In Finland lives a big group of foreign artists. They are over-represented in performance art and other forms of experimental live arts. FFFela aims to present the rich variety of their contribution to Finnish cultural life. The artists are asked to focus on the festival’s theme Once a Guest, Always a Guest?

Being an immigrant artist offers both possibilities AND impossibilities. Foreign artists living in Finland are encountered with curiosity, hospitality, suspicion, demarcation… Although they may have more freedom to express themselves, at the same time they can never be totally part of the socio-cultural settings and structures of this country. They always move on the fragile equilibrium between lacking the same cultural and linguistic background of the country’s people and having the ability to provide fresh viewpoints to this society.

The aim of the festival is to offer an artistic contribution to this debate. FFFela focuses on performance art and other forms of experimental live art, because they offer the closest proximity to the audience.

21 artists will present their work in a three-day festival which will take place from Thursday, March 31 until Saturday, April 2, 2011 at Gallery Augusta, Suomenlinna B28, Helsinki. The invited artists have been living from three to thirty years in Finland. They come from various countries around the world representing almost all continents.

Finnish performance artists Irma Optimisti and Roi Vaara will host the festival.

Initiator of FFFela is Willem Wilhelmus. Members of the organising team are Tomasz Szrama, Egle Oddo and Eleni Tsitsirikou.

Participating artists:

Baaba Jakeh Chande, Zambia, performance art
Egle Oddo, Italy, photography, installation, performance art
Elena Kakaliagou, Greece, music
Hyun Joo Min, South Korea, performance art
Jaap Klevering, Netherlands, sound art
James Andean, Canada, sund art
Johanna MacDonald, Canada, performance art
John Court, United Kingdom, body art
Karolina Kucia, Poland, performance art
Kristina Hjulstad Junttila, Norway, performance art
Magnus Logi Kristinsson, Iceland, performance art
Marek Pluciennik, Poland, video- performance art
Mark Ward, South Africa, performance art
Maurice Blok, Netherlands, performance art
Oliver Whitehead, United Kingdom, video art
Panagiotis Balomenos, Greece, performance art
Philip Pedersen, Denmark, performance art
Robin Dewan, USA, music
Shinji Kanki, Japan, sound art
Tomasz Szrama, Poland, video- and performance art
Willem Wilhelmus, Netherlands, performance art

Place and time:

Gallery Augusta, Suomenlinna B 28, Susisaari, Helsinki

Thursday, March 31 from 7 p.m.
Friday, April 1 from 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 2 from 3 p.m.

The festival is supported by HIAP, the Arts Council of Finland and the Kone Foundation.