Live art is no marginal art, no! That showed during Mad House's third season, which took place in Suvilahti, Tiivistämö from February 1st to April 29th 2016.
The third season was curated by artists Leena Kela, Martina Marti, Annika Tudeer and Juha Valkeapää. In our third time around, Mad House transformed itself from a festival-like approach towards a repertory model. "We wanted to provide artists longer rehearsing periods and see what longer performance periods would bring to the scene," the curators describe.
The experiment paid off, as the audience numbers increased by almost 80 percent. "It is typical for performance and live art that the performance period is often limited or scattered in several places. This can be challenging for many a viewer. In Suvilahti we have now found a home base for live art, a place where you can come easily and know that they can enjoy good art in good company and lovely atmosphere.”
The season contained Sonya Lindfors’ and Laura Murtomaa’s duo Pas De Deux, Juha Valkeapää, Renzo van Steenbergen’s and Emer Värk’s audio-visual installation performance 2341 AD, and Gnab Collective’s video installation performance Reverie. We also celebrated gender diversity with the Transforces On Stage Festival and Liisa Pentti's 30-year career with La Folia @ 2016. In addition, Leena Kela hosted the performance event Binary Night. Numerous gigs, concerts, happenings, small festivals, standup nights took place during the season on Mad House’s Ihana Baari Stage, as well as our regular talk show hosted by John W. Fail. Mad House also served as a stage for the first nomadic producton by Klockriketeatern, the international cooperation 3 Musketeers - East of Vienna.
The centennial of Dada was celebrated thoroughly during the spring, starting from the opening night. In March, Sandor Valy and Jovanka Trbojevic performed their tributes to dada with their performances. Season three culminated with the Neodada festival, which brought together dozens of artists from around Finland and Europe.
The next Mad House Season will take place in spring 2017. Prior to this, the Mad House provides short-term events and co-productions, of which you will hear soon!
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News photo by Saara Autere (from the Queer Masculinities)
