Trans*Creative interview series consists of nine interviews with trans and non-binary artists and cultural producers living in Finland. The longer versions of the video interviews can be listened to as podcast episodes.

The interviews were published in two clusters: the first in February 2023 and the second in 2025. Filmed and recorded during 2022–2023, the interviews were designed and conducted by Lotta Kähkönen, Jamie MacDonald, and Wibke Straube. Filming, sound recording, and editing are by Mira Eskelinen. The signature tune is composed by Kuutti Kiperä.

ENNI KALILAINEN#ENNI KALILAINEN

Enni Kalilainen is a visual artist, art instructor, and queer- and trans activist. Central themes in her artworks are queer identity, the formation of self, empowerment, love, and encountering. Her sculptors have been exhibited, for example, in WAM: Turku City Art Museum’s group exhibition (Spectrum, 2021), B Gallery’s group exhibition (Trans Take Over, 2021), and in Loukko Gallery’s solo exhibition (I did this for you, 2021). The works included in the Spectrum exhibition are presented in a video here (opens in a new tab). Kalilainen is also a skateboarder, an association activist, and one of the founders of Siblings Helsinki (opens in a new tab), a skateboarding community for LGBTQ+ people, which focuses on community building and empowering gender and sexual minorities in skateboarding. She has competed in skateboarding at home and abroad and developed a more equal and inclusive Finnish skateboarding culture, participating in this discussion as an openly trans person.

Listen to the entire interview as a podcast episode here (opens in a new tab).

KAURI SORVARI#KAURI SORVARI

Kauri Sorvari is a professional performer (opens in a new tab), who has wide-ranging experience in the fields of contemporary dance, dance film, theatre, music theatre, community arts, and participatory performance art. He also has experience in teaching, facilitating workshops, and choreographic work. Sorvari’s work draws from versatile education in vocal training, dance, improvisation, and movement and practice that utilizes the perception of one’s own body. They work in the free field of dance and theatre, and they have performed among other things in the musical The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Helsinki City Theatre), and A Short Episode in the Universal History of the Mushroom Civilization (Espoo City Theatre – The International Theatre of Finland). Together with Vilma Tihilä, he's working on a dance film trilogy that delves into multiple identities of self.

Listen to the entire interview as a podcast episode here (opens in a new tab).

ELEANOR SAITTA#ELEANOR SAITTA

Eleanor Saitta is a painter, photographer, larper, and cultural producer. She also makes a vocation of understanding how complex systems and stories operate, redesigning them to work better. She lives at The Attic, which works as a venue for queer performance art, comedy, music, activism, etc. Saitta is a co-producer of The Attic Underground (opens in a new tab) variety show, which offers a space for queer performance art and discussions between queer artists. The goal is to create room for acts that are personal, experimental, or push the boundaries in ways that don’t fit in commercial venues.

Listen to the entire interview as a podcast episode here (opens in a new tab).

H-P LEHKONEN#H-P LEHKONEN

H-P Lehkonen is an international comics artist and climate activist. He also studies social sciences, is actively involved in the Finnish Comics Society, gives guest lectures on how to draw comics, and creates custom info-comics. In his comics art Lehkonen focuses on climate issues, sustainable and eco-friendly ways of life, recycling, and queer life. His comics have been published in Finnish, English, Swedish, and French. Lehkonen’s comics can be found on his website (opens in a new tab) or through Patreon membership (opens in a new tab).

Listen to the entire interview as a podcast episode here (opens in a new tab).

MIRA ESKELINEN#MIRA ESKELINEN

Mira Aurelia Eskelinen is a performer, writer, and cultural producer. In her work, she aims to dismantle and expand queer- and trans narratives and carnivalize the absurd notions of gender in society. Her work as a cultural producer (opens in a new tab) focuses on creating temporary communities and building platforms for marginalized queer and trans artists to showcase their art. As a live artist, she has created performances that combine drag, dance, rap, spoken word, and burlesque. Her first novel Aavistus (opens in a new tab)was published in May 2023.

Listen to the entire interview as a podcast episode here (opens in a new tab).

UNNE NIRHAMO#UNNE NIRHAMO

Unne Nirhamo is an interdisciplinary artist focusing on poetry, visual, and performing arts. They have worked with poetry and culture for over a decade in various associations, festivals, and events, both as a producer, presenter, and performer. Their latest work includes the "Poets for Palestine" solidarity event, serving the role of chair at Turku poetry week, and acting as artistic director of Finland's first queer poetry festival, "Loud words and verdant resistance 2023". Nirhamo's debut book Bebete (Esterin Kirjat) was a finalist candidate in the "Most Beautiful Book of the Year 2022" competition. During 2024, Unne has worked on their second book "ENTER INTER", which dives into the world of moss, lichen, birds, bugs, and trans creatures intertwined with queer ecologies.

SHIA CONLON#SHIA CONLON

Shia Conlon is an Irish artist living in Helsinki, Finland. His current research is focused on non-linear time and how to use the power of archives, language, and memory as tools for queer representation. He likes hanging out with dogs, being in the cinema and the smell of oolong. He is tired of artist statements and exhibition openings. He is 1/3 of Almanac Press (opens in a new tab), a trans-ran and centered mutual aid initiative and co-founder of Trans Library (opens in a new tab) Helsinki.

TEO ALA-RUONA#TEO ALA-RUONA

Teo Ala-Ruona is an internationally active performance artist from Helsinki. His practice focuses on speculative somatic fiction. His work deals with the intertwining of gender, sexuality, and environmental toxins, as well as the psychosomatic effects of language. He often uses his own body as the setting for speculative stories, experimenting with how through fiction he can change himself and the way others perceive his body.

Ala-Ruona's work (opens in a new tab) has been shown at the Performa Biennial in New York, the Vilnius Biennial of Performing Arts, the Kiasma Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art, The Place Theatre in London, the Baltic Circle Festival in Helsinki, and the Sequences Festival in Iceland.

RITNI RÁSTE PIESKI#RITNI RÁSTE PIESKI

Máret Ásllat Ivvár Ovllá Nilla Ritni Ráste, Ritni Ráste Pieski (he/they) is a Deanu river Sámi storyteller, choreographer, dancer, performer, and drag artist. Decoloniality, collectivity, radical dreaming, utopias, drag, joy, playfulness, queering and humour are important to his artistic work. Pieski’s recent works include: "common moves" project with Sonya Lindfors, Eana diehtá – a short film about queer joy, decoloniality and the power of community, "this is an invitation", a performance with Alen Nsambu at Amos Rex that critiques Western museum ethics, the radical decolonial queer utopia and performative gathering Girjái, and the collaboration with Maryan Abdulkarim and Sonya Lindfors in the radical decolonial dreaming We Should All Be Dreaming. He has also been particularly active in queer Sámi issues, as the main organizer of Sápmi Pride in 2021 and as one the faces of the Helsinki Pride campaign in 2023.

Pieski (opens in a new tab) graduated with a bachelor’s in dance in spring 2023. He was doing student exchange at HZT – Dance, Context and Choreography -programme in 2021-2022. In drag, he is known as Ritni Tears (opens in a new tab) and as a band member of fuckboizband Hot Compost.