A special work is brought to Helsinki by two November festivals Baltic Circle and Moving in November. Fionde by Chiara Bersani & Ilaria Lemmo, a performative artwork delivered by post. After buying your ticket, you will receive a box containing everything you need to experience the performance at home. The content of the box is not revealed beforehand – it is always a surprise, an encounter with the unexpected.
Artistic directors Hanna Parry and Kerstin Schroth both started at the same time, end of year 2019. Now we invite you to read a conversation between the two, regarding the first collaboration of the festivals.
Hanna Parry: What do you wish Baltic Circle could give to Moving in November? What is Moving in November willing to give to Baltic Circle?
Kerstin Schroth: I think both Baltic Circle and Moving in November can give to each other friendship, inspiration, thinking together and support. Through the proximity in time, we can invent special collaborations that can expand/stretch over both festivals. Works that by traveling and meandering through both, can develop a specific dynamic. Having the chance to span over a longer time and creating different encounters with both of our programs.Connecting the festivals, through artistic works gives a special potential and quality to collaborating. Maybe also the impact of certain works and reflections is highlighted by our collaboration.
This year we collaborate around the work of Chiara Bersani and Ilaria Lemmo: Fionde, a performative object and experience delivered in a box to the spectator’s home. A special work to start of our collaboration.
Kerstin: This year, it seems that we both can go ahead with our original plans regarding programs. How do you look at your second edition and what are your wishes regarding this November?
Hanna: I’m extremely grateful and excited about the possibility of going towards a festival that is not constricted by restrictions and compromises. I see my second edition as a clear and purposeful proposal of works and acts that aim to strengthen the feeling of belonging in both ecological and social circulations. My wishes for November are that we can all gather again, enjoy the festive energy and its social and political potential, and strengthen more sustainable practices.
Hanna: You live in the middle of Europe, surrounded by culture, me between a forest and a sea, what could our different surroundings offer to each other’s curatorial work?
Kerstin: I think we can offer to each other’s curatorial work an outside view and open mind to discuss and share. When I am in Paris, my work life is highly influenced by seeing performances almost on an everyday level, also exhibitions and strolling around a city that seems iconic as such. When I am not in Paris, I cover my lack and urge of being in nature. I enjoy our conversations, as I always sense, that we approach subjects we share from a different angle. That’s enriching!
Kerstin: How is it for you to think about a festival program in the month of November in Helsinki?
Hanna: November in Helsinki is dark, windy and rainy. The black and white landscape is bare, waiting for the snow to cover it. For me thinking about a festival in November gives social shelter. Its intense energy, communal essence and special relation to time can create care and attention – both needed for surviving the harsh month here.
Hanna: If we combine our festivals in time, we cover almost a full month. For what could you use more time?
Kerstin: If I would answer your question in a personal way, my answer would be reading (always). In relation to both of our festivals, I would wish to be able to experience your festival as intensively as Moving in November. Having the time to see all works and encounters you are proposing. Meeting the artists, you have been working with, as much as discussing all the works we have been both inviting in detail with you.
Kerstin: Fionde by Chiara Bersani & Ilaria Lemmo is a performance, delivered in a box to peoples’ homes. I like the thought, that with it, the audience receives one small part of both of our festivals into their living rooms, like an extension of both. Do you have thoughts on this?
Hanna: I enjoy the thought as well! Fionde is a beautiful example of a festival work that takes a surprising form, pops up into one’s life and invites to experience something special. I’m curious to see what it creates in its different surroundings and love the idea that the festivals can also come to people who cannot come to the festivals. I’m happy that our first collaboration makes it possible to bring Chiara Bersani’s and Ilaria Lemmo’s work for the first time to Helsinki.
Tickets to Fionde can be ordered through Tiketti, link below. The deliveries will start today, 21stof October, and continue until 27thof November. Optionally, you can pick up the box from Caisa (Kaikukatu 4b, 00530 Helsinki) during both festivals. However, you choose when you want to take the time to experience the piece.