Catalysti is pleased to present its contributions to the Stop Hatred Now program. SHN is an intercultural and anti-racist platform organized in collaboration with several art and intercultural organisations.
Panel discussion: Representations Matter! Stage, Power, and Representations.
Tuesday 15.5, 13.30-15.00 (EEST), online.
Streaming: https://www.stophatrednow.fi/stream-2023
Catalysti’s member, Mercedes Balarezo, will share the panel with Ritni Rávdnji Ráste Pieski and Yoandy Jimeno, and the panel will be moderated by Isa Hukka.
Mercedes Balarezo (she/her) is an Ecuadorian dance artist and pedagogue based in Helsinki. For her, dance and education are tools that can bring us closer to a fair and egalitarian society. A broad background in teaching dance has taught Mercedes that art pedagogy must aim towards a world where all bodies and voices are seen and heard, and where creative expression is democratised.
Workshop: “Why do we feel so bad here? Conspiring together against ableism in arts-based spaces” by Francisco Trento
Thursday 18.5, 13.30-15.00 (EEST)
Live @ GAP (Malminkatu 5, 00100, Helsinki)
Sign up here
This is a safer space to COMPLAIN and CONSPIRE. The participants will discuss their concerns about ableism within the arts-based institutions in Finland and conspire together on propositions for undoing it by creating spaces more open to neurodiversity. In the event, no self-presentation will be needed. Participants can be in the space in the ways they feel more comfortable, and space for decompression will be provided.
This workshop is the second iteration of a series of activities questioning the ableist structures of Finnish arts-based environments. The first event´s call was “Concerned about the hidden ableism within arts education?” and happened at UniArts Helsinki.
Ableism is a system of causality that fuels micro-aggressions—classifying populations through dividing practices and marginalising groups, instituting the normative divide between able and non-able bodies.
Francisco Trento (they/them) is an artistic researcher living in Helsinki, Finland. Francisco is currently a university researcher at UniArts Helsinki, and they are the social responsibility coordinator at Frame Contemporary Art Finland under the project Islands of Kinship. Francisco holds a PhD in Communication and Semiotics (Media Studies). They are interested in anti-ableism, neurodiversity, non-dyadic modes of togetherness/kinship and neuroqueerness.
Read more about Francisco’s work here: Blog: Institutional Diary #1 – Frame Contemporary Art Finland
