Open the Water: an oratorio in three parts

27.07.2025 16:30 – 18:00

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Composed and performed by Chanelle Allesandre & Lotta Petronella

Doors at 4pm, performance at 4.30pm

Open the water: like a mouth , like a book , like a bottle , like the hands.

Part drone : part chime : part flower essence : part poemic. Open the water is, at its most foundational level, a conversation between friends–a glimpse into their secret language–a testament to Simone Weil’s assertion that “every separation is a link.” 

Though thousands of miles apart, Chanelle and Lotta were first introduced to one another years ago via the world of flower essences (which is a world of water, resonance, poetry, and translation). Since then, their friendship and collaborative relationship has expanded and deepened–it now includes experiments with sound, voice, poetics, divination, and secrets. Thus, three of Lotta’s original flower essences become the anchoring chapters of the three movements in this performance piece, which the two orators give voice to.

The piece also features a looping, ever-present, and rhythmic drone which Chanelle created while recording on the home organ located on the lower level of Sibelius Museum. Periodically, Lotta pierces through the atmosphere like birdsong, with a chime or a tuning fork. This becomes a signal to the listener and the performers–it is where an essence enters and the link (language) begins. 

An oratorio is a form of musical composition that features a kind of dramatic text or spoken narrative/story. The word itself is Italian, and loosely translates to “prayer room.” It is in the spirit of this etymology that we invite the audience to sit and be with us during the duration of the piece.

Some believe that the first language was sound, then touch, then poetry. Drone and chime, the touch of a drop of water, the conversation of poetry–always a story, being told, being shared, about the essence of things, rippling out past the horizon.

Mindy Stock generously offered sound production on Chanelle’s organ loop.

35mm photograph taken by Chanelle of Lotta holding her crystal ball last July in Ruissalo.

The event will be held at Sibelius Museum’s Atrium. In the case of rain or severe heat, the event will be moved to the concert hall.

Chanelle Allesandre is an artist in residence at Titanik Gallery during June and July 2025. She writes poetry and prose, composes experimental and atmospheric soundscapes, makes flower essences, takes 35mm photographs, and occasionally works as a monitrice. She has a diverse multidisciplinary background that includes working in the fields of herbalism, radio, education, curation, translation, divination, and performance. Collaboration is an integral part of her work and ethos, and Chanelle is devoted to fostering the filigree that is woven from the creative collaborations and risk-taking in her interdisciplinary community. She is currently living by the Quinnipiac river in the northeastern United States.

Website: www.chanelleallesandre.com
Instagram: chanelle.allesandre

Lotta Petronella

Lotta Petronella is a filmmaker, artist and curator based on the island of Ruissalo. She is a co-founder of CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago, and she has worked with and on islands for nearly two decades. Following up her internationally awarded film Själö – Island of Souls (2020), she currently leads the Själö Poeisis multidisciplinary collaborative research project on the island of Seili. Alongside her filmmaking practice, Lotta Petronella is a devoted medicine and flower essence maker and tarot scholar.  

Mindy Stock creates experimental pop music under the moniker Virusse, scratches poetry under lamplight, and holds space for others with her shamanic and herbal healing practice Sea Song Root. Currently dwelling in rural Maine, she is endlessly inspired by the places where elements meet, folk magic and fumbling her way through the dark with the heart and Spirit as compass.

https://seasongroot.com/
Instagram: sea_song_root