In Second Life®, the 3D online digital archipelago, space is discontinuous and walking is anachronistic. Stephen Hodge will lead you on a short walk to an intimate space, looking over Lake Kallavesi towards Saaristokaupunki. Here, his avatar Drifter Rhode will accompany you on a second walk, this time through a virtual landscape, where together you will search for connections back to the Real Life Kuopio. SLaaristokaupunki is for one person at a time. Previous experience in the Second Life environment is not required. Read more ▸

Gwendoline Robin associates the object with the body in space to create ever more complex installations and performances, in which object responds to space, movement to fire, light to the sound of the explosion, and in which the artist’s body can explore, perform and dance with the danger and the poetry of fire. Read more ▸

In Walk The Line Laitinen will walk his portrait onto Kuopio with the help of a satellite positioning device (GPS). Laitinen will first print his portrait onto a map of Kuopio, orientate himself according to the lines of the portrait and then begin to walk though the city. The GPS will log his journey ‘drawing’ his portrait across the city’s streets. Read more ▸

Nadeau will create a shortcut for urban pedestrians by adopting a daily schedule of repeatedly walking between two points across a small grassy division. This daily discreet performance will create a visible path in the grass, commonly known as a ‘desire path’: a path pedestrians create to better traverse a particular space. Nadeau hopes she will inspire others to follow the shortcut, thereby enforcing its presence. A small sign will be posted at the project site, with the invitation: ‘please walk’ Read more ▸

Led by Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Roberto Sifuentes and Silvia Antolin

with local Finnish artists.

La Pocha Nostra is a loose association of rebel artists based in San Francisco with chapters in various countries including Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Spain and the UK. Read more ▸

Many of us sing, hum or whistle as we walk. Whether it’s a ubiquitous pop song or our own aria, our steps are guided by inner melodies. With Traipsing(ing) a choral song is composed using cumulative recordings that participants create spontaneously while walking a predetermined path. Participants are given a map & a recording device. Listening to a bed track while walking, they press record and join in when they like. O’Hara will then edit the tracks to compose what she promises will be a collaborative masterpiece! Read more ▸

Archsuit is a suite of sculptural apparatuses that enable the body to counter hard surfaces of urban spaces using soft wearable forms. Archisuit corresponds to specific architecture, making the relationship between the body and the built environment spectacular. Participants can wear an Archisuit in order to fit into sites around Kuopio. As we tour and perform each site we will discuss the development of urban planning and architecture as it pertains to human comfortability and social engagement. Read more ▸

In this exclusive event people have the chance to experience some specially handpicked experiences from the actual upcoming Experience Park ‘Kuopio 2009’. The presentation starts at 21 and lasts about half an hour after which dj Don Walsh plays some of the greatest hits from the ancient nostalgic year of 2009. In addition to showcasing some of the great wonders of Kuopio 2009 the event is also a lively club for all festival guests. Read more ▸

Wondermart is a unique, interactive audio tour that takes you on a journey of rediscovery through the familiar surroundings of the high-density retail environment. Immersed in a private soundscape and anonymous behind your trolley, you are both actor and audience, surrounded by every day drama. Instructions guide you around the aisles, blurring the real and the imaginary, and transforming an ordinary supermarket into the setting for strange adventures. Read more ▸

Go is an investigation into the ongoing journey between our inner and outer landscapes and the ecological entwinement of self, other, and environment. The work is an investigation of physical freedom and kinesthetic empathy with the urban environment and its inhabitants. Read more ▸

Tim Knowles observes the world as a contemporary flaneur, approaching his work with playfulness, curiosity, chance and inventiveness. In Live Windwalks Knowles sets off walking, guided solely by the wind. For this piece he has created an extraordinary wind vane mounted to a helmet; helmets will be available for members of the audience too, who can join Knowles or simply watch as he meanders though the city blown one way then the other as the wind changes and falters within the cities form. Read more ▸

Streams is a dialogue between two dancers, a musician and a lighting designer. The impulses of each participant propel the improvisational piece onward. The piece strives for a kind of democracy which includes not only the performers, but the audience as well. Streams fights to reject hierarchies and any predetermined, or given roles. The audience and performers share an entire night like a dinner party would. Everything is plentiful: there is much dance, much music, there is food in abundance and they never run out of wine. Read more ▸

The Puijo Hill 3-Day is a durational performance hike that will begin at the base of Puijo Ridge, the famous landmark of Kuopio. The artist encourages others to join him as he spends three days hiking up and down the hill. Anyone may join ‘the cause’,  much like an organized fundraising walk. All registered participants will be issued a bib number to wear during the hike and given a commemorative embroidered patch as a souvenir of the experience. Read more ▸

Flickers is a walk navigated by flick books and hand-cranked animation devices which place fleeting filmic images, created from photographs of the real environment, into the landscape before a walker’s eyes. Read more ▸

Tom Marshman offers a grand tour of his favourite places – the department store. Rooted in his experience of working on perfumery counters over the last six years Marshman reveals a place of seduction where one can seek solace from a cruel world. Here he shares the longing and desire, the aspiration and the uglier side of consumption that is engendered when working with such commodities. Read more ▸

A feat of physical and mental endurance as the artist walks the full marathon distance of 42.195km. Time and distance measurements will be relayed via a digital display at the project’s base-camp as Prince repeatedly walks a 1km route through the local area, passing through shops, offices and public space as the artist joins shoppers, workers and residents on their daily journey through the city. Read more ▸

A custom-built professional mascot costume of herself allows Cindy Baker to travel the world making personal appearances, as herself. Personal Appearance engages the notion of ‘fat geography’ addressing the lived reality of taboo bodies in spaces made for the ‘socio-normative’ body. Read more ▸

On Friday the red carpet is rolled out onto the streets of Kuopio. The flashlights flicker and fans scream and cheer as someone takes the Walk of Fame. Read more ▸

Andy Whall will use what he calls a ‘boulder problem’* as the site and subject for his contribution to ANTI Festival 2009. Framed as an encounter with the poetics of experience, Whall will use drawing, photography and performance to ‘represent’ the phenomena of the boulder problem. Read more ▸

For the duration of the ANTI Festival, Vincent Chevalier will be giving himself The Red Carpet Treatment. Whenever Chevalier travels from one place to another, he will walk along a 2-metre length of red carpet that he will unfurl before him. (It will be this process of locomotion that will take the artist from the plane at Kuopio Airport across the tarmac and into the arrivals hall). Enacting this endurance-based performance of privilege throughout Kuopio, Chevalier will work to generate an air of celebrity around his presence in the city, becoming both the producer and product of his own fame. Read more ▸