I discuss the topic Costumes that made Oblivia from a privileged dual position: both as a researcher, in the frame of my ongoing post-doctoral research project funded by the Kone Foundation (“Esityspuvut tiedontuottajina: pukuvalinnat ja taiteellinen ajattelu 2000-luvulla Oblivia-ryhmän työn kautta tarkasteltuna/Costume choices and knowledge production in the early twenty-first century, case study performance group Oblivia”), and as a contributing member of Oblivia, namely as the group’s collaborating costume designer since Annika Does Swan Lake in 2015. This blog post is based on my presentation held on 10 December 2025 as part of Oblivia’s 25-year jubilee event series, in conjunction with the Reality Bang performances at Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki, 9–14 December.
As part of my research, I began studying the costumes that made Oblivia by watching video documentations of Oblivia’s past performances. My initial aim was to analyze all productions from Oblivia’s beginnings until when I started to work with the group, that is from 2000 to 2014. However, the material proved rich and dense, and it started to ‘speak’ to me well before I reached the productions of the 2010s. In what follows, I focus on the period from 2000 to 2007, which I argue is formative for understanding the costumes that made Oblivia. Three of these early works are also revisited in Oblivia’s promenade performance En tidsresa (2025): Att tänka på flygning, Abborrens dilemma and What Where.
Twelve first productions, 2000–2007
From 2000 to 2007, Oblivia created twelve productions. From a costume perspective, these early years constitute a period of intense experimentation, moving fluidly from one artistic study to the next. This exploratory pattern is most prominent in the first five performances, created between 2000 and 2001.
The multidisciplinary concept for Att tänka på flygning (2000) brought together seven artists from various backgrounds – music, dance, video – at the Tram Museum in Helsinki. My impressions of the performance are shaped by the few remaining photographs in Oblivia’s archives, most notably an image of a performer seated and reading a newspaper, dressed in an overcoat, a hat and Groucho Marx-style fake glasses with attached nose and eyebrows. Etcetera (2000), performed at the Helsinki Art Museum’s William Blake exhibition, is visually marked by golden costumes, five of them hand-sewn by fine artist Johanna Kiivaskoski. One of these golden overalls has survived – in 2024, it was relocated to the costume stock of Cefisto, the Central Association of Swedish-speaking Theatre Organisations in Finland – and appears in the Reality Bang promotional photographs (2024, photos by Saara Autere, costume design by me).
Abborrens dilemma (2000) is a dadaistic experimentation performed outdoors at the Winter Garden in Helsinki. One performer appears in white painted leotards, while two are dressed in white full-length dresses and another in a tunic. The latter three wear large papier-maché balls on their heads, with cartoonish faces painted on the egg-like forms in black ink. Inte ens Tjechov var där (2000) presents a period drama à la Oblivia, based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters, combining formal suits and office-style dress with period costumes, hats, and a tunic from Abborrens dilemma, worn with a pair of woollen socks. You Can Call Me Art (2001) marks the group’s first performance indoors with a conventional division between stage and a seated audience. The performers Annika, Anna, and Timo wear casual contemporary clothing that effectively reinforces the production’s setting in an imaginary advertising bureau.
Viewed through the costume lens, the following six performances from 2002 to 2006 mix and refine the ideas, items, and elements from the earlier productions. At the core of all the costumes from these years is the consistent use of everyday dress: casual, as in What Where (2002), The Room (2003), Annika’s solo Me – A Caption (2005), and We’ll Never Let You Go (2006); and semi-formal, as in Dogs (2003) and Bodies Are No Good (2005). By casual clothing as costume I mean the use of plain jeans, trousers, and jogging bottoms, discreet accessories such as belts, caps, summer hats, shoes, as well as cotton jersey tops, knitwear, tunics, among others – a range of mid-price clothing of no particular brand or fashion, recycled or new, worn in ways that do not challenge one’s everyday experience of contemporary dress in that era. By semi-formal I refer to looks created from items such as two-piece suits, dark formal trousers, collared and dress shirts, knee-length skirts and dresses indicating quality materials and slightly conservative cuts, and leather lace-up shoes for men or modest heels for women.
Remarks on the developing style
In each of the above-mentioned performances, the look created with ordinary clothing is tweaked or disrupted with dramaturgical shifts through costume. Tools for these shifts include highlighting any costume changes – playing with coats in What Where (2002) or with shoes in Me – A Caption (2005), or performing dressing in The Room (2003) – as well as using props and unconventional accessories, as in We’ll Never Let You Go (2006) and Bodies Are No Good (2005). Visually distinctive and memorable costume elements that made Oblivia during this period, including the playful accessories, include repeated items from the earliest performances: the Groucho Marx glasses, the papier-maché egg heads, and selected garment types such as jackets and overcoats. The 2007 premiere Everything You Say Will Become Dust Anyway marks the conclusion of this period. It does so by displaying both the crystallization of the everyday clothing as a core costume aesthetic and the absence of costume changes, props, or conspicuous accessories, as a step to the new.
As my research suggests, the rationale behind Oblivia’s artistic experimentations characterising this period in general, and in the very first performances in particular, lies in founding member Annika’s ambition to map and test the genre of performance in various ways, as well as in her overall aesthetic vision for performance. Both are shaped by her detailed understanding of past and present European, North American, and even avant-garde Russian performance styles, combined with an independent art-maker’s do-it-yourself attitude. Further layers to the experimentation were added by team members and visiting artists. Fine artist Johanna Kiivaskoski’s contribution was prominent in 2000. Performer Anna’s input from the second half of the year 2000 onwards blended in her passion for the twentieth-century black and white cinema and film musical of the West, as well as clothing styles and fashion seen in those films. In addition, Annika names Oblivia’s then graphic designer, photographer Pia Pettersson’s input for the production Dogs (2003), together with author, critic, and Oblivia’s then-performer Stella Parland.
My study of these early works suggests that the costumes that made Oblivia have developed across three periods in total. The first period, during which Oblivia’s style takes shape from 2000 to 2007, has been the focus here. The second phase from 2008 to 2014 is the core period of Oblivia’s minimalist style with everyday garments as costumes, as exemplified by the Entertainment Island trilogy (2008–2010). The third period, spanning 2014 onward, builds on the group’s signature costume style, minimalist and other, established during the earlier periods. I will address these later periods in my upcoming research.
This first analysis suggests that at the core of these periods are decisions that are artistically, historically, and conceptually well-informed, and they emerge from the group’s collective working process. These decisions reflect an aesthetics of high quality, often on the tangible material level and fundamentally, on the underlying conceptual level. As such, the costumes that made Oblivia stand as powerful evidence of Oblivia’s strong artistic identity.
References and further reading
Helve, Tua. 2020. “Puvun muisti, pukusuunnittelijan muisti.” In Näyttämö ja tutkimus 8: Muisti, arkisto ja esitys, edited by T. Helve, O. Lahtinen, and M. Silde. Theatre Research Society, 16–43. https://journal.fi/teats/article/view/122535/72869
Isaac, Veronica. 2017. “Towards a new methodology for working with historic theatre costume: A biographical approach focussing on Ellen Terry’s ‘Beetlewing Dress.’” Studies in Costume & Performance 2 (2): 115–35. https://doi.org/10.1386/scp.2.2.115_1
von Rosen, Astrid. 2020. “Costume in the dance archive: Towards a records-centred ethics of care.” Studies in Costume & Performance 5 (1): 33–52. https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00012_1
Silde, Marja. 2020. “Esiintyjäpersoona. Populäärin jälkiä 2000-luvun teatterinäyttämöllä.” In Näyttämö ja tutkimus 8. Muisti, arkisto ja esitys, edited by T. Helve, O. Lahtinen, and M. Silde. Theatre Research Society, 230–60. https://journal.fi/teats/article/view/122813/7311
Tudeer, Annika, ed. 2010. Att vara cool i barer. 10 år med Oblivia. Helsinki: Oblivia.
Tudeer, Annika. 2025a. Personal interview with the author. June 18, Salzburg.
Tudeer, Annika. 2025b. Personal telephone interview with the author. June 27.
Tudeer, Annika. 2020. “Oblivia blog: Writings: About roots and influences.” April 14. https://oblivia.fi/about-roots-and-influences/
