Newsletter 2/2019
The Theme of ANTI Festival 2019
The 18th edition of ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will take place between 10th and 15th September 2019. Once again ANTI is bringing internationally celebrated, award-winning artists from around the world to Kuopio Finland to present their work. The theme and the focus of this year’s festival is death.
ANTI Festival’s artistic directors Johanna Tuukkanen & Gregg Whelan are looking forward to this years festival:
“We’re surprised it’s taken us 18 years to get here. Ideas of death, its impact, its social and cultural standing, its place in human life, its place in all life, has been one of the key drivers behind artistic practice for centuries.
ANTI’s 2019 programme traces various iterations of death across an eclectic range of projects in an attempt to open-up thinking around our relationship to it and to the many sets of phenomena that surround it. Ideas die, eras end, materials become obsolete, things break, technology supersedes itself, places are abandoned, the natural world is destroyed, social and political ideals are overthrown and of course plant, animal and human life is finite. All of the above produce grief in one form or other and all have the power to cause change and not always, and – of course – not necessarily, for the worse; much good, much joy comes from death. As tired ideas die society advances, or at least tries to, and we (sometimes) rejoice.
So how does contemporary art speak to this most contemporary, and ageless, presence in our lives? That’s the central question driving ANTI’s 2019 programme; what new practice, what new experience, new knowledge and new joy can we locate in thinking about and working about death?”
The festival programme will be published
in the spring 2019.
Death Cafe – Coffee, Cake and Discussion about Death
This year’s theme is death and we’ll start to make acquaintance through the international Death Cafe concept. In Kuoleman kahvila / Death Cafe we gather together for coffee and cake to talk about death and dying. Make yourself at home in a cozy atmosphere, express your thoughts and hear other people’s stories. Let’s redefine death from a taboo to a natural topic for discussion! Discussion in Finnish.
Wednesday 20.3. 17.00-19.00
Wednesday 24.4. 17.00-19.00
Wednesday 22.5. 17.00-19.00
Kukka- ja hautauspalvelu Rosanna | Vuorikatu 25, Kuopio
Maximum capacity 20 persons. Booking in advance: production@antifestival.com.
Suvi Koivisto Starts as the New Producer of ANTI Festival
The new producer of ANTI festival has been found! Suvi Koivisto is a cultural producer who graduated from the Humak University of Applied Sciences. Suvi has a wealth of experience in producing corporate events and promotions, and she also has a strong background in volunteering at various cultural events. Suvi will return to Kuopio after eight years and is excited to produce this year’s ANTI festival! In the future, he wants to bring even more culture to the people of Kuopio to see and experience. Welcome Suvi!