Saturday 19.11.2011

FESTIVAL BRUNCH

Photo: Nikolai Botvinnik

Baltic Circle invites you to the Festival Brunch Sat 19.11. & Sun 20.11. where you can enjoy delicious food and drinks, meet new people and old friends as well as recover from the previous night’s celebrations at Festival Lounge. Buffet and a glass of sparkling wine guarantee a perfect start for the weekend’s festival experience!

During the Festival Brunch you are welcomed to visit Johanna Lecklin’s live-ar t installation Confessions in the lobby of Puoli-Q Theatre where you can reveal your darkest or funniest secrets. After the brunch you can see the performance Build Me a Mountain! by Verk Produksjoner (NO R) at Q-teatteri at 2pm.





Johanna Lecklin (FIN): CONFESSIONS

Would you like to see how the big and small secrets of your life become part of a work of art? Baltic Circle presents the newest work by Johanna Lecklin, where the public is welcomed to confess their secrets. The confessions are recorded on video, showing only a silhouette of the confessor. They combine into a work where the main role is played by real-life stories, from everyday fumbles to tragic events. Reality is often stranger than fiction!

For her previous live-art work Story Cafe, Johanna Lecklin toured several countries collecting people’s stories on video. Story Cafe has been exhibited in festivals of performing arts across the world, such as the Belluard Bollwerk International Festival in Switzerland and the Troubles #5 Festival in Brussels in 2009, along with other biennales and exhibitions. The work was part of It’s a Setup, a compiled exhibition in the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in 2010.

Producer: Baltic Circle

Photos: Johanna Lecklin

VENUE ON THE MAP





Nya Rampen (FIN): WORSHIP!

Nya Rampen takes hold of the most renowned plays of all time, taking a look at mortal sins trough Shakespeare’s tragedies while wearing panty-hose. What does Nietzsche’s famous quote “God is dead” mean to the modern world that is struggling in a chaos after the humanistic era?

Worship! examines the characteristic human need to believe in and belong to something, be it a religion, an ideology or art. Nya Rampen ponders why fiction such as Shakespeare’s tragedies still reaches audiences. Do we need stories in order to understand reality?

Nya Rampen was founded 12 years ago in Helsinki. The group is led by founding members Elmer Bäck, Rasmus Slätis and Jakob Öhrman together with producer Elin Westerlund. Nya Rampen challenges preconceptions about what theatre should be through seeking new means of expression from other fields of art. Having toured European theatre festivals, the group has achieved international acclaim for their unique and uncompromising expression. Baltic Circle Festival 2010 presented Conte D’Amour, a co-production of Nya Rampen and Swedish theatre group Institutet. The performance won the best off-theatre award at Impulse Theatre Festival in Germany 2011.

Producers: Nya Rampen, Baltic Circle & Nordwind Festival

Supported by: Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Konstsamfundet, Helsingin Säästöpankkisäätiöt & City of Helsinki Cultural Office

CREDITS

Written by: Shakespeare / Öhrman

Directed by: Jakob Öhrman

Cast: Elmer Bäck, Cris Af Enehielm, Joonas Heikkinen, Iida Kuningas (TeaK), Rasmus Slätis, Sara-Marie Soulié, Marcus Groth

Music: Andreas Catjar

Musicians: Mattias Leo Senada Weiss, Fabiana Striffler

Light: Jens Leeb-Lundberg

Trailer and Films: Marcus Öhrn & Natasja Loutchko

Scenography: Lars Idman (Aalto University)

Costume: Lisa Martelin, Natalia Mustonen

Stagefight instructor: Oula Kitti

Photo: Tomi Nuotsalo

WORLD PREMIERE!

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Verk Produksjoner (NOR): BUILD ME A MOUNTAIN!

During the 1940 peace between Finland and Soviet Union, writers Hella Wuolijoki and Bertolt Brecht who was exiled from Germany were sitting on the terrace of the Marlebäck mansion drinking coffee and discussing world peace. They were optimistic, telling stories to each other and creating a utopia in the midst of Europe that was burning.

Build Me a Mountain! combines documentary material and fiction to bring up the still current issue that was the main question Wuolijoki and Brecht examined: “the art of being human in an inhumane and complicated world.”

Verk Produksjoner is an actors’ collective that was founded in Oslo in 1998. The core of the group consists of freelance actors from the Nordic countries: Fredrik Hannestad (NOR), Saila Hyttinen (FIN) and Anders Mossling (SWE). Since 2003 they have worked closely together with the musician Per Platou and scenographer Signe Becker. Verk is known for their epic and expressive form of acting with satirical and political undertones changing swiftly between storytelling, acting and improvisation. Verk performed in the Baltic Circle Festival for the first time in 2007 with their work Ifigeneia.

Production: VERK

Co-Production: Baltic Circle & Black Box Theatre

Supported by: Arts Council Norway, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finnish-Norwegian Culture Institute & Nordisk Kulturfond

CREDITS

Written by: Daniel Wedel and Verk Produksjoner

Directed by: Fredrik Hannestad

Cast: Saila Hyttinen, Anders Mossling, Håkon Vassvik

Scenographer: Signe Becker

Music/sound: Per Platou

Light: Tilo Hahn

Photos: Verk Produksjoner

WORLD PREMIERE!

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Ojanen & Iivanainen (FIN): FAT BASTARDS

Fat Bastards is a girls’ attempt to grasp the essence of ice-hockey through an off-the-wall lecture. It is a do-it-yourself performance about passion, repulsion and creative destruction. “Football is erotic, ice-hockey is porn.”

In the spring of 2011 girls are peaceful and happy. Then Finland wins the Ice hockey World Championship. Again. This time the girls feel they are somehow left out. They are determined to become a part of the ice hockey race and inhabit the mythical superhero of a world champion. Thus begins a Eurodance journey to the year 1995, when Finland won the previous championship.

Inspired by the hysteria of Finland’s world championship in 1995 and Quentin Tarantino, the girls build a happily frustrated, home-made world of ice hockey. Lovingly they bastardize the national sport of Finland. As is often said, ”If you can’t beat them, join them”.

Anni Ojanen, having graduated from the Theatre Academy Helsinki in 2009, and Hili Iivanainen, graduated in 2010, have worked in several international productions. Ojanen has worked for example in the Von Krahl theatre in Tallinn and Iivanainen as a director and actress in several theatres in Chicago. In the fall of 2011 Ojanen is also working as a director for the Finnish National Theatre. In Finland Iivanainen has directed performances in the city theatres of Turku and Kotka, and Theatre Telakka.

Producer: Baltic Circle

Supported by: Finnish Cultural Foundation, TINFO – Theatre Info Finland, Theatre Academy Helsinki

CREDITS

Written and directed by: Ojanen & Iivanainen

Cast: Ojanen & Iivanainen

Video: Joonas Tikkanen

Photos: Andrea Brandt

Other artists involved: Dorte Olesen, Jouni Tauriainen, Jenni Kääriäinen, Siru Kosonen, Kirsi Gum, Emily Cheeger, Juho Ala- Juuma, Tuomas Timonen

WORLD PREMIERE!

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Teatr.doc (RUS): TWO IN YOUR HOUSE

Photo: Vladimir Lupovskoy

Belarus. A former Soviet republic crushed between Russia and Europe. Under the totalitarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko prosecution of opposition activists, torture in prison and shameless propaganda in media became an everyday  reality.

The documentary performance Two in Your House is based on a real story. In the violent post-election crackdown on opposition, the Belarusian KGB has placed poet and opposition politician Vladimir Neklyaev under house arrest, where he was kept under constant surveillance by security agents placed in his house.

The performance focuses on the house arrest that lasted several months. The breach of private space, turning a home into a prison and constant surveillance by KGB functionaries was what interested the artists from Teatr.doc the most. As time passes, the situation becomes more and more dramatic; the tension in the apartment is rising. The playwrights carried out a number of interviews in Belarus, on which they have based their script.

Teatr.doc is an independent theatre from Moscow which has been founded in 2001 by playwrights of the young generation. Teatr.doc focuses on documentary theatre, resolving to make socially relevant theatre, a theatre talking about current, actual issues that, according to them, call for artistic reworking. “The goal of Teatr.doc is to provide an objective image of reality”. To this goal they are still true; doing their best to give a voice to the people they meet.

Producers: Teatr.doc, Baltic Circle, Krakow Theatrical Reminiscences, Spielart Festival, Kanuti Gildi Saal, brut Wien, Archa Theatre & Festival Divadelna Nitra

Supported by: Kultur Kontakt Austria & Estonian Ministry of Foreign affairs

CREDITS

Text: Elena Gremina

Background research and interviews: Ekaterina Bondarenko, Talgat Batalov, Aleksandr Rodionov

Artistic Director: Mikhail Ugarov

Director: Talgat Batalov

Choreography: Aleksander Andriyashkin

Video: Andrey Stadnikov

Set design: Vladimir Bagramov

Director’s Assistant: Ksenia Osipova

Light and Sound: Anton Taishihin

English translation: Maria Kozlovskaya

Music compositions by: Johannes Burström, Zoya Garina

Performers: Maxim Kurochkin, Irina Savitskova, Oleg Kamenschikov, Aleksey Maslodudov, Sergey Ovchinnikov

WORLD PREMIERE!

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HOMOPOMO (FIN) & QUEENNAIVE (EST)

Two outstanding performance groups take over the Baltic Circle Festival Lounge for one night.

HOMOPOMO (Homo Modern Post Modern) is a performance collective established by performance artist Anna Cadia and dancer Jenni Urpilainen.  Their works cover issues such as queer body and the concept of identity and gender by using punk music, manifests, fake hair and video collages.

HOMOPOMO’s upcoming performance Three Lovers feat. Pink Triangle Dance Group has been inspired by The Queer Nation Manifesto (1990). With a group of featuring dancers HOMOPOMO creates a provocative yet ironic piece of performance art with lots of pink in it.

QueeNNaive, a project by two performing artists Sandra Z and Alissa Shnaider, is a lo-fi offroad pop-music duo that never repeats its live acts. QueeNNaive creates shows too spontaneous to be put to words: a stand-up comedy musical combining shameless pop-music stripped down to the minimum. Their acts have themes, starting from runaway AA’s and ending up with pigs from the end of the world. QueeNNaive is probably the most flexible band − custom made hits for you!

HomoPomo photo: Timo Wright
QuueNNaive photo: QueeNNaive

DJ for the evening Gayborhood DJ’s

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Susiklubi (FIN): HUKKAHUONE


Susiklubi will create a party installation for Baltic Circle Festival Lounge. The Susiklubi collective has refused to share any information about the event. Come anyway.

Susiklubi has been making genre-crossing club events in Helsinki, and once in Hanko, since 2009. The audience is occasionally rewarded, occasionally punished. Sometimes they get to choose between the two.

Photos: Otto Donner

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OPEN DOORS AT HELSINKI PERFORMANCE CENTER

Photo: Kirsi Reinola

Find out what is happening in the Finnish performance and live art scene, watch performances and works-in-progress, meet our member artists and see our new premises. Performance Center invites you for a visit on Saturday, November 19th between 3pm and 5pm.

Venue address: Suvilahti, Kaasutehtaankatu 1, Puhdistamo (building no. 6)

All performances are free of charge!

More about the performances and demos: www.esitystaide.fi

PROGRAMME

STUDIO I

15:00

Reality Research Center: Talking Head

(duration 45 min)

15:50

Reality Research Center: Power Room

(duration 1 h)

STUDIO II

Esitystaiteen Seura: The Dark Project III: LIGHT NOISE

(throughout the event, with introduction for the audience at 15:10 and 16:20)

STUDIO III

Oblivia: Museum of Postmodern Art – MOPMA 1

Oblivia in Conversation with…

& Entertainment Island Exhibition Lounge

(throughout the event, with introduction for the audience at 15:20)

LOBBY

Other Spaces: Demonstration of the Secret Retraining Camp

(throughout the event, with introduction for the audience at 15:40 and 16:40)

OFFICE

15:30

Aapo Korkeaoja:

(15 min)

16:00

Irma Optimisti: Post Scriptum

(15 min)

16:30

Outi-Illuusia Parviainen: Typographic

Directions in Life and Death

(15-20 min)

AMONGST THE AUDIENCE

Reality Research Center: Lonely Rider

(throughout the event)

Elina Hartzell: The Graduate

(throughout the event)

Katariina Mylläri&Sari Kivinen: Ridiculous Peafest

(throughout the event)

Further information:
Tuulia Nieminen
tuulia.nieminen(at)esitystaide.fi
tel. 045-8740 470