ANTI Festival 2025: We Were There
Local and international audiences encountered through the site-specific live art programme at the ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival between 9th and 14th September 2025 in Kuopio, Finland. The festival events reached some 9000 audience members in Kuopio, when the works located in public spaces are also included in.
This year’s festival programme explored questions of producing, archiving and exhibiting knowledge. The festival works also discussed different phenomena drawing on place, space and belonging. The participants were offered places to collectively reflect on challenging themes and topics, to encounter, and to rethink; places of new experiences and hope.
Events were organised at the Culture Workshop Konepaja, the University of Eastern Finland, Väinölänniemi, Neulamäki, the market square, city streets, and other public spaces in and around downtown Kuopio. Participants of the festival came from all over Finland and from 10 different countries.
The Italian artist Chiara Bersani won the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art. The world’s only International Prize for Live Art is 30,000 euros, making it one of the richest cultural prizes in the arts.
Many thanks to the festival artists, supporters, partners, employees and the audiences – everyone who participated in the ANTI Festival 2025 in different roles!
ANTI Festival happens again in Kuopio in September 2026.
