Contact
Our Mission
History

Contact information

New Performance Turku Ry
Itäinen Rantakatu 64, 20180 Turku
info@newperformance.fi

Media

Press releases and images can be found here.

Media inquiries: laura@newperformance.fi

Our Mission

New Performance Turku Biennale is a unique performance art biennial that presents current trends in art to both local and international audiences. Its activities include artist residencies and large-scale collaborations with local communities and actors. The biennale aims to further strengthen the principles of social, ecological, and economic sustainability in all its operations. At the core of the biennale’s work is the invitation of high-profile artists to Turku and the creation of connections between artists, local and international communities, and diverse audiences.

The biennale seeks to develop new modes of producing performance art, deepen dialogue between performance artists and curators during the development phase of new works, and establish long-term collaborations with artists. We are committed to diversity and inclusivity: we aim to amplify marginalized voices, promote multilingual communication, and create low-threshold models for participation. In addition to performances, our program includes artist talks, workshops, interventions, and collaborative projects implemented in urban spaces.

New Performance Turku Biennale is defined by its strong audience focus. It is an approachable and inclusive event that welcomes a broad and diverse group of participants. The goal is to integrate performance art into everyday environments and reach those who might not otherwise encounter contemporary art. This open approach enables the presentation of a program that is both ambitious and challenging in form and content, yet still accessible. Audience engagement is not an add-on, but an essential part of our work — we recognize that the interaction between artists, works, and audiences is a vital element of performance art.

The central audience engagement project in 2025 is the Audience Ambassadors program, organized in collaboration with Tehdas Teatteri, Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland, Turku City Theatre, Turku City Library, Art House Turku, Titanik Gallery, Turku Art Museum, WAM, Aura of Puppets, and Aurinkobaletti.

Another key concept in our audience work is the Performance and Pizza performance club, where performance art is brought to Turku’s suburban neighborhoods in search of new audiences in places where it may not have been seen before. The first Performance and Pizza club of 2025 took place in March at Runostuoppi in Runosmäki as part of the City of Turku’s pop-up art program.

The FRESH START Nordic/Baltic program, implemented in cooperation with the Live Art for Kids festival (Copenhagen) and the Starptelpa festival (Riga), introduces emerging performance artists. A residency collaboration with Studio ALTA and Meet Factory in Prague has enabled a Finnish-Czech artist exchange.

New Performance Turku Biennale would not be possible without a broad and expert network of partners. The biennale spreads across art venues and public spaces throughout Turku, and much of the program is co-produced with both Finnish and international partners.
Our local collaborators include the Manilla cultural factory, Tehdas Teatteri, Nykytaidetila Kutomo, Turku City Theatre, Titanik Gallery, Art House Turku, Sibelius Museum, Turku City Library, and the Koroinen Association for Living Culture. NPT Biennale also collaborates with academic institutions, including the LAPS program of the Theatre Academy (University of the Arts Helsinki) and Turku Arts Academy.

The 2025 biennale is funded by the City of Turku, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Nordic Culture Point, Pro Manilla Foundation, Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland, Turku Theatre Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden, Martha and Albin Löfgren Cultural Foundation, and the Finnish-Danish Cultural Foundation.

Board of New Performance Turku Association:
Venla Luoma
Timo Väntsi
Mari Krappala
Leena Kela
Virpi Vairinen

History

New Performance Turku Association was founded in 2012 to promote performance and live art both in Finland and internationally. The association aims to bring performance art into deeper dialogue with the surrounding society. Its work is based on broad, cross-border, dialogical, and reciprocal collaboration. The New Performance Turku Biennale continues the ambitious work carried out by the New Performance Turku Festival from 2012 to 2021, in developing performance art works, productions, and audiences.

We do not simply serve as a touring platform for existing works but actively participate in the production of new pieces, annually co-producing several significant performance artworks with both Finnish and international artists. Artists who have collaborated with us often highlight the unique nature of our operations in enabling their dream projects. We want to continue being just that: a strongly artist-driven and ethically grounded production body, unafraid to take on complex and ambitious ideas, and dedicated to realizing artistically high-level projects and dreams together with artists. From 2012 to 2021, New Performance Turku Association organized the annual New Performance Turku Festival for performance and live art.
More information about past events can be found here.