Anti Festival 2012 - Compilation from ANTI Festival on Vimeo.
Lasten ANTI - Children's ANTI 2012 from ANTI Festival on Vimeo.
ANTI - Contemporary Art Festival 2013 is organized 24.-29.9.
Is nature mightier than nurture?
ANTI - Contemporary Art Festival, 25-30 September 2012 Kuopio, Finland
This year the unique and daring site-specific ANTI - Contemporary Art Festival will take over public spaces in Kuopio for the 11th time. And not just in the town — the Luonnon ANTI programme will set up camp on the island of Karhonsaari as well. A weekend-long artwork and workshop programme has been planned especially with children in mind.
It’s a pleasure to welcome the spectacular Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens to ANTI. Famed around the world for their extraordinary performance works the pair present two pieces, the second being a wedding like no other: aboard a cruise ship, with the audience reimagined as guests, Sprinkle and Stephens will marry lake Kallavesi in what promises to be a spectacular closing to the festival. The wedding’s dress code? Blue!
Lighting designer Jukka Huitila created a sensational spectacle when he lit up the Olympic Stadium Tower for the Lux Helsinki event. In Kuopio he will illuminate a spot near the Market Square that would very easily remain unnoticed without the installation of changing lights.
This year the ANTI - Contemporary Art Festival programme works on the themes of man's relationship with nature and the connection between sexuality and the body as well as the natural state of the human body. The gender queer artist Kris Grey, who will be the festival's resident artist, will work on these themes with workshop participants. Artist Heather Cassils will perform her work Teresiasin the classical assembly hall in the Kuopio Provincial Government building. Teresias is based on the Greek myth and deals with the transformation of the body. Australian artists Makeshift invite people to help them preserve seasonal food. In the end the jars will contain pickles and jam but also discussions and moments lived together.
The five-year EU project A Space for Live Art is coming to its end. The Festival will feature a vanishing exhibition, which will display images of project events from the past four years. In connection to the project that has been promoting interaction between artists, the Chilean-born artist Alejandra Herrera will perform her crisis-themed performance, which will be commented on by Marija Mojca Pungercar, who will be performing her work on the same theme at the next project partner festival.
Special events will be arranged this year for the youngest festival guests in the Children's ANTI programme. Children will be able to build a flying device for their soft toys with Amos Latteier (Canada) and create works of light art with Maaret Salminen in the Puijo Tower area. There will also be a girls-only workshop where the girls will deconstruct a car with Dina Rončević (Croatia). Local talent will be spread by Kuopio's own textile artist Tarja Wallius, who will show children how to personalise their festival T-shirts as souvenirs. Other visitors to the Festival will have a chance to personalise their shirts at the Alma Café during the Festival week. Photographer Maria Kärkkäinen will be watching the town from high up in the air: there will be live streaming from the photographic work to be shot on the Puijo ski slope for the audience's delight or horror.
A completely new territorial conquest will take place as ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival produces a series of Luonnon ANTI events on Karhonsaari, an island renowned for its natural beauty. During the festival weekend six artists from various countries will combine an outing enjoying nature with live art. The productions are part of the EU-funded Up to Nature programme and they will be presented, in addition to Kuopio, in Vienna, Bristol and Oslo in 2012. The aim of the programme is to show productions outside the cities, without any amplifiers, lights or technology. Between the performances the audience can bathe in a sauna, go fishing, explore the landscapes in the conservation areas or enjoy the autumnal outdoors while roasting sausages over a campfire.
The ANTI Festival will feature a first-class seminar this year. The lecturers at the Nature - Body - Sex seminar are internationally recognised experts in the field. They include Jill Casid (USA), Professor of Visual Culture Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Joanna Zylinska (UK), cultural theorist from Goldsmiths University of London. In addition to these impressive ladies, Pier Luigi Sacco (Italy), Professor of Cultural Economics at the IULM University, Milan, will be given the floorand some of the performers of the ANTI Festival will also provide artists' views on the themes.
See more info on works and artists from the respective pages, and visit our festival centre at Restaurant King's Crown (Kuninkaankatu 22) during the festival week.