New Performance Turku Festival 2021: SURVIVAL | 3.-5.9.2021

The year 2021 marked the 10th anniversary of the New Performance Turku Festival. The theme of the anniversary year festival was SURVIVAL.

The performance art works at the festival addressed topics such as surviving in extreme conditions and survivalism as a phenomenon, but also approached more subtle survival strategies and coping mechanisms during ecological emergencies, the pandemic and in the current and post-catastrophic world.

New Performance Turku Festival 2021 artists were Finland-based, internationally active artists across the performance art discipline. The artists included Tytti Arola (FI), Maija Hirvanen (FI), Minerva Juolahti (FI), Maria Kananen (FI), Tiia Kasurinen & Johanna Naukkarinen (FI), Maire Karuvuori (FI), Katriina Kettunen (FI) & Olga Spyropoulou (GR/FI), Antti Laitinen (FI), Tuija Lappalainen (FI), Diana Soria Hernández (MX/FI), Tomasz Szrama (PL/FI), Antti Tolvi (FI), Pilvi Porkola, Timo Viialainen (FI) and Jani Petteri Virta (FI). The festival also invited researches to take part in the programme, Marjukka Parkkinen and POLIMA research project (Academy of Finland), both affiliated to the University of Turku.

In the context of performance art the survival modes were brought up and amplified through discussion and festival works. Essential elements for resilience enhancement are the significance of the community, participation and sharing.

The SURVIVAL theme invited the audience, artists and the art scene to recover and carry on together.