Audiovisual performances, screenings of films and video art, exhibitions and much more� the fifth alternative audiovisual arts festival AAVE (Finnish for ghost) appears again in event venues around Helsinki during the second week of April. Shadows flutter and voices echo in our ears while we dive once more to the diversity of moving image.

Our main program is held at Malmitalo cultural centre. The festival also takes over the area of Lasipalatsi square and spreads around the city: Night of The Beamers is a participatory public event where Helsinki residents can participate with their own video projections. Other night-time events including VJ sessions will spread around downtown at Mbar, the National Theatre`s Lavaklubi, as well as Bar Sandro in Kallio.

The festival highlights includes the video opera An Index of Metals by Fausto Romitelli and Paolo Pachini, co-produced and performed by Sibelius Academy`s NYKY Ensemble. The Finnish premiere of the complete live version of Romitelli�s last work combines opera singing, chamber orchestra, electronic music and video art. We also invited three film performance artists from Vaasa to take part in our Live Cinema programme: Britt Kootstra (NL/FI), Arvid van der Rijt (NL/FI) and Dragos Alexandrescu (RO/FI). The ASTEPBACK duo Gaelle Cavalieri (FR/IT) and Andrea Saggiomo (IT) use 8mm film in their experimental theatre performance.

Laure Prouvost feature-length film The Wanderer (2013) and two of her video art works. In this year AAVE will also screen moving image works by the Polish painter and filmmaker Wilhelm Sasnal as a prelude to his visit in Helsinki, hopefully in 2015.

Kirsi Reinola`s six-part TV documentary series about Finnish media artists is presented in collaboration with Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE as an installation at Helsinki`s Lasipalatsi. The first episodes are broadcasted before the festival at TV channel Yle Teema starting from Wednesday, March 26. Situated at the Lasipalatsi square, The Black Box container gallery invites children and adults to participate in the interactive media art work Hiitola by Matti Niinim�ki. The art work includes a workshop.

Treats of Japanese films are served in our Oishii-series. The poetic A Scene at the Sea by Takeshi Kitano is one of his least known works in Finland as a director. We present also a special screening celebrating the 25 years of AV-arkki, the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, and bold experimental works in the series En Garde!. Frans Tihver�inen`s workshop introduces augmented reality technology and Irina Spicak`s creative coding workshop series is organised together with the multidisciplinary forum Pixelache.