Public Selfcare System


At 14-18

At 13-17

At 10-14

→ Booking


Where

Sokos Hotel Puijonsarvi
(come and wait at Festival info, situated at the hotel’s lobby)
Minna Canthin katu 16
70100 Kuopio


Language

English, translation to Finnish available.


Duration

20 minutes for each participant.


Recommended age

Participation is recommended only for over 16 year olds.


Public Selfcare System is a one-to-one performance, a tandem jump into the unknown, a direct action, and a masterclass in the radical act of stopping.

 “I am an expert in resting in public thanks to a neurological condition that forces me to lie down wherever I happen to be, and stay there until I am well enough to get up again. In order to carry on living we may all have to learn to stop in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day, and rest. Get ahead of the curve, get your training in now. 

Come with me to a place you may have seen, walked past, but never been to. We are going to lie down and have a rest. You have a right to be here, you have a right to do this. We can do it together.”

A performance first conceived by Rhiannon Armstrong in 2016, Public Selfcare System in 2024 considers who is and is not allowed to rest and where, and what resting as an act of solidarity might mean.

As well as the one-to-one performance, textile works from the project exploring labour, rest, visibility and invisibility will be on display at various locations:

Sokos Hotel Puijonsarvi, Minna Canthin katu 16
Pääkirjasto, Maaherrankatu 12
Keltsu, Kuninkaankatu 30
Kaupunginteatteri, Niiralankatu 2
RoseBud, Puijonkatu 23

Article photo:
Public Selfcare System at Tempting Failure, Croydon, London, 2016. Image by Julia Bauer.