City Theatre opens the stage for contemporary performance, which develops cooperation between the performing arts

Helsinki City Theatre’s new Contemporary Performance Stage will bring various forms of contemporary performance into the theatre’s repertoire, increase job opportunities for independent artists and develop cooperation in the performing arts. The theatre will reserve the Studio Pasila stage for the two-year pilot project in 2022 and 2023 from mid-May to the end of August.

“The stage for contemporary performances is a completely new operating model, the aim of which is to enable the realisation of contemporary performances with sufficient conditions, and to create a flexible production path that takes into account the special characteristics of each artistic process. After two operating periods, we will assess how the project has met the goals set for it and how it would be possible to link it to the City Theatre’s basic operations and funding,” says Antti Lahti, who coordinates the project at the Helsinki City Theatre.

A three-person curatorial team consisting of dancer, Master of Arts and Master of Performing Arts and Theory Suvi Tuominen, director, doctoral researcher Tuomas Laitinen, and curator, Master of Fine Arts and Theory . From 7 to 17 December, a call for applications is currently underway in the form of face-to-face meetings to find premieres of the Contemporary Performance Stage for 2022 and 2023.

“We wanted to offer an alternative to application processes where the focus is on how well the artists can write about their work. When writing, artists often have to simplify artistic visions or feelings that are complex and sometimes difficult to translate into language. On the other hand, when you speak and present your own work in a multimedia, even sprawling way, even unknown paths can open up. Thus, the curator becomes an important interface between the institution and the artist already during the application process,” says curator Suvi Tuominen.

“In the curatorial process, it is central for us to examine and rethink the possibilities of the stage and theatre hall. In the field of performing arts, traditional boundaries between art forms are being crossed more easily and more often. In this sense, the stage of Contemporary Performance is inevitably multidisciplinary and invites all kinds of performances. In early spring 2022, we will announce the first performances of the Contemporary Performance stage, which will be guest performances at Studio Pasila in May 2022,” says curator Riikka Thitz.

"There is a huge amount of creators, ideas and desire to create compared to what any single project can offer, but this is still a significant opening for cooperation between the institutional theatre field and the independent field. This is especially necessary now, when the performing arts are facing major challenges due to the pandemic and are forced to reassess their structures. As curators, we do our best to make the programme diverse and topical, and to ensure that the stage of Contemporary Performance brings together different audiences,” says curator Tuomas Laitinen.

During 2022 and 2023, the activities of the stage of the current performance will be divided into a visiting stage and premieres and stage residencies aimed at preparing them. The visiting stage will take place in May, the residency work in June-July, and the premieres of the works produced at the residency will take place in August.

The stage for the contemporary performance was created on the initiative of artists working in the independent field of performing arts. In the spring of 2019, a working group assembled by Lauri Antti Mattila submitted a proposal to the management team of the Helsinki City Theatre, which was signed by 885 performing arts professionals. The proposal asked theatre to respond to current changes in society.

The Helsinki City Theatre has accepted the challenge of the free field and aims to develop a new kind of production framework for the field in the form of a pilot project, which could contribute to changing the structures that create inequality and slow down the development of the arts. The purpose of the project is to provide an example and share experiences with other theatres funded by VOS.

The Helsinki City Theatre provides financial, production and spatial resources for the project. In addition, Kone Foundation has awarded a grant of EUR 180,000 for the project.

More information about the open call for Contemporary Performance Stage for premieres 2022–23.

Further information and interview requests:
Kaisa Pelkonen, Communications Manager, kaisa.pelkonen@hkt.fi, 040 552 3788
Helsinki City Theatre, Ensi linja 2, 00530 Helsinki