The 20th ANTI Festival starts tomorrow
Media release 13.9.2021
ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival starts tomorrow in Kuopio, Finland. We celebrate two decades of activity, to think through the founding principle of the festival – to give, to be in the act of giving.
Find the festival programme 14.-19.9.2021 at antifestival.com/en/programme!
Also, pick up the schedule and venue map at our Festival Info in Kantti (Museokatu 1) and Market Square (glass container, Kauppakatu 45) to see quickly what is happening, where and when. Welcome to visit!
The Schedule Map is also available online, download HERE!
All of us, including the organisers, artists and audience members, work together to build a successful and safe festival experience for everyone. Below some important points we kindly ask you to take into account when participating in our festival.
Follow the COVID safety instructions
Please find the instructions on our website antifestival.com/en/covid-19 and social media channels.
Book your seats
Participation in many of our events requires booking (0€) in advance. Bookings can be made through our online booking system at antifestival.com/en/programme.
Cancel your booking if you are hindered to attend
Audience capacity is very limited to many of our performances, for COVID safety, and many performances are already fully booked. There are many people on the waiting list. Please consider others and cancel your reservations if you are hindered to attend.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to cancel through the online booking system. If you need to cancel, please send us an email to booking@antifestival.com or SMS to +358 50 323 4547! Thank you.
Safer space
ANTI Festival is a discrimination-free event.
We do not tolerate racism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, class discrimination or comments on people’s bodies.
All of us, including the event organisers, artists, technical staff, partners and audience members, work together to make sure that the ANTI Festival is a place safe for everyone.
This can be ensured by following the instructions presented on our website: antifestival.com/en/safer-space.
For more information, contact Festival Manager Elisa Itkonen, elisa@antifestival.com, +358 50 305 2005
The 20th ANTI Festival starts in 1 week – see also this week’s programme!
Media release 7.9.2021
The 20th ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival starts in one week in Kuopio, Finland. Please book your seats (0€) to our performances and workshops in advance. There are still seats available to the events we list below.
For the bookings, go to our website: antifestival.com/en/programme. Cancellations of bookings are possible – please add your name on the waiting list. Welcome to come and ask for seats also at the door!
Download the Programme and Daily Schedule 14-19 September 2021 HERE (link). Bookings are not required in all cases, see where you can simply pop in!
We have designed ANTI Festival 2021 to take into account everything needed for a COVID safe festival experience. Several artworks can be experienced alone or in small groups, for example. See our guidelines here: antifestival.com/en/covid-19
ANTI events are all free of charge. Welcome to celebrate the 20th ANTIversary!
For more information, contact Festival Manager Elisa Itkonen, elisa@antifestival.com, 050 305 2005
600 HIGHWAYMEN (US): A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call
WED 8.9. – SAT 18.9.2021 (multiple performance times)
@ YOUR LOCATION / REMOTE (Phone)
A performance about communion, distance, and reconnection from one of the world’s most acclaimed theater companies. Designed around social distancing rules to meet participants where they are and when they are!
Book your seat NOW: antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/600-highwaymen-us-a-thousand-ways-part-one-a-phone-call
600 HIGHWAYMEN (US): A THOUSAND WAYS (Part Two): An Encounter
TUE 14.9. – SUN 19.9.2021 (multiple performance times)
@ KUOPIO ART MUSEUM, WORKSHOP SPACE
address: Kauppakatu 35
You and a stranger meet on opposite ends of a table, separated by a pane of glass. Using a script and a few simple objects, a simple exercise of working together becomes an experience of profound connection with another person.
Book your seat: antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/600-highwaymen-us-a-thousand-ways-part-two-an-encounter
WAUHAUS (FI): A Great Mess
Bus transportation to the performance leaves:
TUE 14.9.2021 / 18.00 (in Finnish)
WED 15.9.2021 / 18.00 (in Finnish)
THU 16.9.2021 / 18.00 (in Finnish)
SAT 18.9.2021 / 18.00 (in English)
@ BUS STOP MALJALAHDENKATU
address: Maljalahdenkatu, behind the City Hall
A site-sensitive performance that transports us to a waste disposal site – the largest landfill in the Eastern Finland – and offers a glimpse into a world where humans no longer see themselves as the centre of the universe.
Only a few seats left, book yours NOW: antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/wauhaus-fi-a-great-mess
Reality Research Center, Emelie Zilliacus & Martin Paul (FI): Exhibit
WED 15.9.2021 / 19.00 & 22.00
THU 16.9.2021 / 14.00, 19.00 & 22.00
SAT 18.9.2021 / 12.00 & 17.00
SUN 19.9.2021 / 12.00 & 14.00
@ GALLERY ARS LIBERA
address: Maaherrankatu 3
Would you go to a performance you know nothing about? This is an impossible performance, no-one knows the content of it, not even the festival arrangers.
Only a few seats left, book yours NOW: antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/reality-research-center-emelie-zilliacus-martin-paul-fi-exhibit
Dana Michel & Tracy Maurice (CA): VANESSA VECTOR WILLIAM DODGER – Film premiere + Q&A
THU 16.9.2021 / 16.00
@ FINNKINO SCALA, 4TH FLOOR
address: Ajurinkatu 16
Dana Michel, the 2019 Winner of the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art presents a new work at the ANTI Festival 2021! VANESSA VECTOR WILLIAM DODGER is a live film project by the Canadian Dana Michel and Tracy Maurice.
After the screening we will host an Artist Talk, live with Dana!
Book your seat: antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/dana-michel-tracy-maurice-ca-vanessa-vector-william-dodger
Narcissister (US): Narcissister Organ Player + Q&A
THU 16.9.2021 / 17.30 & 20.00
@ KINO KUVAKUKKO
address: Vuorikatu 27
Narcissister Organ Player is a documentary film that explores how ancestral data is stored in our bodies, impacting the lives we lead.
After the last screening we will host a Q&A with the artist!
Book your seat: antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/narcissister-us-narcissister-organ-player-qa
Jury of ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art 2021 & ANTI Prize Party
Media release 2.9.2021
ANTI Festival is thrilled to present the 2021 Jury of ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art. Curator and Counsellor of Culture Maria Lind (Sweden) will work as the Chair of Jury, and the other members of the jury are Professor Jennie Klein (United States), and Artist, Researcher Pilvi Porkola (Finland).
The international jury is charged with responding to the last three year’s of an artist’s output. They will experience the recent works of the nominees in Shortlist LIVE! Programme at ANTI Festival 14-19 September 2021. A focus on recent work allows the prize and its annual shortlist to encounter artists at work, in real time, with material and imperatives that speak emphatically to the contemporary moment.
The nominees for the 2021 ANTI Festival International Prize for Live are: Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (Poland/UK), keyon gaskin (United States), Florentina Holzinger (Austria), and Narcissister (United States).
The jury will award the unique prize at ANTI Prize Party on Saturday 18th September 2021.
Read more about the members of the jury (link) on our website.
ANTI Prize Party & SOFA (FI)
SAT 18.9. / 21.00 –
@ VR Konepaja (address: Pohjolankatu 1, Kuopio)
0€
In ANTI Prize Party, we will celebrate the 20-year-old ANTI Festival and the 2021 nominees and the Winner of the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art with drinks, food, and music!
Live music by SOFA, a feminist Helsinki-based rap duo!
Programme
20.30 Bar open: Drinks, Food&Snacks
21.30 Announcement of the 2021 Winner of ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art
22.00 Live music: SOFA (FI)
23.00 Dance with DJ Shy Grl
Organised in collaboration with Restaurant Ravintolamestarit.
Welcome!
ANTI will take a head start to the festival – experiences available starting from 6th Sep!
Media release 1.9.2021
The 20th ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will take place between 14th and 19th September 2021 but we will open two festival works next week already!
On Monday 6th Sep, we start with The Collectors by Veera Launonen and Ilkka Kivelä, a series of video pieces scattered across Kuopio’s urban spaces, on advertising screens.
Starting from Wednesday 8th Sep, we invite you to participate in
A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call by 600 HIGHWAYMEN from your own location, via phone.
There are several performance times available to A Phone Callbut only one seat per performance. Please book your seat (0€) in advance, and act now at antifestival.com/en/tapahtuma/600-highwaymen-us-a-thousand-ways-part-one-a-phone-call!
More about the two artworks below!
600 HIGHWAYMEN (US): A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call
8.-18.9.2021 (multiple performance times)
@ YOUR LOCATION / REMOTE (Phone)
A performance about communion, distance, and reconnection from one of the world’s most acclaimed theater companies!
A Thousand Ways is an enthralling, imaginative, and profound social experience that delivers us from isolation to congregation. A treasure hunt. An essential reckoning.
Pick up the phone. Someone is on the line. You don’t know their name, and you still won’t when the hour is over, but through this exchange – as you follow a thread of automated prompts – a portrait of your partner will emerge through fleeting moments of exposure.
Duration: 45-60 min.
Book your seat (0€) to the performance: antifestival.com/tapahtuma/600-highwaymen-us-a-thousand-ways-part-one-a-phone-call
Veera Launonen & Ilkka Kivelä (FI): The Collectors
6.-19.9.2021
The Collectors is a series of video pieces scattered across Kuopio’s urban spaces dealing with memories, emotions and dreams for the future related to urban spaces and outdoor areas.
You can come across the piece on advertising screens around Kuopio’s public spaces; around the market square, shopping centres as well as local universities:
@ SOKOS KUOPIO SHOP WINDOW
address: Haapaniemenkatu 24-26
@ LARGE SCREEN AT THE KUOPIO MARKET SQUARE
address: Kauppakatu 45
@ SHOPPING CENTRE APAJA
address: Kauppakatu 45 (under the Market Square)
@ UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND, SNELLMANIA BUILDING
address: Yliopistonranta 1
@ SAVONIA UNIVERSITY
address: Microkatu 1
@ MATKUS SHOPPING CENTRE
address: Matkuksentie 60
@KANTTI KUOPIO MUSEUM
address: Museokatu 1
@ONLINE
See The Collectors spots on our 2021 programme map, available both online and in print at the Festival Info 14-19 Sep!
After Work with @antifestival on Wed 1st Sep, 4.30 pm. + volunteer info
When: Wed 1st Sep, 4.30 – 6.30 pm.
Where: Restaurant Pannuhuone (Kauppakatu 25, Kuopio)
We will take a little break from the busy festival production and spend the evening in a relaxed atmosphere!
The 20th ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will be organised 14-19 September 2021!!! This is something to celebrate in advance as well. Welcome to join us!
See the festival programme and book seats here: antifestival.com/en/programme. We are happy to tell more during the evening!
We will be entertained by DJ Riku Ryysyläinen from the Funkkaa Taikka Kuole collective!
Please remember the guidelines for a COVID safe event: antifestival.com/en/covid-19
Volunteer info at 4 pm.
If you are interested in volunteer work at the festival, please come already at 4 pm. Let’s chat and find most suitable tasks for you!
We are looking for voluntary festival assistants to help us with the festival production! Welcome to join our team during the festival week, between 14th and 19th September 2021.
Read more at antifestival.com/en/volunteer-for-the-festival!
The third edition of Shortlist LIVE! Publication is out
Media release 26.8.2021
Shortlist LIVE! Publication is a bilingual essay publication focusing on Live Art. It presents the annual nominees for the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art and strengthens the offer of art essays in Finland, and globally.
In 2021, the nominees are Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (PL/UK), Florentina Holzinger (AT), keyon gaskin (US), and Narcissister (US). The publication is part of Shortlist LIVE! entity, which presents the nominated artists and their works extensively, also live in Kuopio at the ANTI Festival on September 14-19, 2021.
The nominated artists have suggested the authors for the essays themselves. The texts show how diverse group of artists is presented in Shortlist LIVE!, but also how the idea of an artist essay can be approached in many different ways. Some writers have worked with the artists who they are writing about in their essays, and the reader gets to experience the unique sharpness and warmth generated by the familiarity between the writer and the subject.
In addition to artist essays, Shortlist LIVE! #3 features an interview with Brian Fuata, the 2020 winner of ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art. As a guest writer-critic and essayist Maaria Ylikangas provides an elegy for performance in a form of lyrical essay.
Buy your copy of the Publication at liveartprize.com (link) and at ANTI Festival, Kuopio 14.-19.9.2021!
Georg Döcker: Florentina Holzinger
Doctoral candidate, researcher Georg Döcker provides a comprehensive overview of Florentina Holzinger’s artistic career and practice with a humorous twist.
sidony o’neal: keyon gaskin
The meaningfulness of the artist biographies is also reflected by sidony o’neal, who writes about the art of keyon gaskin. gaskin does not want to contextualize their own work with their credentials. Why so and what does it produce for the audience-artist or audience-art relationship? And how to write a fruitful artist essay in this case?
Ariel Osterweis: Narcisissister
The essay on Narcisisster is an excerpt from the article Public Pubic: Narcissister’s Performance of Race, Disavowal, and Aspiration by professor of performance studies Ariel Osterweis, published originally in 2015 in TDR / The Drama Review.
Katarzyna Słoboda: Alex Baczynski-Jenkins
The questions of choreography, touch, and intimacy are in the core of the art of Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, and thus also curator, researcher, and writer Katarzyna Słoboda addresses them in her essay Choreographies of Queer Intimacy – On Alex Baczynski-Jenkins’ Prcatice.
Editorial Staff & Publishers
Shortlist LIVE! publication #3 has been edited by Heidi Backström, translated by Essi Brunberg, and the visual layout is by Tomi Leppänen. The magazine is published in collaboration with ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival and Live Art Development Agency (LADA).
Shortlist LIVE! is supported by the Saastamoinen Foundation and the Kone Foundation.
1 month to ANTI Festival 14.-19.9.2021 – book your seats!
Media release 17.8.2021
ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will be organised between 14th and 19th September 2021 in Kuopio, Finland. Please book your seats (0€) to our performances and workshops in advance, we have opened our booking system today!
For the bookings, go to our website: antifestival.com/en/programme
In addition to performances, we offer exhibitions that can be experienced without seat reservations in public spaces.
We have designed ANTI Festival 2021 to take into account everything needed for a COVID safe festival experience. Several artworks can be experienced alone or in small groups, for example. See our guidelines here: antifestival.com/en/covid-19
Join the ANTI 2021 Facebook event here (link)!
For more information, contact Festival Manager Elisa Itkonen:
elisa@antifestival.com, +358 50 305 2005
Book now!
Below we present performances with a very limited audience capasity. We recommend to book your seats immediately.
See the exact schedules and venues, and make bookings through our online booking system at antifestival.com/en/programme!
600 HIGHWAYMEN (US): A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call
8.-18.9. YES, we will take a head start to the festival!
Several time slots
Only 1 seat/performance!
A map for finding one another through distance. A performance about communion, distance, and reconnection from one of the world’s most acclaimed theater companies.
600 HIGHWAYMEN (US): A THOUSAND WAYS (Part Two): An Encounter
14.-19.9. several time slots
Only 2 seats/performance!
A performance in which you are the actor and you are the audience. Your words, actions, gestures, silence, thoughts, and willingness are the tools.
WAUHAUS (FI): A Great Mess
TUE 14.9.2021 / 18.00 (in Finnish)
WED 15.9.2021 / 18.00 (in Finnish)
THU 16.9.2021 / 18.00 (in Finnish)
SAT 18.9.2021 / 18.00 (in English)
A site-sensitive performance that transports us to a waste disposal site – the largest landfill in the Eastern Finland. It offers a glimpse into a world where humans no longer see themselves as the centre of the universe.
Reality Research Center, Emelie Zilliacus & Martin Paul (FI): Exhibit (image above)
WED 15.9.2021 / 19.00 & 22.00
THU 16.9.2021 / 14.00, 19.00 & 22.00
SAT 18.9.2021 / 12.00 & 17.00
SUN 19.9.2021 / 12.00 & 14.00
Only 10 seats/performance!
Who decides what art should be seen and produced? The funders, the artists, the audience? What are the relations of these three in making a performance? This is an impossible performance, no-one knows the content of it, not even the festival arrangers.
Ensure your seat to Shortlist LIVE! performances
Shortlist LIVE! Programme presents performances by the artists shortlisted for the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art. The audience capasity of the performances is very limited.
Florentina Holzinger (AT): Apollon
FRI 17.9.2021 / 19.00
Six women tackle the neoliberalist cult of the body with all their performative brilliance and vicious physical virtuosity. The performance limbos between the aesthetics of an occult fitness-studio, a cyborg-bullfight and neoclassical ballet.
Narcissister (US): Narcissister Live(s)
FRI 17.9.2021 / 21.30
The New York based artist and performer Narcissister presents an evening-length set consisting of video and live performance works from her repertoire.
Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (PL/UK): The tremble
SAT 18.9.2021 / 13.00 – 16.00 / durational
The work enacts a choreographic mediation on the relationships between touch, intimacy, loss and collectivity.
Visitors will be admitted on a first-come-first-served basis. Ensure your seat to the beginning of the performance by making a reservation!
keyon gaskin (US): its not a thing
SAT 18.9.2021 / 16.30
keyon gaskin prefers not to contextualize with their credentials.
Newsletter 08/2021
Welcome to celebrate the 20 years of ANTI!
ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will take place between 14th and 19th September 2021 in Kuopio, Finland. As we approach our 20th festival, amid these challenging times, we turn to an idea that sits at the heart of ANTI Festival’s mission – free to attend for audiences, the festival is framed from within an idea of a gift.
We have designed the festival to take into account everything needed for us all to be safe. Several artworks can be experienced alone or in small groups. See our guidelines for a COVID safe festival experience here: antifestival.com/en/covid-19
This newsletter covers also:
Workshops at ANTI Festival
Volunteer for the festival
Read ANTIZINE to dive in!
Workshops at ANTI Festival
Besides performances and exhibitions, our festival programme includes workshops that allow you to express yourself and go deeper into the festival themes. See the workshop programme below:
Spectacle Academy workshops – in Finnish!
Spectacle Academy combines an art exhibition with teaching. It uses subvertising to create a seamless combination or art, activism and teaching.
During the ANTI Festival, we will teach advertising literacy in workshops, discuss issues that are never addressed in adverts, and intertwine the languages of advertising and poetry.
HUUMA LÄBI
TUE 14.9.2021 / 16.00-18.00
WED 15.9.2021 / 14.30-16.30
THU 16.9.2021 / 16.00-18.00
@ KULTTUURIAREENA 44
address: Kauppakatu 44
Accessible event
No bookings needed in advance.
The HUUMA workshops in Kuopio (2019-) focus on examining bodily work through contemporary dance and improvised movement. Various techniques from theatre expression are used to examine and practise interaction and emotional skills. The project involves young participants as active agents engaged in creating content together with artists.
The HUUMA LÄBI workshops, open to all festival visitors, continue this practice together with wider participant groups.
The workshops will be directed by Kaisa Ritola and Anna-Maria Väisänen.
You got to give what you take?
FRI 17.9.2021 / 12.00 – 16.00
SAT 18.9.2021 / 10.00 – 15.00
@ KANTTI, MUSEUM WORKSHOP ROOM
address: Museokatu 1
No bookings needed in advance.
The students of Aalto University will host a participatory event – a set of gifts to the visiting creatures. Together with the participating audiences (people, other living beings, organisms and/or biological/technological processes) the students will organise series of art projects in the space. The themes of the projects are giving, receiving and gift.
The event is open to all and suitable for people of all ages.
READ MORE
Volunteer for the festival
We are looking for voluntary festival assistants to help us with the festival production! Welcome to join our team between 6th and 20th September and especially during the festival week, between 14th and 19th September 2021.
We need helping hands, for example, to:
oversee exhibitions and guide audiences at the venues
transport guests and equipment
roudie work
work at the festival info desk
assist our artists
You may volunteer on one day or for a week, for example. Please let us know when you are available between 6th and 20th September and which tasks you would prefer!
The volunteer work will take place in Kuopio, Finland, at different festival venues.
Sign up to elisa@antifestival.com / +358 50 305 2005!
Read ANTIZINE to dive in!
ANTIZINE vol. 9 / 2021 is a festival catalogue + much more!
Part 1 presents the 2021 festival programme, including the Shortlist LIVE! Programme; performances by artists shortlisted for ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art 2021. Part 2 celebrates the 20th anniversary of ANTI Festival through a series of mini essays by our friends – artists, partners and audience members!
Get your printed copy at our Festival Info in Kuopio 14-19 September 2021. Available also online, see above!
Read ANTIZINE to dive in!
ANTIZINE vol. 9 / 2021 is a festival catalogue + much more!
Part 1 presents the 2021 festival programme, including the Shortlist LIVE! Programme; performances by artists shortlisted for ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art 2021.
Part 2 celebrates the 20th anniversary of ANTI Festival through a series of mini essays by our friends – artists, partners and audience members! Here are some bits and parts of what they wrote about ANTI:
“ANTI Festival is a pioneer as an ambitious and long-standing Live Art festival
both at the national and international level.”
– Leena Kela, performance artist, the artistic director of the New Performance Turku Festival and the executive director of Saari Residence maintained by Kone Foundation.
”The City of Kuopio has the intent of renewing its living urban culture and urban art, and ANTI is the city’s most important partner in this context.”
– Kirsi Soininen, Marketing Director of the City of Kuopio.
”(ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art) is really just about creating an opportunity and sustaining artists’ career. That radical act coming from this small town in Finland is a big statement.”
– Cassils (CA/US), artist & the first ever Winner of ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art (2014)
ANTIZINE available online, see above!
Get your printed copy at our Festival Info in Kuopio 14-19 September 2021!
Newsletter 06/2021
Save the dates 14.-19.9.2021!
Mark your calendar with the ANTI Festival dates 14-19 September 2021! Welcome to celebrate the 20 years of ANTI in Kuopio, Finland!
The full festival programme is now available at antifestival.com/en/programme!
Please book your seat (0€) to our performances and workshops in advance, we will open the booking system in August! Bookings can be made through our online booking system. The festival programme also includes exhibitions and interventions in public spaces where no bookings are required.
Join the ANTI 2021 Facebook event (link)!
ANTI team on holiday
The ANTI Festival team will have a summer break between 5th and 18th July. Our communication channels will be quiet for a while but you’ll hear from us again in late July!
Have a good summer!
HUUMA workshops continue in August
Young person between ages 16 and 29, feel welcome to join the open and free HUUMA workshops!
Who would you be if you could be anyone or anything?
Come dream with us!
You don’t need to have previous experience with dancing!
Come join us in HUUMA!
In the workshops, many types of teenagers and young adults in Kuopio meet up and express themselves through dance and movement. Together, we will handle different themes through bodily expression.
Participating in the workshops doesn’t require previous experience with dancing nor any other special skills. We will learn and try out new things together.
The language of the workshops is primarily Finnish. The instructors are artists Kaisa Ritola and Anna-Maria Väisänen.
When?
On Mondays at 13.30 – 16.00
August: 2.8, 9.8, 16.8, 23.8. & 30.8.
September: 6.9, 13.9, 20.9. & 27.9.
October: 4.10, 11.10. & 25.10.
November: 1.11, 8.11, 15.11, 22.11. & 29.11.
Where?
Kulttuuriareena 44 (Kauppakatu street 44, Kuopio, Finland)