HIKI

HIKI is the latest creation by the MAD COLLECTIVE, following on from Mad in Finland. After exploring representations of femininity through an overflowing collective energy, the artists now turn their attention to the intimate: the body, its transformations, its contradictions, and its power.

In Finnish, “hiki” means “sweat.” It is from this universal yet taboo subject that the performance takes shape. Inspired by the sauna culture deeply rooted in the Nordic countries, the production immerses us in a space where bodies reveal themselves, relax, and coexist in a form of shared silence—a place of transformation, transition, and freedom.
In the sauna, sweat is welcomed as a source of well-being and purification. But outside that space, it often becomes a source of embarrassment, particularly when it comes to the female body. HIKI tackles this paradox with humor, tenderness, and irreverence.
Through circus arts, acrobatics, and physical theater, four women challenge the norms that shape how we view bodies: femininity, desire, aging, cleanliness, and performance. They reveal what is usually hidden and celebrate sweat as an expression of life, an act of empowerment, and a form of resistance.

Somewhere between ritual, performance, and a celebration of the body, HIKI invites us to sweat together, laugh at conventions, and fully embrace what makes us human.