Sold out Baltic Circle Theatre Festival told about reality: colonial land use policy, care and the narrowness of norms

A person is lying on the white floor with a surprised expression on their face. They are wearing a silver fringed hood and a light blue chiffon shirt with puff sleeves. Another person is lying crosswise on the person's back, this person is wearing a lemon yellow body and purple tights.

Photo: Tani Simberg / Baltic Circle 2021

The international theatre festival Baltic Circle, held in Helsinki, Espoo and Väätäiskylä, Middle Finland November 19–27, gathered together climate experts, marginalised bodies and indigenous artists. Care for people and land was highlighted in the festival week’s discussions and events, which delved into the politics of industrial land use and dismantling norms related to knowledge, bodies and gender. The festival continues with the mentioned topics during 2022.

During the festival week, the newly concluded Baltic Circle Festival shared perspectives and experiences on a reality that calls into question the norms of Western society. For example, artists from different indigenous peoples who visited the festival’s Dare to Care discussion event commented on the structures of Western knowledge and emphasized intergenerational experiences as a source of information. The importance of empirical information was also emphasized in the Wild Trippers event, where the relationship between industrial land use and climate change was discussed in Central Finland, surrounded by peat bogs and clear-cutting. Later, the festival saw the devastation caused by the colonialist land use policy and the Finnish forest industry in the rainforests of Brazil.

In Ejaculation Falls, six non-professional performers shared their personal experiences related to sexuality and enjoyment. Norms related to body, gender, and collective history were also dismantled by performances Deep Time Trans, Black Mercedes, and Nurture, as well as a multidisciplinary team of more than twenty artists who created the festival’s ending club Undertone – A Proposal for Legal Loitering. The club was the first production in the four-year project, Coming Stage, funded by the Kone Foundation, in which Baltic Circle will produce six new pieces.

“The themes of industrial land use and caring became concrete during the festival week, when talk of climate change was heard in a submerging swamp while a herd of black grouses flew over us as if to welcome us. Hours of conversation, full theater halls, and grateful people on the dance floor demonstrated the need and importance of gathering. Baltic Circle forms a unique space for sharing and imagining in the middle of the darkest season, social protection and the opportunity to be activated – during the next year, for example in restoration work,” says Hanna Parry, the festival’s artistic director.

In addition, the festival’s leisurely discussion program provided the festival’s guests access to top experts and direct sources of information. Docent Tero Mustonen, one of the editors-in-chief of the UN’s sixth IPCC climate report, shared information on industrial land use in Finland at the Wild Trippers event. The speech created context for the experiences of Raimunda Gomez da Silva –an activist from the Xingu river, who visited the festival later– from the devastation caused by the Belo Monte dam.

This year, Baltic Circle employed 60 freelancers in the free field, gathered about 2,000 visitors, produced four domestic premieres and presented Finnish premieres from Brazil and Italy. The festival also offered workshops, clubs and film screenings. The Baltic Circle managed to pave the way for new collaborations and bring artists from the Arctic region, Sámiland and Nunavik, to the Amazon into a dialogue.

The next Baltic Circle Festival will be held on November 18–26 in 2022.

A person is lying on the white floor with a surprised expression on their face. They are wearing a silver fringed hood and a light blue chiffon shirt with puff sleeves. Another person is lying crosswise on the person's back, this person is wearing a lemon yellow body and purple tights.

Photo: Tani Simberg / Baltic Circle 2021