October – time to question and create new things

In October, Turku, the Capital of Culture, will offer a number of incredible shows featuring household names and impressive settings. Several musical, cinematic and theatrical performances will be complemented by the exchange of information and ideas about silence – albeit in such a grandiose manner that the exchange of information will become a mass performance.

During January–September, a total of 1,587,700 visitors participated in the various events of the Capital of Culture year. Of these numbers, Logomo visits amounted to 190,000 people. The total numbers do not yet include all visitors to open public events.

The busy summer and early autumn offered many outdoor events, and the time for them is not over yet. In mid-October, Samppalinna open-air swimming pool will witness the surrealist contemporary theatre performance Abduction of Europa. At the end of the month, Turku Castle surrounding will be taken over by the large-scale Speak No Evil event, which will showcase the performance tradition of the English mummers as a carnival-type experience featuring actors and large puppets and involving audience participation.

Musical moments on theatre stages

Kristian Smeds, one of Europe’s most esteemed directors, has long been building a theatrical bridge between Finland and Estonia. He will now surprise Turku with 12Karamazovs, a performance he has been working on with Estonian students. Rather than bringing us a traditional theatre performance, Smeds will put on a musical work in excess of four hours, a theatrical concert that will not let Dostoyevsky rest in peace.

Music and theatre will also be combined by the short opera Meedio (Medium), directed by Kari-Pekka Toivonen and Merja Larivaara. The eponymous role will be played by Finnish National Opera soprano Päivi Nisula. The opera uses five singers and one dancer to tell the tragic story of the Medium, who stages spiritualism sessions. Each performance will be complemented by an open discussion on the themes of the piece, which include mental health, death and supernatural phenomena.

More musical theatre, as well as cinema and discussions on science and art, will be offered by the Counter History series of events, which questions the hegemony of a single truth. Counter History will include the premiere of Juha Malmivaara’s Animalis, and a play beloved by critics and audiences alike, Tähden hetki tai Kevyt kyyneleinen tarina, will return to the stage.

Swing your lightsaber and join the dance

Before the opening of the new Logomo Hall, there will still be time for several special performances on the venue’s current stage.

In early October, Logomo will host the game and cinema event Star Wars: Uncut. The main course of the event will be the Finnish premiere of the Star Wars: Uncut film, which is based on American Casey Pugh’s idea and has been created piece-by-piece by fans in various corners of the world. The event will also feature other winners of the Live 2011 Grand Prix media art competition as well as a public discussion featuring Alf Rehn and Jarmo Puskala. The evening will end with music by Desert Planet and X-Rust.

Logomo will also host the KekriFest festival, a three-day celebration of contemporary folk dance and music, presenting the current trends in Finnish folk traditions with an open-minded approach. The diverse festival programme will include a large-scale vintage ball at Logomo, an evening club and jam session at Kåren and folk songs at Turku Cathedral. The main event of the festival, at Logomo on 15 October, will feature the internationally recognised Rimpparemppi folk dance group from Lapland and Tsuumi Dance Theatre.

Talk about silence and literature

Silence and its various dimensions, from not speaking to the soundlessness of space, are the themes of Blackmarket, an event that has been experienced around the world 13 times and will now be seen in Finland for the first time. This Blackmarket for Knowledge and Non-Knowledge is a concept created by Hannah Hurtzig (Mobile Academy, Berlin), featuring specialists who may be booked for private conversations. The discussion partners will include Signmark, Tiina Lindfors and Esko Valtaoja. The conversations will be broadcast live on the channels of Blackradio, which will be built at the venue, the Volunteer Fire Department building, and can be listened to via headphones.

Late autumn will also offer literary culture. Studia Litteraria is a series of nine lectures where 18 key Finnish authors provide an honest, personal view of their creative work and the starting points and backgrounds for their books. Some of the authors involved are Claes Andersson, Laila Hirvisaari and Anna-Leena Härkönen.