What if we treated the festival as a medium for transformation? How might we expand curatorial frameworks to encompass more-than-human communities? Can art contribute to the rewilding of both mental and natural landscapes?
Helsinki-based dramaturg and researcher Katalin Trencsényi might have some answers.
Katalin Trencsényi’s essay What are the traces of a festival? Expanded Dramaturgies of Curating ‘Different Narratives’, follows Baltic Circle’s multi-year curatorial journey with the Wild Trippers project. The rewilding venture saw festival-goers trade traditional theatre seats for muddy boots in various peatlands across Finland between 2020 – 2024. The local project was supported by organisations such as the Snowchange Cooperative.
Published in the December 2025 issue of the Critical Stages/Scènes critiques journal, Trencsényi’s essay explores the concept of expanded dramaturgies and reflects on how the focus of festival curation can shift from what is presented to how it is facilitated.
Trencsényi reflects on her own experience at the Siltaneva swamp in 2023: “around me was a steaming swamp and I was standing alone, carrying an axe!”. She describes herself as an audience member in an open-air immersive show where the role of the audience was to undo a century’s worth of industrial harm inflicted on the boggy landscape.
This shift in approach is anchored in Baltic Circle’s broader artistic vision and core belief: different narratives can create different mindsets. It’s also the sort of thinking we keep in mind as we prepare for the 2026 festival, set to take place this November.
Consider reading Katalin’s full essay here.