Maria Metsalu / "A performance for Karim"

In dialogue with the exhibition and drawing inspiration from the diverse bodies depicted in Karim Boumjimar’s wall paintings, Maria Metsalu explores the body as an entity in constant transformation. Through choreography, performance, visuality, and sound, Metsalu works both physically and conceptually with her own body in the tension between the raw and the staged, the organic and the synthetic, the vulnerable and the controlled. For Metsalu, the body is more than the result of a biological process; it is a site of lived experiences and a focal point for social, political, and technological questions. Both the performance and the exhibition establish a space where meaning is not fixed but negotiated and continually shifting. 

During the performance, BODIES UNDER CONSTRUCTION is temporarily activated as a stage. Boumjimar’s works do not merely form a backdrop but become participants in a live, embodied exploration of the human being as one organism among many. 

Maria Metsalu (b. 1990) is a choreographer and performer based between Tallinn and Berlin. She works with self-staging and self-mythologizing and explores the relations between visual culture, identity, appropriation, and voyeurism. Metsalu regards performance as a radical space that can open new ways of seeing. 

Metsalu graduated from SNDO (School for New Dance Development) in Amsterdam in 2016 and is a co-founder of the international performance group Young Boy Dancing Group, which has performed at the Venice Biennale, Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen, and Roskilde Festival. Her work has, among other places, been shown at Manifesta 11, Kunsthalle Vienna, Tallinn Art Hall, NU Performance Festival, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, and during Performa 17 in New York. 

Practical information:

The performance has a duration of approximately 30 minutes and is experienced standing. Refreshments will be available for purchase before and after the performance. Please note that the exhibition will be adapted for the performance and therefore cannot be experienced in its entirety during the event.

_{Photo: Maria Metsalu “Permanent Resident” (2026) 
(C) National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design. Ina Wesenberg}