PERFORMANCE COMPOST

KIASMA CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM

 

In October 2012 Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki housed a three-week performance event in it’s gallery spaces. It was organized by Kiasma Theatre and curated by a group of artist: Saara Hannula, Elina Latva, Kimmo Modig, Nora Rinne, Jenna Sutela and myself plus Jonna Strandberg from Kiasma Theatre. The happening dealt with performance and its documentation and was linked with Reality Bites, an exhibition on documentary art. The format aimed to reflect its title: like a compost, it would digest perfomative waste, the documentary traces left behind by live performances everyday, and use them as material for new creations. Performance Compost was composed of 21 days of performances done by 120 international artists and wittnessed by over 11000 spectators.

As curators we created the concept, invited the artists based on an open call organized the concept into spatial structures and timetables and also worked as museum guards during the event, guiding the audience as they arrived in the space.

Reality Research Center also had activities within Performance Compost almost daily in the form of the Utopia Workshop, which offered several avenues for the audience to experience and use our utopian practices. Our trainees Mari Kanervaniemi and Anniina Kangasniemi worked at the Utopia Workshop daily and projects The Other, Circle, Plato’s Symposium, Children as Authorities, UrbanUtopia, Utopia Consultation and Museum of Goodwill visited it.