“...I feel like I arrived when I see a river.”

Translated excerpt from an audience members river memory in Kaukonen demo performance, August 2023

Uoma is a collaborative project featuring performance artist Maria Laitila, dance artist Henna-Maria Hanhineva, and costume designer Riikka Mäntymaa.

The working group is further enriched by cinematographers Jussi Virkkumaa and Lassi Karhulahti.

Sound artist and percussionist Tatu Rönkkö composed the music for the Aurajoki video and sound artist Hilla Väyrynen composed the music for Uoma, river Iijoki video.

Uoma is a series of dance performances exploring the human connection to rivers and the symbolic significance of these waterways. The performances take place along the banks of various rivers in Europe.

Uoma features site-specific dance performances involving two dancers and a costume designer, alongside video artworks filmed by cinematographers during the creative process. The project develops works in two distinct media side by side.

Throughout the creative journey, we engage with the public by building installations on the riverbanks to gather their river-related memories. The stories contributed by passers-by can become artistic material to the working group of Uoma.

So far we have created dance performances in Ounas river, at the Silence residency (2023) run by the artists' organisation Silence and in Aura River, where Uoma was part of the Manifesti Festival (2023). Our most recent artist residencies were in December 2025 and July 2026 at the KulttuuriKauppila Art Center in Ii. There, we filmed two dance videos against the scenery of winter and summer landscapes along the banks of the River Iijoki and in the riverbed. In July, as part of the Art Ii Biennial, we presented the video work filmed in winter, as well as live dance performances, to the public.