cinema • theatre • performer • virtual scenography
Sakari Laurila (he/him) is a film and theatre maker, and interdisciplinary artist. His own film and theatre projects exists at the confluence of critical theory, psychoanalysis, and performative arts. With an M.A. in Film from West London University (2008), he creates work that challenges conventional boundaries between academic discourse and artistic expression.
His creative practice is informed by psychoanalytical theory on the logic of desire and its manifestations in contemporary social dynamics. Among writers and performers, using creative writing and theatre practices he aims at discovering how unconscious drives, as well as social and material relations, shape human behavior and social structures, his aim is to recognise underlying mechanisms that govern interpersonal relationships.
As a musician and performer he has collaborated with choreographer Lia Haraki on several theatre works including Sexy Yuppies and Death by Karaoke—performances that employed the body as text in contexts of crumbing fantasies, to examine how desire circulates within and between subjects. These productions used research based methodologies and aimed to discover how language mediates desire and constructs subjectivity.
His collaborations as a writer and performer with the SRSLYours theatre company, notably in Man on the Roof, further explored these themes through a lens combining history of critical theory to history of performing arts, from ancient drama to Chekhov. These works have been recognised for their sophisticated integration of theoretical concepts with accessible and popular theatrical forms.
In the realm of cinema, he has developed a distinctive approach to documentary and narrative filmmaking on contemporary political topics that draws on critical film theory. His current film projects—including two fiction features and a documentary examining democratic processes in Europe—utilise research based material with cinematic language combined to experimental narrative building.
Since 2018, he has maintained a significant collaborative writing collaboration with philosopher Niklas Toivakainen, producing a body of work that bridges philosophical inquiry and artistic practice. This partnership has generated experimental performances, critical writings, and public dialogues that expand the boundaries of how theoretical concepts and critique can be embodied and experienced through performing art. Their current project is You Called? -an experimental theatre process, based on Kafka’s Trial.
He also makes virtual scenography projects for theatre and music live shows, designing immersive experiences through new ways of using video and manual art forms and immersive sound design.
As artistic director of an ecological art residency and initiative in the mountains of Cyprus (residency.armascreative.fi), he facilitates space to explore the intersections of ecology, other-than-human realities and new forms of possible future ways of living and making art on an ecologically sustainable basis.