Artist Talk: Activist Art or Artistic Activism? Does it Matter?

""

Picture: Dylan Kendle

Welcome to the first Artist Talk of the Autumn Season at our Nordic Library in Kaisaniemi. In this talk, choreographer Rita Marcalo (IRL) discusses the creative practices between art and activism that she is exploring during her stay at Residency B28 in Suomenlinna.

Drawing on the work she is currently researching in Suomenlinna (the ecologically engaged work SlowTides) and the work she is currently touring worldwide (the anti-apartheid work Dancing With Strangers: From Palestine To Ireland), choreographer Rita Marcalo will present an exposition of her practice. She will focus on the fluid slippage between art and activism in her personal and professional life. A screening of the award-winning film Dancing With Strangers: From Palestine To Ireland will take place as part of the event. University Researcher Dr. Kai Lehikoinen from Uniarts Helsinki will moderate the talk.

About the Artist

Choreographer Rita Marcalo is the Artistic Director of Instant Dissidence (link opens in a new window), a socially and ecologically engaged dance company based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. The company foregrounds the role of dance as a social catalyst. Instant Dissidence resists the idea of art as an object produced by a special kind of person called the ‘artist’. Their work is often co-created in dialogue with (and performed by) non-professional artists, focusing on issues that matter to them. The people whom Rita assembles for each Instant Dissidence project become ‘artivists’, enacting the power of connecting art and social consciousness.

""

Instant Dissidence believes in the ecological necessity of shifting art-making away from its current egocentric paradigm (art about humans, for humans) to an ecocentric paradigm (a post-humanist epistemology where humans are conceived as intertwined with, and dependent upon, non-human life).

Rita Marcalo’s stay at Residency B28 is co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme as part of the project Island Connect II.

––––––––––––

Nordic Culture Point has been granted the EcoCompass environmental certificate. We’re making every endeavour to reduce our carbon footprint, which is why all travel within the organisation is carefully planned. Use public transport when you visit us, and you’ll contribute to a greener cultural scene, too! 

Nordic Culture Point strives to organise accessible events where everyone can equally participate. In the following link, you will find information about the accessibility of our facilities. Please inform us in advance if you have any specific accessibility requirements. We will do our best to accommodate them.

Upcoming events

All events
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses cookies from Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Meta, and TikTok. Google Analytics is one of the most common and reliable solutions available and it helps us improve the website to enhance your user experience. It helps us understand for how long you visit the site, and which pages your visit. We do this to be able to offer you engaging content. The Meta pixel and TikTok pixel helps us target ads on Meta and TikTok according to which pages you have visited. Microsoft Clarity helps us understand how you navigate on individual pages.