Mikko Salminen is a multidisciplinary artist based in Espoo with expertise in production management, marketing, recruitment, planning, communication, social media, graphic design and layout work. Recently, he has focused on site-specific performances and theater productions addressing themes like eco-catastrophe and human-landscape interdependencies. Salminen has participated in panels on ecoscenography, theater education, and internationalization at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial and Uniarts VES Seminar, demonstrating his flexibility across various projects, spaces, and materials.
Born in 1992, Salminen spent much of his childhood and early adulthood as a promising athlete and later as a swimming instructor and lifesaver. After ending his sports career in 2013, he studied creative writing and communication before pursuing theater and acting studies in Lahti. From 2015 to 2017, he worked in various roles, including performer, writer, and director at Ilves Theater in Helsinki and the Academy of Liberal and Fine Arts in Lahti.
Salminen earned a BA in Design for the Performing Arts from Aalto University in 2021 and an MA from Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy in 2023. His latest solo performance and live installation were exhibited at OBJEKT in Narva, Estonia, in March 2022. His work focuses on extended scenography, integrating photography and video, and exploring the intersections of technology, humans, and landscapes.
In 2023, Salminen received Teme's Theatre, Film, and Television Designers Student Scholarship for his social skills, positivity, responsibility, and active international work. His thesis on employment and work opportunities was highly valued by the community. Salminen is dedicated to exploring and researching cross-sections and intertwined realities in his art, fearlessly diving into the unknown.
"But life has a strange way of presenting unexpected worlds, people who change everything, moments after which nothing remains the same. Perhaps we are merely reflections of each other, perhaps we fear only what we see in others: uncertainty, ignorance. Yet, in the end, we are one and the same, human in every aching form. How crazy it is, how crazy it is to exist, to be here, now, just as we are. No one looked at me the way you did, you let me breathe."
Mikko Salminen, Yön yli kantavat äänet, 2017 (translated)
Mikko Salminen, Yön yli kantavat äänet, 2017 (translated)