Jonna Lehto
“Tails and Tailbones,” for which Jonna Lehto was awarded a CAF grant, is both a playful and serious performance project that journeys into the fierce discord and the distant peace between large carnivores and humans. Combining documentary and physical expression, the performance delves into the relationship between humans and wolves, the treatment of wolves, and all the emotional terrain where the wolf wanders in us.
In December 2024, the Council of Europe backed an EU proposal to downgrade the protection status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected.” Northern Europe is seeing and witnessing “wolf hate,” as the media reports more and more news about wolves and their visits to human habitats. There’s a growing debate, but not enough real dialogue—as it is characteristic of this digital era. Jonna sees performance as a possible forum for discussion “for thinking about where we want to take this world and what we want to become in this world, living side by side with other species.”
Jonna Lehto is a dance and theatre artist exploring kinship, communality, and the questions and meanings of communication and nearness with different beings. Over the years, Jonna has worked with interactivity and opening up new perspectives in different collaborative community and performing arts projects.
Photo of Jonna Lehto: Visa Knuuttila