
A life lived
through
the body.
Artist, activist, body philosopher.
Born in Hyderabad. Based in Helsinki.
Never contained by one form.
A hyphenated
identity.
Artist. Activist. Body philosopher. Born in Hyderabad, based in Helsinki.
Vishnu Vardhani RAJAN (they/them) was born and raised in Hyderabad, India and is best described as a Body-Philosopher and Performance Artist, now based in Helsinki. Vishnu considers themselves a hyphenated identity pursuing multidisciplinary practices that build connections between art, science, witchcraft, history and cultures. They find themselves consistently exploring themes such as sleep, conflict, nutrition, night politics, food, shame, investigation of sensory experiences, through various media such as dance, acting and stand-up comedy.
Oscillating between cultures, methodologies and sexual identities, each different from the other, are instrumental in their visual Language. Vishnu's persona Vamp Master Brown has become known as the first Indian Drag King to grace the streets of Helsinki, Finland. Vishnu intends to blend in their love of cinema and passion for film making with her ongoing practices, to explore new languages in story telling. They aim to embody the depth and breadth of affect theory.
This above list covers only my work only since my migration to Finland from India.
The Body, Blood & Care
BLEEDING · HEALTH · SHAME- 2025 May
Schizophrenia mental health and anachronisms - MadHouse X Reality Research Center
- January 2023
Research and Testing with Oura Experience on Menstrual Bleeding.
- September 2020
Sugar Sugar Sugar - Performance at Suut ja Syljet
- August 2020
‘Code Red - Revisited’ Haema - A video performance about the monthly bleeding.
- March 2020
Exhausted Activist Project a durational performance of 55 hours.
- January 2020
Eco-Sexual Investigations a video performance at Kilpisjarvi (Biological Station)
- March – September 2019
Plants are Queens : Tampere, Berlin , Brussels (as part of Eco Sexual Investigations)
- February 2019
Performance Play (Talking about Mental Health Oppressions) at Lavaklubi in Helsingin Kansalis Teatteri as part of Omatuntoklubi for mental health awareness.
- February 2018
Code Red - Haema (A performance about Female monthly bleeds) At Madhouse Helsinki Festival.
- August 2024
Stars From an Other Sky - An erotic Film on mental health, interstitial spaces between India and Pakistan - Post Production.
Sleep & the Night
NAP CAFES · AFTERISMS- December 2022
Divination as speculative storytelling space and Infinite Playlist Afterisms at Sons Of Lumiere pikku joulu.
- May 2022
Infinite Playlist Afterisms Session 2.
- April 2022
Infinite Playlist Afterisms Session 1.
- February 2022
CCC Convivial Complaint Cell + IPA Infinite Playlist Afterisms - performance on Radio program - Harboring the social. On sculptures Internationally and the Messiness of Public Practice. Radio Paleis Maashaven in Het Gemaal op zuid. https://www.operator-radio.com/archive/radio-paleis-maashaven-2
- January 2022
IPA Infinite Playlist Afterisms The phenomenon called Item Songs in Telugu films on Stream.roll.fm.
- August 2021
IPA Infinite Playlist Afterisms Night of Culture at Åland Museum
- December 2019
Meet to Sleep - Blank Noise Action Heroes.
- May 2018
Nutrition cafe and Nap cafe as part of Bluesfest Sweden.
- April – October 2018
Pop up nap-cafe a series of Pop up cafes, Alongside Pop up separation-cafe, Pop up nutrition cafe for queer.
- May 2022
Infinite Playlist Afterisms Performances, Facilitations, Curation and Organising.
- 2016
Naps, Rest, Chats and Radical Self Care with Social Science Research Lab, MIT and Clinton Foundation - India Branch.
Napping in Public Spaces in Solidarity with BlankNoiseActionHeroes.
Food & Ferment
NUTRITION · CULTURES- January 2020
Artists with Fermenting Cultures Publishers.
- January 2020
Kilpisjarvi Artists in Residency with the fermenting Cultures & with Microbes Scientists.
Fermentation.
Vamp Master Brown
DRAG KING OF HELSINKI- September 2024
Vamp Master Brown - at Kiihko Klubi
- September 2023
Vamp Master Brown speaks again at Solidarity Collectives and A-ryhma for Fundraising for Ukraine at Teater Viirus
- August 2021
Vamp Master Brown - PunchUp Glitter Curated by Jamie McDonald
- November 2020
VampMasterBrown Performs ‘Code Red’ Haema, an intervention in Public Transport.
- October 2019
Vamp Master Brown 2019 : Loukko
Poetry & Voice
SPOKEN WORD · THE EPIC- June 24th 2024
‘’Universal Queer Thisness’’ Tekstin Talo’s Pride Week Poetry.
- April 10th -15th 2024
Rosebush Syndrome - Critical Matters 2: Ecologies of Relation symposium, Erasmus University/Humboldt University (April 2024, Rotterdam), convened by Christoph Brunner.
- April 10th -15th 2024
Rosebush Syndrome - Critical Matters 2: Ecologies of Relation symposium, Erasmus University/Humboldt University (April 2024, Rotterdam), convened by Christoph Brunner.
- January 2024
Rosebush Syndrome (an epic in the making) with Clara Balaguer at the WereldMuseum Amsterdam.
- March 2023
Long form epic poem published on texttissues
- September 2023
Interconnectedness of sounds and silences that make home, a sound scape commissioned by Oyoun and convened by Nina Martin & Gabbah Baya
- August 2023
A Poetry Jugalbandi with Jaamil Al Kosoko Jugalbandi (literally "tied together"), is an ancient Indian art form where two poets with different styles perform together at ColorBlock 10 - 2023 Ponderosa Stolzenhagen.
- July 2023
A New World: Ecofeminist Summer School, Gallery West (July 2023, The Hague), convened by baruch gottlieb.
- May 2022
Poetry performance at Helsinki Poetry Connection
- August 2021
Spoken Word Performance as part of Hands-up exhibition by Kihwa Andale.
- July 2018
‘I am Indian’ as part of Poetry as a resistance Program at Musta-Kissa curated by Rosamaria Bolom
- June 2016 – Ongoing
Twerk Poetry workshops (Temporary, Pixelache, etc)
- November 2022
TuoTuo to work on a poem called Accomplice
The Moving Image
CINEMA · FILMMAKING- October 2023
Showing of the short film Food on Wheels Short film in Nicosia, Cyprus at NiMac.
- Feb 2024
Screening of Toms of Finland at Berlin Asian POC Queer Film Network as a side event at Berlinale.
- Jan 2024
Screenings of (Toms of Finland & Glitch) at Regnbågen Festival with the support of Platform Vaasa.
- Jan – May 2024
Baltic Analogue Lab - Riga Latvia - Experimental filmmaking with Super 8
- December 2023 – Jan 2024
A barque, A boat; Games for healing - practice-based and temporal lived concept and a poetic film that captures scenes of many generations of migrants making epic crossings of the ocean for a better life on boats made in collaboration with Social Geographer Aparna Kolar.
- August 2023
Military Aesthetic Short Film 7 minutes. (In post Production)
- July 2023
There is always an Elsewhere, dada short film 7 minutes. (In Post Production)
- March 2023
- February 2023
Glitch (Recon)naissance screening as part of Catalystii 10 years anniversary.
- November 2022
Let the right on in - VC (screening at Night Visions Festival 2022)
- March 2021 – September 2022
Graduated Studies in Essay Film with VN Lab Studio of the Łódź Film School.
- July 2022
- May 2022
Glitch (Re)Connaissance screening at Kiasma as part of Urban Arts festival.
- October 2021
- April 2020 – October 2021
Filmmaking Studies at Academy of Moving People and Images.
- July 2019
Acting, Cinematography, Editing and Script writing at Kino Euphoria.
- February 2019
Acting, Cinematography, Kino Obscura.
- July 2018
Acting , Camera, Concept Building, Boom operating at Kino Euphoria.
- November 2017
Music Video With the Rap artist Pastori Leksi.
- 2008 – March 2010
: Production assistant of Yellow Film Studios, Hyderabad.
- 2008
Acting, In a film ' The crossing' by Murali Nair Stories on Human Rights.
- October 2014 & 2015
MEFA (Middle Eastern Film and Arts Festival)
Member of Kino-Euphoria (DIY Movie making Platform)
- 2012-2018
Midnight Sun Film festival working in the organising team that takes care of the festival guests.
- 2013-2018
Rakkauta Ja Anarkia Hosting guests of the festival and Q&A for the films.
- 2013-2018
Volunteering at Doc-Point film Festival, Hosting, Q&A.
The Stage
DANCE · ACTING · LARP- June 2024
Participation with Samir Bhowmik’s Heat work Performance Lecture - At Decypher organized by Bio-Arts society.
- February-March 2024
- November 2023
Baltic Theater Circle Performance Rampa Productions as part of Coming Stage Funded by KoneenSäätio.
- October 2023
Teaching the concepts of Feminist Economy & Trauma Informed Economy at Zeppelin University.
- January 2023 – June 2023
Performances commissioned with the grant from Taike
- November 2022
Cricket, One and a half over at Glow Up / Malla at Seinäjoen Taidehalli
- September 2022
Collaboration with River Lin At Antti Festivaali ‘My body is a Queer History Museum’.
- August 2022
‘Ghosts in the machine’ LARP sessions at Ponderosa Berlin.
- June 2022
‘Ghosts in the machine’ LARP with Her/Their story dancing in and beyond the rural network supported by Nor
- May 2022
Performance 'Tuning the Gaze" at Glitch Feminism book launch event.
- May 2022
- April 2022
Aistikkaat Kluubi
- March 2022
We have a selfie-story! Dancing Solo-together with Studio Skaftarp
- September 2021
To Rummage in Raw Matters as part of Raw Matters in Vienna Le studio Film and Bühne.
- July 2021
Queer Embassy at Madhouse Helsinki.
- November 2020
Video Performance For Finding Sisterhood mini festival by Fulkonst Sweden.
- September 2020
The already not-yet ‘Becoming Collective’ with Joy Mariama Smith, Ima Iduozee, Iida Nissinen, Jeanne Van Heeswijk. As part of Lapsody Paramatter, at Publics.
- August 2020
‘Politics of Proper’ a Performance at Relational Art Week.
- April 2020
‘I am Indian’ as part of the ‘greatest quarantine art expo’
- April 2020
Book-Binding as a choreographic gesture exploring the question can a dance be a song ? as part of P.i.R C.off - Stockholm.
- September 2019
- August 2019
Sow Sew Talk Take Carrier bag, Festival Copenhagen
- May 2019
Collective Performance with Catalysti at World Village Festival.
- Febraury 2019
Word Performance at Caisa Culture Center as part of Venlanrunoiluyhteiso
- December 2018
I Am Exhibitionsit - Performance at Porinjuhlaviiko.
- September 2018
Ahtautuminen (Squeezing into the nature's wonders) at Jättömaa Festival in Kouvola. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk86kHce0zg&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0hxsY4hivl7k5qf4RdK5lLpjo1PkFkfctZ7aFLsIw58jw8eBV91RX9cDo
- September 2018
Radio Play with BlauFrau.
- September 2018
Performance 'I am Indian' - ‘I am exhibitionist’ as part of the Collective Intelligence Exhibition Opening Ceremony at Myymälä 2.
- July 2018
Performance ‘5th Wall’. A free experimental art session composed as part of the residency ‘Energia Akatemia’ at Art Center Antares.
- March 2018
Performance 'Tuning the Gaze" At Museum of Impossible forms Kontula Helsinki.
- March 2018
Performance "I am exhibitionist" as Part of The random Home Cinema at Short waves festival Poznan-Poland
- February 2018
Performance I am Indian (Gothenburg Kuntshalle)
- October 2017
Utti 'A post-colonial play' performance with a human inside a box at Feminist Forum
- May 2017
Tiger dance Opening performance Zoo Exhibition Imatra Taidebunkkeri
- December 2021
Delta, an oceanic call at the Museum of Impossible forms for PAM -Stockholm.
- July -August 2022
Teaching LARP at ColorBlock, Ponderosa
Blau Frau workshop on immersive theater with Poste restante theater group from Sweden.
Blau Frau workshop with Sandra Yi Sencindiver.
Dance workshop with Mårten Spångberg (Baltic theater Circle)
Stand-Up
COMEDY · OPEN MICS- October 29th 2021
Translating Comedy with Transquips x Madhouse Helsinki.
- October 2020
Translating Comedy with Transquips
- August 2024
Stand up at Stoa X UrbanApa Festival X Poc Open Mic
- March 2024
Stand up at Konttori Helsinki, MC’ed by Roxana Sadvo
- February 2024
Stand up at Das Gift Berlin, MC’ed by Anshita Koul
- January 2024
Stand up at the Moonlight comedy club hosted by Henri Näre
- December 2023
Stand Up at Stoa
- August 2023
Stand Up at Ponderosa Stolzenhagen (Germany)
- June 2023
Stand Up at Jakomäki Bar Bumerang
- February – May 2023
Stand-Up in Hyderabad at the Motor Garage cafe. Multiple Shows.
- October 2022
First Stand-Up Special Gauche Live and Recorded
Stand-Up headline 2019 at Luokko Pikkujoulu
Establishing Stand-Up in Hyderabad at Open Mics March 2023.
- July 2017
Start of Standup with many open mics.
- 2017 – Current
Stand-Up Comedy
Research & Complaint
COMPLAINT · CONFLICT · INQUIRY- 2025 March
Curating and Organising Black Meme, Legacy Russell Reading group and a discourse session
- November 2022 – January 2024
Dance choreography and research participation in Samir Bhowmik’s Heat Work, a choreographic project with Santhali dances A nomadic tribe in the Mining region of Santhal. Machine Learning with applications of AI.
- July 2021 – Ongoing
A slow essayist film ‘Rebel Constructs: Exploring Urban Spaces and Non-Spaces through PUNK Architecture’ in collaboration with Heritage walks Hyderabad.
- December 2022
research on ‘’Non-Visual Dance’’ with Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, Birte Opitz and Fia Neise.
- December 2021
Ongoing research with Rani Nair, Studio Skaftarp and choreographers focusing on contemporary choreography in an expanded field.
- September 2021
Utopian Plagiarism
Punk Orientalism and Punk Architecture
Convivial Complaint Cell a research project that works with NonPerformance Performance.
- Feb 2022 – May
Lectures with Sara Ahmed on Complaint Making as diversity work
- Oct 2021 – Dec 2021
- Jan 2020
Collaborator of the Social Study of Microbes research group at STSHelsinki.
- June 2020
Founder and Researcher of Ongoing project Convivial Complaint Cell
- September 2023
Chekhov’s Gun a Non-Performance-Performance at By the bend at Kairos X Together again festival.
- July 2023
- December 2021
- November 2021
Non-Performance-Performance of Convivial Complaint Cell at Artsi x Laps 20 years
- October 29th and 30th 2021
Non Performance Performance of Convivial Complaint Cell at UrabanApa x Ateneum
- November 2020
Non-Performance Performance 5th iteration - Feminist accounting, a pursuit.
- September 2020
Non-Performance Performance a choreographic scenario with 4 questions - My Wild Flag Stockholm.
- January 2020 – Ongoing
Research/Performance/Installation - Convivial Complaint Cell
- May 2019
- April 2019
Non Performance Performance at Museum of impossible forms as part of curatorial self-reflections.
- June 6th 2024
deCYPher lab: on the ethics and aesthetics of linking AI/ML & SynBio Convened by BIO-ARTS SOCIETY.
- August 2023
Urban Futures with game/interface design with gabbah baya conceptualising a digital interface on urban futures online.
- November 2021
Complaint Scroll of Convivial Complaint Cell at Artsi.
- October 2021
UrbanApa x Ateneum - Installation - Punk Architecture of Convivial Complaint Cell
- July 2021
Pixelache Festival Burn x Oodi - Punk Architecture of Convivial Complaint Cell
- July 23rd-30th 2024
Complaint Making as part of Setting Up Conflict-Positive Spaces for Community Building Praxis, at Karada House, in Berlin.
- November 2021 – April 2022
At University of Helsinki Consensual Decision Making.
- November 2021
Workshop / Lecture at University of Helsinki for the cohort of Creative Writers on Critical Thinking and Predictive Policing.
- October 2021
20 years of Platform at Vaasa - Consensual Decision Making.
- September 2019
Second Order Group at Kilpisjarvi (Sami Land) Bioarts Society
2016-Ongoing Restorative Circles (Conflict Resolution, Sociocracy and Community Building practices)
- 2021
Facilitation Training with Sociocracy Forall
- 2020
Conflict Resolution Patterns and Language With Sofia Bustamante
- 2020
Community Building training - Sociocracy 3.0
- 2017
NVC Conflict Resolution Language.
Blau Frau workshop on Conflict
Complaint - A feminist Reading Group.
Publications & the Page
COMICS · READERS · CHAPTERS- 2024
A chapter on Schizophrenia as methodologies in the Book - A new world; Embodied thinking, ecofeminism & ecosocialism - Edited by Kolar Aparna, By University of Helsinki.
- 2020-2022
Glitch Feminism Translation group with Tutkijaliitto.
22 Oct-8 Nov Helsinki Myymäla2 - Quantum Critic - Exhibition
19 Nov - 19 Dec St-Petersburg, Russia - Quantum Critic - Exhibition
- August 2020
Perspectives - a four panel Comic strip - Worldcomics_Finland.
- April 2020
A copy - Four Panel Comic Strip as part of the Greatest Quarantine Art Expo. - Thisworksdiferently.
- March 2020
[Krah-seez] A reader as part of PiR - Publisher in Residence at C.off Stockholm.
Poetics of taking ‘it’ personally - an Essay.
- 2019
Chapter in the book ‘Decolonising Participatory Research through Arts-Based Methods’ (Editors Tiina Seppala, Melanie Sarantou and Satu Miettinen)
- May 2023
Performative Book Fair organized by Alina Buchberger & Pajam Masoumi at Kampnagel in Hamburg
Community & Organising
CURATING · PEDAGOGY- August 2022 – February 2023
Artist Facilitator at UrbanApa Miniresidencies.
- December 2021 – Ongoing
Her/Their story dancing in and beyond the rural network!
- March 2018 – May 2019
Artistic-Director of Pixelache Festival 'Breaking the 5th wall, Community Building'
- Jan 2019 – December 2019
Curating Performance Lab 'Bodies' at Museum of Impossible Forms
- August 2018 – Ongoing
Para-Nordic Institute Working Group
- March 2018 – December 2018
Curating Performance Lab 'Fierce Urgency of Now' at Museum of Impossible Forms
- Jan 2017 – April 2020
Radical Contact Improvisation Dance Gatherings in Sweden.
- July 2016
Seeds of Change Arts and performance summer camp for the paperless - Mobile - teenagers.
2009, Moussa Touré’s trip and project coordination, translation, execution to India:
- Nov 2008 – March 2009
MAD in India with Olivier Culmann, research, local contacts and network development in India, perspective building of Indian culture to support the photographer’s project Alliance Française, India 2003 – 2008: Artistic and cultural projects translation, including pre production work for French artists and organizations in Hyderabad, translation of technical sheets relevant to sound and light arrangements, and precision documents for animation.
- August – December 2023
Mentorship and Artist Facilitation at LAPS program TEAK
- August 2023
Mentorship and Artist Facilitation Ponderosa Stolzenhagen at 10th ColorBlock
- July 2023
(17th-21st) - West Den Haag Ecofeminist ecosocialist Summer School
- September 2022
‘’Stewardship curriculum’’ for the use of Toward Sanctuary Dome at Feinart and Zepplin University Gallery.
- April – May 2023
work with Jeanne Van Heesvik, Clara Balaguer , and the rest of the Community Portal team on the upcoming exhibition and public program Ultradependent Public School (UPS) at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
- 2023 Decemeber – Ongoing
Board Member of Mad House Helsinki
- 2018 – 2023
Board Member at Museum of Impossible Forms
Advisory member of Para Institutional Models (Sweden)
Board Member of Pixelache Trans-disciplinary Platform for Experimental Art, Research and Activism.
2017 Organising Volunteers for Pixelache Festival
Formations
RESIDENCIES · STUDIES · TRAININGS- February 2024
Offline Berlin Decolonial Efforts
- May 2022
Study trip to Amsterdam Arts Week with Frame Foundation and Finnish Institute of Benelux.
- July 2021
Artists in Residency at Eskus-Hiap.
- April 2021
Lund - Ful and Studio Skaftarp
- November – December 2020
Platform - Vasa
- August 2020
Hyrsylan Koulu Residency as an invited artist by Myymala2
- March 2020
PiR Publisher in Residency at C.off
- July 2019
Berlin Ponderosa Transgressive Bodies
- August 2018
Berlin Ponderosa.
- 2023
Intersectional Feminist Policies Ombudsperson (In training)
- 2022 – Ongoing
Learning Sign language (ASL and LSF)
- 2022
Swedish language training
- 2021
Feminist Leadership Training with UrbanApa.
- 2021
Decolonial Nonviolent Communication with Meenadchi.
The Rest
HOBBIES · SMALL RITUALSYoga.
DJ’ing.
ADHD - Agent.
Feminist-Economics
Twerk-Demonstrations.
Making-Paper With Kombucha Scoby.
Inside-an-airport Decolonial Art Reading Group.
Performance Arts Forum - reading group.
Vishnu Vardhani Rajan (FI) is a bodyphilosopher. Her work revolves around the manifold aspects of the body. She makes live arts and performances to demonstrate the political, economical, sexual, social, geographical, and racial body. Her artistic output in recent years has defied genres and categories. Some examples include staged multi-media, theatre and dance performances, extempore performances in public spaces such as the Helsinki Metro, online video caricatures on popular social media like Snapchat, queer stand up comedy, pop-up cafes on the themes of separation, conflict, nutrition & queers, sleep. She is currently finishing her studies in Nutrition from University of Helsinki and researching sleep at the Helsinki Sleep Center. She is a board member of Pixelache and Curator of Performance LAB project at museum of impossible forms. She is curating the annual Pixelache festival in Helsinki with the theme breaking the fifth wall and community building. Vishnu has performed in the last two years in Berlin, Paris, Lille, Pori, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Oslo, Tallinn, Tbilisi and Helsinki. Frame Finland has now invited Vishnu Vardhani to participate in the International Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019.
