The performing arts group behind the work Swedish Asshole in residence at Davvi – Senter for scenekunst

Actor Antonia Atarah, dancers Johanna Karlberg and Alen Nsambu as well as sound designer and musician Nicolas “Leissi” Rehn were chosen as artists-in-residence at Davvi – Center for Performing Arts in Hammerfest. The residency period was three weeks in September 2025.

During their stay, the group worked on Swedish Asshole, a performing arts piece that addresses and deciphers Finnish-Swedish logics and social codes. The work playfully engages with the Finnish-Swedish admiration for Swedish culture while simultaneously creating distance from it. Swedish Asshole will premiere at Teater Viirus in Helsinki as part of the Viirus Guest program in early 2026.

The working group was selected for the residency through an open call in autumn 2024. This was the third year in a row that Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts, The Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, and The Swedish Cultural Foundation offered a residency opportunity that focuses on giving space to minority languages ​​on the theatre stage.

“Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts appreciates being part of the Nordic collaboration within the performing arts. This year’s residency focuses on belonging as a minority in a country. This is an issue that is very central in the northern part of Norway. Here, the Sámi and Kven population has suffered from Norwegianisation and oppression for many decades. Davvi – Center for Performing Arts greatly appreciates that the focus in art is on belonging as a theme”, says acting director Ellen-Kathrine Mathisen.

“We are pleased that the institute has established a long-term performing arts residency with Davvi – Center for Performing Arts and The Swedish Cultural Foundation. The collaboration offers international work opportunities for several performing arts groups, strengthens the artists’ networks abroad and provides time and space for the performing artists’ artistic processes,” says Director Pauliina Gauffin at The Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute.

“The Swedish Cultural Foundation currently funds several residencies in Finland and abroad. Davvi – Senter for scenekunst was the first Nordic residency collaboration and also the first one within performing arts that began in the fall of 2023. Thanks to The Swedish Cultural Foundation’s special fund – Thelma and Lise Standertskjöld Fund – the collaboration was made possible. For the fall of 2025, the actors in the performing arts group behind the project Swedish Asshole were chosen as artists in residence,” says Åsa Rosenberg, responsible residency advisor at The Swedish Cultural Foundation.

About the artists in residency

Antonia Atarah 
(b. 1996, she/her) is a Ghanaian-Finnish actor and performer with a Master’s degree from the Uniarts Theatre Academy acting program, along with additional musical theatre studies. Aside from her debuting and praised leading role in Ronja the Robber’s Daughter at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, Atarah has curiously varied between different performing art forms, practices and groups in Finland, Germany, Ghana and Tanzania. Atarah believes in collective work and aims to broaden the perception and task of “the actor” by finding diversity within that role.

Johanna Karlberg 
(b. 1993, she/her) is a Swedish-speaking Finn dance artist based in Helsinki. Karlberg graduated from the Master programme in Dance Performance from Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts in Helsinki in 2022. She is a founding member of Biothe art collective Lesbo Erotics. During 2025-2026 Karlberg works on an erotic lesbian DIY musical trilogy funded by the Kone foundation. Her work in general deals with social structures, identity and with how to stay open to the possibility of multiple realities and narratives simultaneously.

Alen Nsambu 
(b. 1998, he/they) is Finnish-Angolan choreographer and performer based in Helsinki. In 2022 they graduated from Den Danske Scenekunstskolen (DK) with a BFA degree in dance and choreography. Artistically Nsambu is busy with questions related to identity, the complexity of normal/neutral/natural, autofiction and joy (on and off stage). Using a diverse array of performative registers and representations through interdisciplinary practices is in the core of their work.

Nicolas “Leissi” Rehn
Nicolas “Leissi” Rehn (he/him) is a Finnish-Swedish sound designer and musician who has a long career in the music and performing arts. Rehn was part of the Finnish artist Yona’s band in the years 2011-2020 and has worked as a sound designer with e.g. director Aune Kallinen, Minna Harjuniemi and Elina Pirinen. Rehn has won the prestigious Teosto prize in 2019 for Color Dolor’s album Love.