City is sound, city is quicksand – voicing imaginaries and dissonances.
City is sound, city is quicksand – voicing imaginaries and dissonances is the third and final art + research event organized by the City as Space of Rules and Dreaming research project[i] (enabled by Kone Foundation 2021–2024) at Hietsu Pavilion in Helsinki on May 21–23, 2024. The event focuses on spaces, voices and practices of uncertainty and potentiality in urban landscape.
PROGRAMME
Tuesday 21.5
11.00-13.30 WORKSHOP Wandering soundscapes by Jaakko Ruuska,
featuring Brigitta Stone-Johnson, BJ Engelbrecht, Jill Richards & Jurgen Meekel
Duration: 2,5 hours
Maximum of 9 participants
Meeting point: in front of the pavilion
In the Wandering soundscapes workshop, the aim is to study the event of listening. How do we situate ourselves with the soundscapes of the city? How do we listen? In this practical workshop, the participants are invited to take short walks and listen to the soundscapes of the southern corner of Helsinki. The task is to invent instructions for listening, and to try them out together. The goal is to study, how the event of listening situates us within the urban ecology.
*Note the weather reservation. In case of the heavy rain, the workshop will be cancelled. Otherwise, dress according to the weather.
*See REGISTRATION above*
14:00–14:30 PERFORMANCE Sirpa Jokinen, Places, sounds, words
15:00–17:30 GUEST ARTIST’S PERFORMANCE by Danae Theodoridou,
One Three Some - An Attempt for Devising a Democratic Assembly
Duration: appr. 2 hours followed by discussion
Maximum of 40 participants
Location: pavilion big hall / paviljongin iso sali
In An Attempt for Devising a Democratic Assembly, the audience members/participants create their own citizens’ assembly following a text given to them at the beginning of the performance. The text assigns ‘roles’ (of speaker, listener, moderator, etc.) to the members of the assembly, instructing them on what to do or say (or even refuse to do or say if they want to). Part of the text is left open, giving space to the participating individuals to freely express their thoughts about democracy and our social coexistence. Through a game structure, the assembly is led step by step into a collective reflection on the practice of assembly and our personal attitude towards it. Recognizing the central role of the body in politics, this participatory performance explores how the way we use and position our bodies in relation to other bodies can affect the way we think, speak, feel and act politically.
An Attempt for Devising a Democratic Assembly is the third phase of the artist’s research on the relationship between art and democracy. After the Analogue Campaign, which focused on the practice of public speaking, and Languages of the Unheard, which experimented with the language of protests, this time the focus is on an embodied approach to the practice of assembling.
*See REGISTRATION above*
17:00–19:00 PERFORMANCE by Timo Tähkänen, Little Mermaid
18:00– OPENING with ARTWORKS
feat. Anita Szentesi’s continuous workshop The Land and I
Wednesday 22.5
WORKSHOP: Get Hooked by Marloeke van der Vlugt
Duration: 2 hours - Minimum of 6 / maximum of 12 participants. - Meeting point: in the pavilion
This workshop introduces participants to my artistic research and creation method Touching which aims to actively distribute agency between materialities ((non)human bodies, objects, spaces). Touching attempts to sensitize participants for their reciprocal relation to ‘the world around’. I will focus on the Hietsu Pavilion to jointly explore if and how Touching can support uncovering or refinding connections that were lost within this building over the last 65 years. To do so, I will guide the participants experientially to notice relations between materialities and time, to jointly (re)formulate and transform historical anecdotes into actual imaginations and poetic material speculations.
*See REGISTRATION above*
11:00–13:00 PERFORMANCE byTimo Tähkänen,Little Mermaid
11:45–12:30 SOUND INSTALLATION Poetry of Small things, by Playgroup: Jill Richards, BJ Engelbrecht & Jurgen Meekel, intoduced by Jaakko Ruuska
13:30–16:00 PANEL DISCUSSION
Artistic research and city space: ”How will we live together?”, chaired byStefan Winter.
Panelists:Heidi Hänninen, Lauri Jäntti, Danae Theodoridou, Anita Szentesi, Alexander Damianisch, Paul Tiensuu+ via zoom:Prince Massingham, Neo Monyamane, Mocke Jansen van Veuren & Rashid the Magician(tbc)
16:30–18:00 SOUNDINGS, TALKS 1
Eerika Jalasaho,smelling space and time (talk)
Jan-Erik Andersson,A Leaf and a Hexagon – Viruses for Change (talk)
Andy Best,OBJEKTI – art as an actor for social empowerment (talk)
18:30– EVENING BY THE BEACH wPoetry of Small things
byPlaygroup (Engelbrecht, Richards & Meekel)
feat.Taivalsaari Protectorate
Thursday 23.5
9:00-10:45 SOUNDINGS, TALKS 2
Otso Aavanranta, Unité sonore mobile (sound performance, followed by discussion)
Samedha Arora, Assent Listening of Dissent: A listener in a political environment; Helsinki Protests for Gaza Ceasefire in 2023- 2024 (talk)
Alex Arteaga, Exploring signlesness. An essay on the proto-phenomenal city (extended reading)
11:00–13:00 WITS interventions
Anita Szentesi
Zen Marie
Brigitta Stone-Johnson
13:00–13:45 GUEST ARTIST’S LECTURE-PERFORMANCE, Shubhangi Singh, Rest/Unrest
14:00–15:30 ROUNDTABLE, City as Space of Rules and Dreaming
Henna Halonen, Aino Hirvola, Maiju Loukola, Jaakko Ruuska, Tanja Tiekso, Paul Tiensuu
16:00–17:00 ON PUBLISHING
Zen Marie, Brigitta Stone-Johnson, ellipsis [--]
Halonen-Loukola-Tiekso, RUUKKU theme issue cfp launch
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS/RESEARCHERS
Stefan Winter
Elisa Villota
Marloeke van der Vlugt
Mocke Jansen van Veuren
Timo Tähkänen
Paul Tiensuu
Tanja Tiekso
Danae Theodoridou
Anita Szentesi
Brigitta Stone-Johnson
Shubhangi Singh
Jaakko Ruuska
Vincent Roumagnac
Playgroup: BJ Engelbrecht, Jill Richards, Jurgen Meekel
Mohammad Mustafa
Neo Monyamane
Prince Massingham
Rashid the Magician
Zen Marie
Maiju Loukola
Nina Liebenberg
Pia Euro & Tanja Kiiveri
Simo Kellokumpu
Sirpa Jokinen
Eerika Jalasaho
Aino Hirvola
Henna-Riikka Halonen
Mika Elo
Alexander Damianisch
Andy Best
Alex Arteaga
Samedha Arora
Annette Arlander
Jan-Erik Andersson
Otso Aavanranta
The project is is funded by the Kone Foundation and coordinated by the Academy of Fine Arts
(Doctoral programme) at the University of the Arts Helsinki
Other partners are Helsinki University Faculty of Law, Helsinki University Faculty of Arts / Aesthetics
and Aalto University Department of Built Environment
