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FAMILY

PERFORMED & CELEBRATED

at Käpylä Community House, Helsinki, 2016

This was a family celebration with no gate-crashers. An imagined family tied together with more than blood – a desire to share a meal, a stage and a dance floor. Blood relatives, friends, the unfamiliar and those seeking an asylum were invited together for one evening.

The meaning and form of a family has gone through a profound change during the past century in Finland. Nuclear families have replaced village communities with their multiple generations and roles, the functions of which are now handled by the state. New cultures step in across the borders. Family is a performative happening evaluating the nature of the family institution in the contemporary Finnish society. It aims to create togetherness of a new kind.

Family was performed at Käpylä Community Hall in Helsinki on the 12th of August 2016. Cooking started at 3pm, dancing went on until 10.30pm. In between there were speeches, poems, songs, dances, food and slightly uncanny yet warm atmosphere.