Author: Tuuli Vahtola

Pre-note Moving in November 2025
Program release September 12^th

Dear public, friends, and colleagues,

By now, it has become a tradition to write a pre-note to you before the festival program is officially released. As I write this, it’s the end of July. While I am looking forward to a summer break, my mind is still spinning, revolving around this year’s festival program.

In a text by Claudia La Rocco* I came across a phrase by Sakyong Mipham that caught my attention, particularly the second half: Planting a Flower on a Rock. I could not stop thinking about it and was wondering, if: Planting Trees in Sand would be a more accurate metaphor for today’s world. Both images carry an almost utopian impossibility–and yet, they speak about resistance, patience, and making the impossible happen; as growing something delicate and fragile under hard circumstances or something large and enduring in an unstable environment.

I have been also thinking again about the Finnish title of the festival: Liikkeellä marraskuussa. When run through automatic translation, it does not translate as Moving in November–instead, it gives On the move in November. In German: Unterwegs im November or Aufbruch im November; in French: En route en novembre. A subtle but significant shift. These variations suggest not simply motion, but departure, transition–a state of being in-between. We are not merely “moving” in November; we are setting out, closing our jackets and going, leaving something behind, heading towards the unknown. The whereto is not defined yet–but we are on the move.

I am intrigued by this. Movement stands in opposition to stagnation; it implies change–a shift, a becoming. It makes me think of the persistence of water: how, over time, it carves holes through stone. The movement quality of water carries within it a profound sense of resistance and endurance but also rest.
There is, quite literally, “die Ruhe vor dem Sturm”; the German saying for “the calm before the storm”, describing the peaceful, fleeting moment of stillness before something shifts, before the chaos arrives.
But what if the storm is constant? How do we find a calm phase–a moment of rest–within ongoing turbulences?

All these evoked images–the atmospheres and qualities–I find reflected in this year’s Moving in November program, through the invited artistic works. Rest, resistance, endurance and the ability to invite contemplation and reflection into the spaces, they have imagined for us. Spaces that hold us and bring us together for a while.

Rest can be a form of resistance–a conscious stepping aside, a pause to observe. Not to stand paralysed, but to continue moving differently. It takes resilience not to be constantly thrown around by the spinning, speeding world around us, but to take the time to reflect, to rest amidst the ongoing noise. With this in mind, I invite a collective moment of digestion–a shared pause–as we dive into this year’s Moving in November program.

Soon, the wait has an end: we release this year’s program on September 12^th.

In November, you will experience an international program alongside our Focus on the Local Landscape and we warmly invite you again to participate in our Soup Talks series and the Audience Club.

Yours,
Kerstin Schroth & the Moving in November team

*(Claudia La Rocco: “Certain Things”, Afternoon Editions N°4)

Photo: Kerstin Schroth

How can a festival be organised in the face of funding cuts? This question has occupied our minds throughout the first half of the year. While Moving in November has not been directly affected, the ripple effects have reached us–both through cuts at our partners and the overall instability and uncertainty that echoes throughout Finland’s performing arts landscape.

Without a permanent venue of our own, Moving in November has always woven the festival through the fabric of the Helsinki area, bringing it to different parts of the city. We work in close collaboration with partner venues and cultural institutes. Consequently, we are dependent and relying on the resources and financial contributions our partners can allocate to this collaboration. Moving in November’s budget consists of several factors: funding from the City of Helsinki, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike), contributions from our partner venues, private foundations, as well as cultural institutes and embassies from various countries–as well as ticket sales.

This year, we initially finalized the program, but we found ourselves having to rethink and restructure it multiple times. We were compelled to develop a solid backup plan and, regretfully, part ways with some of the artists and companies we had already invited. This decision is not only saddening but also deeply complex, as it contributes to the broader instability within the field at large. Letting go means breaking commitments we had made and, in a way, letting down the artists who had engaged as much in us as we did in them, reserving their time for the festival.
In the end, this leads to a reduced program, yet one we remain proud of. We hope it will inspire you to dream, reflect, exchange with each other and spark conversations that feel more crucial than ever–bringing us all together in one space.

Whether there is a sustainable strategy for the future and how a diverse performing arts field here up in the North will survive in the coming years–stays for now unfortunately an unanswered question.

I have spent the past few months reading extensively about individualisation and polarisation, reflecting upon the notion of a festival in these times–especially as we witness suffering around the world and see countries investing more in war and defense than in art, social spaces, and culture.

Of course, I see the individualisation of Western societies all around me, encountering it in my daily life. Yet, I also hear, see and feel how deeply people long for connection, companionship, and spaces that bring them together. This is exactly what Moving in November offers each year through ten days–a place to meet, experience art together, and to be in conversation. I am still amazed by the increase in our audience from one year to the next. A thousand more spectators attended last year, immersing themselves in the continuous flow of the festival, engaging with it, and asking how to continue after the festival ends without the social framework we provide through art.
What we at Moving in November can contribute to an unstable world and a fragile performing arts field, is exactly this: to not give up, and to continue creating.

Moreover, we believe it is crucial to continue offering a festival pass at an accessible price, allowing you to experience as many performances as possible without the barrier of high ticket costs. A condensed period to experience art to the fullest together. We are committed to making Moving in November accessible to as many as possible, which is why we keep ticket prices low and offer the festival pass.

Moving in November will also continue with Focus on the Local Landscape, maintaining the approach established last year. With Focus on the Local Landscape, we embrace artistic proposals from the local performing arts scene that came towards us by chance. Artists who, for example, received funding to produce but lacked venues, or a frame and visibility to present their works. We decided to include these proposals into the program. We continue to examine what happens when different resources are brought together to create a program. Artists and companies, institutions, and Moving in November joining forces and gathering resources, is both a response and a political statement.

If you have not yet reserved the festival dates: Moving in November will take place between November 6 to 16. We will release the program mid-September, stay tuned.

Wishing you a good summer and looking forward to seeing you in November.

Kerstin Schroth together with Isabel González
27.6.2025

Photo: Kerstin Schroth