Thursday 8.11.2012

DO TANK Kviss Búmm Bang (ISL): SAUNA LECTURE 1, IDEALISTS AND FOOLS?

Photo by Eydís Björk Gudmundsdóttir

DO TANK revises the Finnish tradition of combining political discussions with sauna culture. We invited two artists and a collective to share their social utopias in the heat of Arla, the 83-year-old public sauna.

Kviss Búmm Bang points a moralistic finger on the dilemma they are facing as artists with a political agenda: post-modern society does not tolerate fixed viewpoints. They have dealt with topics such as gender issues and prostitution and will share their experience with curators and audience alike, talking about the walls and the fences that have been put up in order to keep people away from challenging status quo, changing “normality”.

Kviss búmm bang consists of three founders and members, Eva Björk Kaaber, Eva Rún Snorradóttir and Vilborg Ólafsdóttir. They have been working together since 2008, making so-called extended life performances. Their work is about researching reality, what’s normal and what’s not, in hope to get people to question their everyday realities in order to realize the extent of their own influence on it. Their latest work, Downtown 24/7 was made in collaboration with Aðalbjörg Þóra Árnadóttir.

http://dotankhelsinki2012.blogspot.fi/

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SEMINAR: CONCEPTUAL SOUND /  CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE

The seminar addresses the topic of conceptual sound design, specifically in the field of contemporary theatre. In what ways can sound design be defined in the performing arts? What kind of strategies can be applied when creating conceptual sound in the field of performance? Writing music narratives or designing auditive dramaturgies – how to define the score? What are the implications of “liveness” in performance for mediated sound? The seminar is both theoretical and practice based and is moderated by Kristian Ekholm.

The seminar is held in co-operation with VÄS, the Department of Light and Sound Design of the Theatre Academy of Finland.

Program

13:00–13:15 Opening of seminar
Approaching a Holistic Sound Design

13:15–14:00 Andreas Catjar (SWE)
Sound in We love Africa and Africa Loves Us

14:00–14:45 Heidi Lind (FIN)
The Parallel Aural Spaces of the Performance Heidi Klein

Coffee break

15:15–16:00 Renzo van Steenbergen (NL / EST)
A Practitioners Approach to Spatiality in Sound and the Transcendence of Sound in Theatre

15:45–16:30 Ross Brown (UK), Prof. of Sound
Understanding the Audience’s Aural Expectations – Question ‘Where’ Rather Than ‘What’

16:45–17:00 Closing words

DO TANK: SLEEP FOR AFRICA

Photo: Verena Holzgethan & Paul Neuninger

In the installation Sleep for Africa you can take a break, lie down and find refuge in a large comfortable bed placed inside a tent. The sleeping facilities have a voluntary fee and the money which is raised is donated directly to the cultural and developmental project Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso, which was initiated by the late German film, theatre and opera director Christoph Schlingensief.

After completing a school run by local teachers, the next task for the project is to build an infirmary that provides basic medical care for the school children and villagers from the region.

Concept: Angelika Fink & Satu Herrala

Installation: Verena Holzgethan & Paul Neuninger

More information: www.operndorf-afrika.com

http://dotankhelsinki2012.blogspot.fi/

DO TANK Public Movement (ISR): DEBRIEFING SESSION | HELSINKI

Photo: Arkadiy Sobolev, Permanent Representative of the USSR to the UN and Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General. (New York, 1 October 1956)

On November 8, Public Movement will hold Debriefing Session, a series of private, one-on-one sessions that reveal key conflicts from the mission, SALONS: Birthright Palestine?. This action was commissioned as part of the New Museum Triennial The Ungovernables.

While developing the project in New York over the course of six months, Public Movement negotiated with power structures and various publics, navigating agendas, institutional alliances, backroom politics, and creating fractures across a spectrum of individual and organizational positions. Debriefing Session foregrounds the transitional moment between research and action by turning members of the public into carriers of this information.

Activated in Europe for the first time, Debriefing Session in Helsinki functions as a new method of sharing the complex relations between cultural production, public and private funding bodies, political agendas and activism.

Public Movement is a performative research body, which investigates and stages political actions in public spaces. Public Movement was founded in November 2006 by Omer Krieger and Dana Yahalomi, and has been lead by Dana Yahalomi since 2011.

Debriefing Session is co-commissioned by the New Museum and Artis as part of SALONS: Birthright Palestine?, a project for the 2012 New Museum Triennial, The Ungovernables curated by Eungie Joo.

http://dotankhelsinki2012.blogspot.fi/

ONGOING Reality Research Center (FIN): METAFESTIVAL

Photo: Cvijeta Miljak & Pekko Koskinen

What makes a festival? And what can we do with it?

metaFestival proposes a new kind of relationship to the practice, presence and concept of the festival. It builds a meta-layer around Baltic Circle, observing the festival as a field of possibilities and potential.

During Baltic Circle, you have a chance to encounter Metaists: guides who move in the borderlands between the festival and everyday reality. They will assist you – whether you are an organizer, artist or visitor – to approach the festival in a multitude of ways, from which you can pick your preference. Perhaps you perceive it as an esthetic ecosystem, from which to draw nutrients, hunt for particular prey, or develop new forms of yourself. The Metaists will roam particularly in the more casual spaces of the festival, such as the Lounge and the locales surrounding the performances. They will also process the mediated nature of the festival, fabricating new layers amongst various forms of media.

This method for approaching the festival is a part of Reality Research Center’s development project for Utopian Reality, offering tools for its construction.

JOKAklubi (FIN): IN PEACE AND ACTION

Kuva: Niina Lehtonen Braun

On the way to the Lounge the audience is greeted by two doormen, who are each standing guard at different entrances. One door leads to a performance free area, where it is possible to relax without any stimulating activities. The other leads incomers to the erratic world of performance. The passage to each space is choreographed to guarantee that each participant’s pulse is synchronized to the situation they are about to enter.

Each participant has to decide for themselves which door they want to enter. It is not possible to change your mind after the choice has been made. However, there is a room for regret.

JOKAklubi is a group of three visual and performance artists. Tellervo Kalleinen, Niina Lehtonen Braun and Mirka Raito met when they were children and later participated together in bands and performance groups such as Vuokkoset (1998-2001). All three of them studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and were convinced that their collaboration was merely a thing of their youth. That was not the case! JOKAklubi was established in 2009, after eight years since their previous collaboration together.

JOKAklubi has performed in clubs, theatre festivals and art exhibitions around Europe.

JOKAklubi’s blog: http://jokaklubi.blogspot.fi/

Nina Larissa Bassett (DEN) / Ivo Briedis (LAT) / Elin Petersdottir (ISL) / Janne Saarakkala (FIN): LEFTOVERS FROM THE WAR

Photo: Elin Petersdottir

After closing hours, the audience will encounter four exhibits. They are artists, exemplary products of European welfare from the late 20th century. What are they made of?

The audience will be divided into four groups, each following one artist. In the footsteps of their family elders, the artists will reveal what shaped their characters and what brings them together. Private details will pierce the dusty backdrop of official history.

Nina Larissa Bassett is a writer, dramaturge and theatre maker. She has programmed international festivals, arranged performing arts networks and co-founded three small theatre companies, including the site-specific group TeaterKUNST.

Ivo Briedis is a freelance screenwriter, playwright and director. He has worked on screen, radio, stage and site-specific performances and collaborated with state theatres and independent groups around Europe.

Elin Petersdottir is a freelance actress, director and writer-translator. She holds a Master of Arts in Theatre and Drama from the Theatre Academy Helsinki and has worked on productions for both stage and film.

Janne Saarakkala is a director, scriptwriter and performer. He works for institutional theatres and free theatre groups in Finland. He is a founder member of Reality Research Centre.

Produced by: Leftovers from the War & Baltic Circle

Supported by: Nordic Culture Point & TEKIJÄ – Theatre Touring Network project & National Museum of Finland

CREDITS

Concept, Script, Direction and Performing: Nina Larissa Bassett, Ivo Briedis, Elin Petersdottir & Janne Saarakkala

Visual design: Antti Nikkinen

Light design: Nanni Vapaavuori

Sound design: Tuuli Kyttälä

Production: Vilma Pietilä

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Kaja Kann & Juha Valkeapää (EST / FIN): IT SEEMS A GOOD PLACE TO BUILD A HOUSE

Photo: Nico Martens

In Estonia and Finland people believe that a man is not a man if he has not built a house. And once that house is ready, he starts to build a new one. It seems a good place to build a house talks about life, dreams and misunderstandings. Kaja Kann and Juha Valkeapää tell stories in Finnish, Estonian, English and German, accompanied by music, movement, pictures and building a house. Meanwhile they make soup and serve it to the audience.

The first three houses were built at Nordwind Festival in Hamburg in December 2011.

Juha Valkeapää is a Finnish vocal and performance artist whose main instrument is his own voice. He has performed around the world making vocal, sound and performance art. He has also worked in theatre, music and dance as well as created sound installations, soundscapes and compositions for exhibitions, radio, theatre and dance performances. Recently Valkeapää received a five-year grant from the National Council for Theatre for years 2013–17.

Kaja Kann is an Estonian choreographer and director. She has worked with different forms of performing art and her work has been seen worldwide, from New York to Iisaku. She received the Estonian award for Best Dance Choreography in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

It seems a good place to build a house is carried out as a part of the Theatre Touring Network project’s (TEKIJÄ) pilot touring activities. TEKIJÄ is coordinated by Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre (University of Tampere) and partly funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) during 2011–2013. The project aims to develope a national touring network and increase collaboration between municipally subsidized theatres and fringe groups. For more information: www.tekija.info

Produced by: Pardimäe Lokaal, Nordwind Festival & Kanuti Gildi SAAL

Supported by: The Cultural Endowment of Estonia & Arts Council of Finland

CREDITS

Concept, performers, music, photos & texts: Kaja Kann & Juha Valkeapää

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Jakob & Pieter Ampe (BEL): JAKE & PETE’S RECONCILIATION ATTEMPT FOR THE DISPUTES FROM THE PAST

Photo: R. Phile Deprez
In the performance thebrothers Jakob and Pieter Ampe start from nothing but the fact that they are brothers, both born in Burundi, both with a lot of good and bad memories from their youth. During the creation process of Jake & Pete’s Reconciliation Attempt for the Disputes from the Past the brothers examined to what extent they can raise each other’s game. It became a study that involves extremes as well as subtleties and a poetic performance that plays with the expectations of the spectator on the verge of catastrophe. Quite apart from this, there is something else that unites these brothers, namely their penchant for facile humour. They cannot wait to share it with you!

Pieter has since become dancer, choreographer and artist-in-residence at CAMPO (Still Difficult Duet 2007, Still Standing You 2010), while Jakob recently graduated as a voice coach and is a singer with The Germans.

A creation for CONNECT CONNECT, international mentor program of Spielart Munich. Director Alain Platel selected Ampe brothers for the project and mentored the duo.

Produced by: Jakob Ampe, Pieter Ampe, mentor Alain Platel, CAMPO, Stuk & CONNECT CONNECT (SPIELART Theater Festival Munich in co-operation with CAMPO – Gent, Republique – Copenhagen, Forum Freies Theater – Düsseldorf, Mercat de les Flors – Barcelona, Tanzquartier Wien – Vienna, Baltic Circle – Helsinki, Theater im Pumpenhaus – Münster & Münchner Kammerspiele).
Supported by: European Commission
CREDITS
Concept & Performance: Jakob Ampe & Pieter Ampe
Mentor: Alain Platel
Scenography:Jelle Clarisse
Technique: Piet Depoortere

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Reality Research Center & Club Real (FIN & GER / AUT): THE OTHER

Photo: Georg Reinhardt

Four actors and a documentarian meet a stranger. They go to his house, wear his clothes, eat his food, watch his favorite TV shows and reply to his text messages. They go through stranger’s stuff, and make conclusions about him.

The Other is a performance where the viewer meets the born-again inhabitant four times, interpreted by four different actors. It is a performance that takes place in a home where someone lives his complex daily life.

How do we live here? How are we supposed to live here?

Reality Research Center is a performing arts collective based in Helsinki. Their works stem from perspectives that question the surrounding reality through performative means.

The Other is a collaboration performance with Berlin based Club Real group. The artistic instruments deployed in their participatory works are architecture, text and installation.

The Other is carried out as a part of the Theatre Touring Network project’s (TEKIJÄ) pilot touring activities. TEKIJÄ is coordinated by Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre (University of Tampere) and partly funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) during 2011–2013. The project aims to develope a national touring network and increase collaboration between municipally subsidized theatres and fringe groups. For more information: www.tekija.info

Produced by: Reality Research Center, Club Real & Baltic Circle
Supported by: Arts Council of Finland & TEKIJÄ – Theatre Touring Network project

CREDITS

Artists: Tuire Tuomisto, Georg Reinhardt, Marianne-Ramsay Sonneck, Jonna Wikström

Documentation: John Dunn

Producer: Annu Kemppainen

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Thursday 8.11.2012

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