Camille Auer’s Queer Bird Walk takes on a new form at the Kirpilä Art Collection. Auer, a writer and artist, has been conducting norm-critical bird research for several years. During her tour, participants will explore the bird-themed artworks in Kirpilä’s collection and learn how norms related to gender and sexuality influence our perception of birds and the surrounding world. The Queer Bird Walk provides concrete examples of the diversity of gender and sexuality among birds and challenges participants to consider things from a bird’s perspective.
Admission to the tour is free, but spaces are limited. Please register at https://taidekotikirpila.fi/verkkokauppa/
Lennart Carstén, Black Grouse Couple, 1869
Photo: Rauno Träskelin
Mehrnoosh Zolfaghari is a professional musician, composer, and a multi-instrumentalist based in Finland. Her principal instrument is the Santoor, a traditional Persian instrument capable of playing numerous folk modes and ‘Dastgâhs.’ In Zolfaghari’s solo concert at the Kirpilä Art Collection, you will have the opportunity to hear the enchanting sounds of the santoor both as compositions and improvisations.
Zolfaghari has been playing the santoor for over 20 years and has been teaching it for more than 10 years. Her goal is to introduce Iranian music to the world, and she enjoys blending traditional elements with contemporary influences. Her interest in contemporary music has led to several projects and compositions where she combines the sound of the santoor with electronic sounds.
There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.
Free entry. Warmly welcome!
Photo: Moein Hasheminasab
Petri Kumela, one of Finland’s most versatile and sought-after classical guitarists, is equally at home with period instruments as in working with contemporary composers, microtonal music or cooperating with artists from other art forms. He is also one of the Finnish guitarists best known on the international scene, with a reputation for originality and versatility. His performances have ranged from intimate house concerts to prestigious concert halls such as Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre and the Kitara Hall in Sapporo.
Petri Kumela studied at the Helsinki Conservatory with Juan Antonio Muro and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg in Germany with Franz Halász. He was the first guitarist to be accepted for the prestigious Meisterklassen study programme and was awarded the rare DAAD scholarship for two consecutive years to study in Hálasz’s master class. Kumela has achieved first-place finishes in international competitions such as the Scandinavian Guitar Festival and the Stafford Classical Guitar Recital, and in 2023, he was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize.
PROGRAMME
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
4 Petites Pièces (Arr. Kumela)
- L`Irresoluë, Wq 117/31
- La Capricieuse, Wq 117/33
- La Caroline, Wq 117/39
- La Borchward, Polonaise, Wq 117/17
Franz Schubert/Johann Kaspar Mertz
- Lob der Tränen (D.716b)
- Liebesbotschaft (D.957)
- Aufenthalt (D.957)
Selection from the collection ’Small Creatures’
Composers: Delvizio, Hirvelä, Leinonen, Ruders, Wennäkoski, and others.
There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.
Free entry. Warmly welcome!
Photo of Petri Kumela by Heidi Piiroinen
Band of Weeds (Olli Aarni, Lauri Ainala, Kalle Hamm, Hermanni Keko, Anniina Saksa, and alternating plant members)
Band of Weeds is a sound collective founded in 2015. At first, it was only a conceptual band created by Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger, and existed only on a paper. Over time it became a real band, which releases LPs and gives live concerts. The first album – Other-Than-Human – was released in autumn 2017, and the EP Waiting for the Extinction 🙁 in the spring 2019. Their upcoming album, New Pangaea, which explores the history of the plants on the island of Seili, will be released around the end of the year by the Italian label Superpang.
All the sound material is recorded from the plants using the method developed by the Soviet botanist Ivan Gunar. There are ionised liquids running inside the plant tissues and the changes in their electro-magnetic field can be converted to the sound range audible for the human ear.
The Band of Weeds questions anthropo- and zoocentric worldviews. The plant kingdom has been considered the lowest class of the living beings in the Western thinking. Contemporary researchers call this ‘plant blindness’. People don’t notice the plant kingdom, even though plants form the most significant part of the visible biomass. Plants are everywhere, but they are seen only as a background for human and animal life: milieu. At the same time, the importance of the plants are underestimated for the mankind, despite of their vitally importance in terms of producers of oxygen, nutrition and shelter.
There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.
Free entry. Warmly welcome!
There are 40 seats available for the concert, 30 of which can be reserved online. Register here.
The remaining seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the concert.
Free entry. Warmly welcome!
Photo: Kirpilä Art Collection / Jussi Tiainen