. Puebla, Mexico and Texas (US).
2019. VideoSkin Festival. Ontario (CA).
2019. SzoloDuo Festival. Ork_Kota_Platform. Budapest (HU).
©Iria Arenas 2024
How can performance operate as a form of infrastructural critique?
This intervention series develped as part of my thesis research explore the idea that bodies can function as infrastructural operators. If infrastructures are constituted through patterns of movement and relation, then performative practices can intervene in those patterns and open space for alternative ways of being together.
By occupying space differently, these interventions created a temporary disruption in the social choreography of the university, inviting reflection on the often invisible structures that shape how we move, gather, work, and relate to one another.
Performance: Iria Arenas, Aura Antikainen
Photos: Liivia Pallas
Olympia is a solo performance that reimagines Édouard Manet's iconic painting, "Olympia," in a contemporary context. Drawing inspiration from Professor David J. Getsy's essay, "How to Teach Manet's Olympia after Transgender Studies," this multidisciplinary work combines dance, visual art, and personal storytelling to challenge and reframe perceptions of gender identity and body image in Western art history. The performance invites audiences to reconsider their views on the human body and identity. Just as Manet's "Olympia" provoked thought in the 19th century, this performance aims to question and transform contemporary social norms.
Credits
Concept, Performance & Lighting Design: Iria Arenas
Choreography & Co-Creation: Aura Antikainen
Funding
2023. Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR. With the kind support of the Kulturamt der Stadt Kassel.
2024. Funded by the European Union and the Goethe-Institut.
Performance
June 2024. Sonnenstein Loft. Linz, AT
May 2024. Hällä-näyttämö. Tanssivirtaa Tampereella. Tampere, FI
April 2023. Studiobühne, Kulturhaus Dock 4. Kassel, DE
* The performance was previously showcased under the title "check your body at the door".
anverso - a moving installation rethinks a new way of perceiving the corporeality of the body when being displayed and offers a new perspective on the concepts of nudity and nakedness in performance art in a strongly sexualised Western cultural tradition. In this installation the artists make themselves blank canvases, blurring the line between fine and performance arts; art work and artist; or between object and subject.
This project is a re-adaptation of the stage work anverso that the artist Iria Arenas presented in 2018 during a year-long artist residency in Kassel. anverso has been shown in different festivals as a live performance and videoart around Europe, North and South America. In 2022, thanks to the support of NPN - STEPPING OUT and Kulturamt Kassel, this project was shown in alternative art spaces around Europe by means of an art installation. A collection of photography, video, sound, and other artistic materials gathered during the creative process over the last four years were exhibited in the space along with the live bodies of the artists.
Credits
Direction: Iria Arenas
Performance: Velia Malika Hahnemann, Paula Moré, Angela Reimuth
Artistic Team: Aura Antikainen, Hannah Elsner, Bettina Helmrich, Rosalie Kubny
Project Documentation: Karl-Heinz Mierke, Manuel Domes
Funding
2022. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK - STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance. With the kind support of the Kulturamt der Stadt Kassel.
Installation
April-May 2022. Violett Kunstgalerie. Body Tales. Kassel (DE)
May 2022. tonwerkstatt kassel. Kassel (DE)
May 2022. Pilotenkueche. Moving surreal curiosity. Leipzig (DE)
June 2022. 4bid Gallery. Amsterdam (NL)
June 2022. CreativQuartier Fürst Leopold. Dorsten (DE).
In February 2022 Iria Arenas was one of the four artists who received a grant from LAKE Studios Berlin for the ON DISPLAY programme. During a month-long artistic residency, and thanks to a team of professional videographers, anverso was readapted for the camera and remade into a short film.
Credits
Directed by: Iria Arenas
Performance: Paula Moré, Elizaveta Poliakova, Angela Reimuth
Film: Quiet City Films
Light Design: Elliot Blue
Music: Julia Kent
Sound Effects: Aura Antikainen
Edition: Iria Arenas
Produced by LAKE Studios Berlin
ON DISPLAY Residency
Funding
2022. Unterstützt durch das NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ - STEPPING OUT, gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen der Initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Hilfsprogramm Tanz.
Screening
December 2023. Festival Antigone. Centre Culturel d'Uccle. Brussels (BE)
September 2022. Tanzhaus Temporär Nº1. Berpark. Kassel (DE)
May 2022. LAKE Studios Berlin. ON DISPLAY Screening. Berlin (DE)
May 2022. TiF - Staatstheater Kassel. Queeres Kurzfilmkino. Kassel (DE)
a performance project that understands the body as a form. It offers a new perspective on the perception of the naked human figure and questions ideas and prejudices about nudity in capitalist societies, going beyond its mere sexualisation.
Credits
Concept & Choreography: Iria Arenas
Cast: Velia Malika Hahnemann, Paula Moré, Dalia Rocio Velandia, Angela Reimuth
Lighting Design: Iria Arenas
Photo Credits: Karl-Heinz Mierke
2021. Supported by the Goethe-Institut's Promoting Young Performing Artists Fund
Performance/Screening
2021. Gothenburg Fringe Festival (SE) - Live performance
2021. Stockholm Fringe Festival (SE) - Live performance
2020. United Cowboys. Seasoning Summer. Eindhoven (NL) - Film
2019. NB Film Festival. Puebla (MX) and Texas (US) - Film
2019. OOPS Festival, Brighton (UK) - Live performance
2019. SzoloDuo International Dance Festival, Budapest (HU) - Film
2018. VIDEOSKiN Festival, Yukon (CA) - Film
2018. Randfilmfest, Kassel (DE) - Live performance
2018. The Dancer-Citizen Live, Hamburg (DE) - Film
2018. SOZO Vim. PRESTIVAL. Kassel (DE) - Live performance
What started in the previous production of Arenas & Antikainen body of land, in the frame of the Tanz*werke '21 short piece edition festival, continues now in visitors.
It was supposed to be a simple investigation of kinetic poetry, and it still is, but it is as well, a love song from and for the human hood.
Credits
Concept, Artistic direction & Sound Design: Aura Antikainen
Co-creation & Performance: Rosalie Kubny
Light design, Project Management & Performance: Iria Arenas
Visitors: Brian Liu, Amanda Marin, Vanessa Pechthold
Documentation & Post-production: Manuel Domes
Special thanks to: Sarantoula Sarantaki, Kulturhaus Dock 4 and tanz*werk kassel
Funding
The project is funded by the Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, with the kind support of Kulturamt Kassel.
Performance
2021. Kulturhaus dock4. Kassel (DE)
Encountering for the first and for the 1000th time. It is not at all conventional, but at the same time arriving home.“We play the major or the minor”, we go under the water, we come back.
Frames, which tell something about the already lived life. Frames about the upcoming
longing and about the particles of love rinsed into the cells like the sand on the beach.
The moment after is shared, collected and done together, yet it will be a different past,
story, experience and future after for everyone from any perspective.
Credits
Concept and Artistic direction: Aura Antikainen
Dance & Performance: Rosalie Kubny, Sarantoula Sarantaki
Artistic Support, Light Design and Project Management: Iria Arenas
Music: Antti Heiskala
Photo Credits: Hannah Elsner & Karl-Heinz Mierke
Performance
2021. Tanz*werke '21 - online festival. Kulturhaus dock4. Kassel (DE)