FIRST FESTIVAL OF VIDEO PERFORMANCE ART CURATED BU JOSEF KA // SAUNA GALLERY FINLAND

I began working on the idea of a festival of video performance art since the opening of Sauna Gallery in 2021. As a curator, I have organized two successful festivals: one focused on antiwar art PEACE2022 ARTISTS AGAINST THE WAR, uniting over 300 artists from 30+ countries and screening in 15 European countries, and another showcasing radical short films called “HEART ATTACK.” The first edition of “HEART ATTACK” premiered at Sauna Gallery in February 2023, followed by exhibitions in Copenhagen’s Blågården art center and the multidisciplinary Rara festival in Sicily last summer.

In July 2023, I released an open call for a new festival of Video Performance Art, with the application period extending from August 10 to the end of the month due to high interest. I received 45 applications from 15 countries and selected 25 videos for the final program, many of which were created specifically for the festival. I’m grateful to all the participating artists and plan to showcase the program in Austria, the US, Latvia, Germany, and Denmark. Additionally, I’m excited to announce that the second edition of the festival will take place next year. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, and LONG AND BEAUTIFUL LIFE TO THE festival of Video Performance Art, curated by Josef Ka.

poster Egr Nagaen
photo Walter Ulreich
performance Josef Ka

Published by Josef Ka

International performance, visual and sound artist Josef Ka blends richly varied influences – everything from Butoh dance to cinematic theory – with her decades of nomadic world travel to create bold, highly personal site-specific art. Josef Ka’s themes range from investigating the place of the human body in contemporary reality to exploring the inner body as a representative system of our human and post human kind. Her artistic practice often actively invites the audience inside a sort of private reverie, making it is a deeply participatory one; she actively engages with both her audiences and with a wide diversity of other experimental artists. In addition to her own work, Josef Ka curates a regular series of events and exhibitions at her Helsinki underground space – Sauna Gallery – and teaches classes on the theory and practice of performance art. She is also the inventor of the WORST THEATRE and her yogic training system, KA-YOGA. https://eskargoeskargo.com/

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