Lin Da

Artist, choreographer and performer Lin Da (aka Lin Martikainen) has graduated from the University of the Arts with a master’s degree from both the Academy of Fine Arts in 2023 and the Theater Academy in 2016. Before studying visual arts and choreography, Lin studied dance and performance at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) in Austria. Lin’s art invites you to be on the edge of intimacy, encounter and becoming visible. The form of the works is often a performance, but the proposed framework varies (e.g. audio performance, participative performance, solo performance, audio walk). In addition to temporally framed performances, Lin works with installation, sculptures, sound and video in gallery contexts.

In the early stages of her career, Lin’s works commented on the narrow representation of femininity dictated by the western cis male gaze and its manifestations in both popular culture and high culture. Since then, after Lin identified as transgender, their work has focused on examining queer and transrepresentation. Lin’s works play with the possibilities of the body and language, which can be seen in the choreographic installation Aukeama – Opening space (2023) and the dance piece Napapiiri – Navel Circle (2023) as a speculative treatment of the body and an invitation to corporeal imagination. Lin’s works are in the Saastamoinen foundation’s collection at the Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA).

Lin’s work has been presented in a variety of contexts, from public spaces to private apartments and dance short film screenings, and from a performance tent to a gallery and theater space, e.g. Mad House in Helsinki, Camerata hall at Musiikkitalo, Asbestos Art Space gallery, Stoa gallery, UrbanApa X Ateneum festival, Loikka dance film festival and Tanzfaktur’n Sommer Akademie festival in Cologne and NEU/NOW Online festival in Amsterdam.