Mammalian Diving Reflex (CA): Haircuts by children

How would you react if you walked into a hairdressers and were greeted by a bunch of kids with scissors in their hands? Haircuts by Children by the Canadian group Mammalian Diving Reflex does exactly what it says: a team of children will be cutting hair. The performance really starts for the young hairdressers the week before the event when stylists from Style In Room salon teach 4th grade pupils from the Ala-Pyörö school how to cut hair. The newly-qualified professionals will offer free haircuts to customers at Style in Room across the festival.

You can book an appointment in advance by email: production@antifestival.com or by phone: +358 50 409 8519; during the festival week you can also book in the Festival Centre located in the Sokos Hotelli Puijonsarvi lobby, or try your luck by calling by the salon during the performance times above.

Haircuts by Children invites adults to see children as creative and competent individuals, it asks us as adults  to question our vanity and to abandon control. The company suggests letting a child cut your hair requires the same kind of faith and courage as it would to grant children a wider range of civil rights. So, fancy a trim?

Mammalian Diving Reflex (CA)

Founded in 1993 and based in Toronto, Canada, Mammalian Diving Reflex is a research-art atelier dedicated to investigating the social sphere. The company creates site and social-specific performance events, theatre-based productions, gallery-based participatory installations, video works, art objects and theoretical texts. In all its various forms, the group’s work seeks to dismantle barriers between individuals of all ages, cultural, economic and social backgrounds.

This presentation of Haircuts by Children has been made possible in part thanks to a grant from the Ontario Arts Council’s National and International Touring Program.

www.mammalian.ca