HAPPYSUFFERING.FI // PERFORMANCE BY JOSEF KA // GALLERIA RANKKA // FINLAND // SPRING 2026
Finland is often presented as “the happiest country in the world.” Behind this image there is also silence, isolation, emotional suppression, and forms of suffering that often remain invisible.
In spring 2026, I was invited by Galleria Rankka to create a performance for the opening of the exhibition HAPPY SUFFERING.
This work was created together with the audience — through sound, presence, tension, and collective participation.
Special thanks: Aarno Rankka — invitation and support Petri Hytönen — video documentation Antti Ahonen — photo documentation All audience members who participated in the performance
International performance, visual and sound artist Josef Ka blends richly varied influences – everything from Butoh dance to cinematic theory – with her decades of nomadic world travel to create bold, highly personal site-specific art.
Josef Ka’s themes range from investigating the place of the human body in contemporary reality to exploring the inner body as a representative system of our human and post human kind.
Her artistic practice often actively invites the audience inside a sort of private reverie, making it is a deeply participatory one; she actively engages with both her audiences and with a wide diversity of other experimental artists.
In addition to her own work, Josef Ka curates a regular series of events and exhibitions at her Helsinki underground space – Sauna Gallery – and teaches classes on the theory and practice of performance art. She is also the inventor of the WORST THEATRE and her yogic training system, KA-YOGA.
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JOSEF KA 