Inkeri Kurkilahti
(b. 1993)
Artist, performer and musician working with butoh, performance art and contemporary folk music, with a focus on Karelian heritage, ritual practices and embodied ecology.
Training, mentorship, residencies & programs (selected)
- The New Symposium — online residency program and mentorship for artistic research in music, .abeceda Institute (November 2025 onwards)
- Dance Medium workshop — Seisaku & Yuri Nagaoka, 24h intensive (2025)
- Butoh foundations — Tashi Iwaoka, weekly classes (50h+, 2024–)
- Mentorship — Aino Lehtovaara, sound design (2022)
- Mentorship — Gabriela Ariana, traditional healing practices & ancestral rituals (2018–2021)
- Trance dance practice — Gabriela Ariana, ~50h (2019)
- Butoh advanced — Ken Mai, 27h intensive (2018)
- Butoh foundations — Ken Mai, 27h intensive (2017)
- Butoh laboratory — Osku Leinonen, 50h intensive (2017)
- Additional workshops in butoh, ancestral practices, Karelian culture & language, somatic practices, contact improvisation, Playback Theatre, musical improvisation, composition, folk music & traditions
Performances & Artistic Work (selected)
2025
- Kekritär — Butoh performance at Turku Univerity Botanical Garden
- Venusmusic Choir — vocal performance directed by Mareike Dobewall, ABOAGORA Symposium
- The Rivers Chasing Us — performance by Gaëtan Rusquet, New Performance Turku Biennale
- Biochar Witchcraft / Biohiilinoituus — environmental art & participatory performance, Koroisten Kyläjuhlat
- Biochar Witchcraft / Biohiilinoituus — environmental art & participatory performance, Parantava puutarha / Alkuvoima
- The Onion Eater — performance, SATO Ritual Arts Gathering
- The Ancestral Tree — butoh performance, KOKKO Ritual Arts Gathering
2024
- Tulevat elävät meissä / The Living to Come Within Us — participatory performance, Olohuone306 Urban Art Festival
- Ahmaliina — performance, Ritual of Ö
2023
- Kekri Ritual — participatory performance, Rauhanlinna
2022
- Karjalaine Iäni — short film by Anne Kalliola & working group (composer, singer)
- Sodan Kuvaus (traditional runosong / Ika Anni) — composer & performer
- Ikävän maa — theatre production by Vilja Lehtonen & Sara Koiranen (composer, assistant sound designer, mentorship with Aino Lehtovaara)
- Untitled — butoh performance, Mustionkatu midsummer gathering
- Kekritär — butoh performance, Morbacka
2019
- Tuonenmarja — butoh solo, Turku Night of the Arts (2019)
2017
- Diurnal Animal / Päiväeläin — butoh performance by Osku Leinonen & MO-Teatteri, Galleria Rajatila
- Keko — butoh performance by Osku Leinonen & MO-Teatteri, Taidetila Pelto
Music (selected)
As singer, songwriter & composer
- Inkeri Syväinkerä — solo singer-songwriter, contemporary folk (2022–)
- Karjalaine Iäni — runo singing for a short film (2022)
- Ikävän maa — composer & assistant sound designer (2022)
- Käärmikkä — vocals, flute, traditional wind instruments (2019–2021)
- Piispa Henrikin Surmavirsi — vocals, traditional wind instruments (2018–2019)
- Nikola Sakko — singer-songwriter and translation project with performances on anarchist working-class folk songs (2015–2017), related to the publication of Anarkistisia työväenlauluja / Anarchist Working-Class Folk Songs (Kolera Kustannus, 2016)
As musician
- Bhajan Ensemble — devotional music, vocals & flute (2017–2021)
- Juudas Iskariotin Suudelma — Progressive World Music, flute (2018–2020)
- Sheliak — world music, flute (2017–2020)
Selected concerts
- Inkeri Syväinkerä — Alkufest (2024)
- Käärmikkä — Kekrijuhla, Tehdas108 (2021)
- Käärmikkä — Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (2021)
- Käärmikkä — Turku Cathedral (2020)
Publications & Exhibitions
- Group exhibition, Galleria Alkuvoima (2022)
- EP: Käärmikkä – Suvet Ulvoot suon perällä (Art Safari Records, 2021)
- Songbook: Anarkistisia työväenlauluja / Anarchist Working-Class Folk Songs (Kolera Kustannus, 2016)
Inkeri Kurkilahti 