
During the lockdown between March and May and after the first wave of virtual performances and having become one of many faces on platforms like zoom, skype, hangout a deep craving manifested itself. A desire to leave the virtual space, to grow a body again, arms, legs and feet and to come back to live encounters with friends and family, but also to be back in the theater.
We have adapted our plans, the festival spills over in time and space. Half of the original planned program happens now on 5th to 15th of November, as Traces in November, the other half will happen as Traces from November in the first half of 2021. But most importantly, we are now able to invite you to share festive moments with us.
The festival as a meeting place, dedicated to conversations and exchange, highlighting the importance of the live encounter. The significance for artists to be able to work and present and to engage with audience.
Not everything can happen as planned, but still many things are possible. The virus makes us re-think reality, it points at all the fragile sides of our society. It brings out insecurity and fear and asks us to deal with the unknown, the uncontrollable, to handle a certain emptiness that can’t always be filled immediately. Art and artists can help us to re-think our reality, to reflect and look at the word that we inhabit in another way, to drop out of this reality, to spend time together. And we do the rest and take good care of your safety while you are with us.
During this November program, you are welcome in the theater and to stay home and to enjoy a piece, entirely conceived for the virtual space. You are invited to have a soup and artist talks, to see movies and to sharpen your gaze and engage in the poetics of observation a workshop/ introduction while watching contemporary dance.
The festival opens on the 5th with the piece Talking in the rain by Reality Research Center, Ferske Scener & Western Norway Research Institute that you can watch at home and with the large scale installation work: THE SHOW MUST NOT GO ON by British artist Tim Etchells in front of the doors of Caisa. Inside our artistic director welcomes you over a period of five days with an open invitation, to meet and engage in conversations with her or to browse through the book The Voice of a City by Nada & Co. a hint to a piece we show later in the season.
Also in Caisa the discursive series Soup Talks, encounters with the festival artists, each hosted by a Helsinki based artists, welcome you from the 8th onwards. The movie Donna Haraway: Story Telling For Earthly Survival by Fabrizio Terranova closes this series on the 15th.
The program on stage begins with O Samba do crioulo doido by Luiz de Abreu, in combination with the movie O Samba do Crioulo Doido: Ruler and Compass by Calixto Neto on the 10th. On the same day Sonja Jokiniemi premiers her new groupwork ÖH, the this years’ coproduction between the festival and Zodiak.
These pieces are followed by Consul and Meshie by Antonia Baehr and Latifa Laâbissi in an visual installation by Nadia Lauro presented in Taidehalli and by an adaptation of Tribute, a piece originally made for nine dancers, now danced by the choreographer Frédéric Gies himself. Tribute – library version reflects the current situation and the difficulties artists and organizers face when presenting and touring works.
Take your time, sharpen your gaze and dive into the program together with us!
We wish you a good festival, great conversations and encounters.
Your Moving in November team