We are happy to announce the 6 artists we have selected for the BIRCA Baltic Sea residency this year. The program is supported by the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Program for Culture funding for residential visits and is focused on artists in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who work with ecological performing arts. Selection has been made by director of BIRCA Susanne Danig in collaboration with performance artist Tora Balslev, who will also facilitate the process, which takes place at BIRCA 13-26/5.
We received 26 really exciting applications with great potential for joint work in the field of artistic investigation of the more-than-human, the landscape and our surroundings. Which shows us that these are important steps we are taking in this residency. At the same time, Baltic Sea is building networks in the Baltic Sea area, where it provides the opportunity for the exchange of experiences in this experimental field within the arts. This year, many of the artists will work with water as a theme and we look forward to seeing the results of that.
Heidi Miikki is a Finnish circus- and dance artist who combines environmentalism and performing arts, site-specific work, film and societal burning issues with empathy and care, both in her work and in life in general.
Liina Leo is an Estonian transdisciplinary artist, whose work embraces contemporary alienation and questions what means to be new, truly alive and real in current times.
Paula Nousiainen is a Finnish queer artist, whose practice is mixture of dance, choreography, visual arts, costume design, pop culture studies and alter egos.
Nazaré Soares is an interdisciplinary artist, aquatic bodywork therapist, and bath master, who works around notions of invisibility, imperceptibility, and magic engineering.
Sanna Hirvonen is a dance artist and writer based in Joensuu, a small city in Eastern Finland, and her practice is currently dealing with belonging to the land and the corporality of both urban and rural landscapes.
Siri Bengtén is a Swedish playwright/actor/director and theater maker who explore modern writing for stage and create interdisciplinary stage-works such as rituals, interactive stage rooms and different communication techniques between audience and performer.