City Ghettos of Today is an international cooperation project dealing with urban spaces and in six European cities; Paris, Warsaw, Helsinki, Bologna, Milan and Berlin. The team consists of artists and researchers in every city.

The Helsinki-situated project part of the international City Ghettos of today �project invites associations, organizations, individual citizens, artists or other actors in the field of art, theatre, intercultural civil society and non-formal learning to construct together artistic expressions related to the phenomena of ghettos. The word ghetto is understood here as a more abstract idea that includes comparisons between the margin and the centre, the plurality and homogeneity, the inside and the outside, the familiar and unfamiliar. We ask whether spatial and concrete, or invisible and abstract walls separate groups of people from other groups and if so, why, when and how this happens here in Helsinki.

INSTALLATION, SEMINAR AND WORKSHOPS GUIDED BY INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS

The international installation of the City Ghettos of Today will be constructed to Helsinki in September 2014. During twelve days period (8.-21.9.) the international team of artists including theatre directors and sound and video artists will direct the construction of the installation in cooperation with the local people. Before Helsinki the installation has been constructed in Paris, Warsaw and Bologna.

The first place to receive the installation will be Cultural Centre Stoa in It�keskus, during week 37, between 9.-14.9, combined with workshops. The installation coincides with an international theatre festival that will take place in the Cultural centre at the same time. From Stoa the installation travels to the centre of the city of Helsinki, to a temporarily free installation space in shopping centre Forum.The installation will combine sounds, videos and live performances made by citizens living in Helsinki, especially in its migrant-rich areas. The creation of the contents will be done mainly in areas close to It�keskus, but also the central installation will have interactive elements.

Seminar and public debate will take place on September 16th 14- 18 at Lavaklubi, �Stage club�, in the basement of the National Theatre. International and local cases of art projects, with background information of studies related to urban development and cultural diversity in Helsinki will be presented. The presentations will be followed by a public debate.

The visiting artists will be accomodated in the artists residences in HIAP and Villa Kivi.

Venues:

• Kulttuurikeskus Stoa � Cultural Centre Stoa
  Address: Turunlinnantie 1, It�keskus, 00900 Helsinki

• Kauppakeskus Forum � Shopping Centre Forum, basement
  Mannerheimintie 14�20, 00100 Helsinki

• Kansallisteatterin Lavaklubi � Stage Club, National Theatre
  L�ntinen Teatterikuja 1, 00100 Helsinki

More information of the project from the local coordinator, Regional Artist on Cultural Diversity of Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Outi Korhonen;