Tuohitorvi workshop - A practical workshop in building birch bark instruments with Minna Hokka & aasj. A collaboration between lim collective & Vartiosaari Arthouse. 

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23 June 2025 10:30 - 17:30
Deadline for applications 13th June 2025.

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Vartiosaari Art House, Vartiosaari Island, Helsinki

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Open to professional artists (all disciplines welcome) working on the ecological/witchcraft/queering the ecological/decolonial land or other not mentioned but related artistic practices of the land. Persons with Karelian heritage are especially welcomed.


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The workshop is a hands-on learning space for professional artistic practitioners in building traditional Karelian herding instruments, such as birch bark trumpet (tuohitorvi) under the guidance of instrument builder Minna Hokka.Birch bark has historically shaped numerous forms of musical forest communication, enabling humans, animals, and spirits to connect through herding signals, predator-repelling sounds, gathering calls, and soothing melodies. Ritual use of loud horns—such as birch bark trumpets—typically took place just before the cattle were released into the forest pasture for the first time in spring. These sound tools are deeply embedded in Karelian knowledge traditions, and their living heritage was preserved in Karelia longer than elsewhere in Finland.
The sessions will include a short introduction to cultural context, technical construction, and the crafting of simple instruments, and explore playing techniques.

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10:30 Welcome by aasj and Minna Hokka
11:00 Collective introductions
11:30 Birch bark instrument building
13:00 BYO lunch
13:30 Birch bark instrument building
16:00 Music playing
17:00 Round off
17:30 Goodbyes

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The workshop is organised in collaboration between the danish/karelian artist aasj and instrument builder Minna Hokka.
The workshop is organised by danish-karelian artist aasj (alex/alexandra sofie jönsson), who work with open source sound, image and building projects to explore how to restore connections to the more than human. Most recently, they have produced a series of video and sound pieces on water as a form of care “blue synnyt”, produced collectively with a group of ice-swimmers and their Karelian mum. They are currently visiting Finland to carry out research supported by the Nordic Culture Point, and are collaborating with Minna Hokka as a part of this. The workshop is kindly supported by Vartiosaari Art House and lím collective.

░M░i░n░n░a░ ░H░o░k░k░a░ is a Finnish instrument builder, musician, and multidisciplinary artist specializing in traditional pastoral wind instruments. Her practice combines instrument craft, performance, and education. She holds a degree in woodcraft design and has further qualifications in lament singing, adventure education, instrument making, and applied arts. Hokka began learning from a master rooted in Ingrian shepherd traditions in the 1990s and later reconstructed 120 ancient Finnish and Karelian pipes and horns featured in a doctoral dissertation. She has performed over 350 times and shared her skills across Finland, the USA, Sweden, Estonia, and Poland. https://minnahokka.com/in-english/minna-pipes-and-horns

░a░a░s░j░ (alex/alexandra sofie jönsson) is an artist exploring how artistic practices can be a site of new reperative relations to the environment and more than human. They work with a queer- and eco-critical perspective through video, sound and building projects and focus on making work that acts as open-source conceptual and emotional everyday tools. They hold an MA from Goldsmiths College and an artistic ph.d. from Westminster School of Arts. Since 2011, they have worked and exhibited internationally, including at Art Center Nabi (KOR), Tate Modern (UK), and Kuntshal Nord (DK). They have been the recipient of awards and grants from the Danish Arts Foundation for several years. https://aasj.info/

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