Such a Happy Child (2022) is an immersive body horror piece that combines installation and larp. It discusses themes like capitalist individualism, self as a project, fear of otherness, the demonization of mental illnesses and the culture of silence. Horror as a genre serves as an allegory for the fear of the other connected to mental illness.

Such a Happy Child could be experienced either as an exhibition or by signing up for a run of the larp. The exhibition did not have roleplay-elements. In the larp the participants took the roles of a family with a toxic mindset of success. The family gathered to examine the unnerving contents of a small box that was meant to stay hidden.

larp: Pihla Lehtinen
installation: Tonja Goldblatt
sound: Camille Auer

Such a Happy Child was supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation and Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Web page:
Such a Happy Child