Future DiverCities Lab 2019

Herr Finnland was born in 1982 into a half Austrian half Finnish family and was raised in Salzburg / Austria. After studying in Salzburg he worked as a production manager for Europe’s biggest HIV & AIDS Charity Event the Viennese Life Ball, where he was involved in the opening show. In 2011 he found with a very playful approach the Viennese Immersive Theatre formation Nesterval. Today Herr Finnland’s Nesterval ensemble consists of more than 40 members including performances, (trained and not-trained) actors, dancers and musicians, who embody the story of the Nesterval dynasty in various formations and roles. As director and producer he makes sure that Nesterval also turns the viewer into an integral part of the performance, inviting all of us to ask heavy questions with a disarming lightness and seek for answers in the unlikeliest of places. Beyond the traditional and institutionalised theatre business Herr Finnland works with performers coming mainly from the queer community, and finds new possibilities and expressions in which gender roles and conventions are shifted and broken.

Kattrin Deufert (DE)

Kattrin Deufert is one half of the artistic duo deufert&plischke. The works of deufert&plischke focus on time, memory, myth, and how we should live together. As an artistic duo for more than 17 years, they have adhered to the radical notion that choreography can build society, not merely illustrate it. Thus, collaboration and participation are central themes in deufert&plischke’s methodology, process and performance: in their multi-faceted work, be it a choreographic concert, lecture, or exhibition, theatre takes place only insofar as it can be knit together by everyone – artists and spectators – in the moment of performance. Choreography thus becomes a social activity, not determined by aesthetic principles, but by existential and philosophical concepts such as war and peace, freedom and truth. Theater as a social situation – from the common rehearsal to the performance – is the driving force of deufert&plischke’s choreographic form and artistic expression.

Kim Modig is an artist living in Helsinki. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Theatre Studies from the Theatre Academy in 2009. Modig is part of the Biitsi duo and the Orker communications agency.

Lara Thoms (AU)

Lara Thoms is a queer artist interested in socially engaged, site-specific and participatory possibilities in contemporary art and performance. Her collaborative feminist work Before the Siren with Hannah Gadsby, Snapcat and 500 women from recreational clubs was commissioned for Perth International Arts Festival. Lara worked with child activists and asylum seeker children trapped on Nauru to create We all Know What’s Happening’ with Samara Hersch which has gone on to tour to Theatrespektakle and Nooderzen festivals 2019. Lara was an artistic associate with Aphids since 2012 before taking up the co-directorship. She has also been part of artist collective Field Theory for a decade, creating the site-specific, durational work. Recently she was commissioned to make a course for high school students on socially engaged art for the Museum of Contemporary Art. She is currently based in NYC, USA.

Lauri Hei (FI)

Lauri Hei is a poet, visual artist and software developer living in Kuopio. Hei’s works are often based on minimalism, conceptual art, constraints and randomness. He often utilizes visual errors and glitch aesthetics of corrupted video and image files. As a poet he is interested in contemporary experimental and digital poetry.

Veera Launonen (FI)

Veera Launonen is a Kuopio based visual artist who works with moving image, sound and photography. Through her works, she explores the changes and the transience of her own living environment. She uses old photographs and videos as well as recycled or found objects as material. Launonen has been working with her partner Ilkka Martti Kivelä since 2014. Their collaborations have been exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions, as well as festivals in Finland and abroad. This year, their works will be seen for example in Lappeenranta Art Museum and Gallery Rajatila in Tampere.