20 November 2006
Record audiences at Avanto
Avanto festival, which ended on Sunday, inspired a record audience to explore experimental music and film. The three-day-long event attracted nearly 4000 spectators, a 25% increase from the previous year. Among the audience favourites were the Sähkömetsä (Electric Forest) programme of early Finnish experimental film as well as the New Yorker Tony Conrad, one of the pioneers of experimental film and music.
The single most popular show in Avanto was Lee Ranaldo’s and Leah Singer’s joint performance Drift, which filled the Kiasma Theatre to its last seat. The festival’s opening concert, in which the audience enjoyed both Tony Conrad’s films and his hypnotic violin music, was also sold out. In Cinema Orion the average audience per screening was doubled with the Sähkömetsä programme as well as Tony Conrad’s films. Audience records were broken at the Friday's and Saturday's Avanto clubs as well.
15 November 2006
Change in Saturday's Avanto Club programme
Black Dice (US) has cancelled its tour in Nordic countries. The Skaters (US) will replace Black Dice at the Avanto club in Gloria on Saturday, 18 November.
13 November 2006
Change in film programme
Unfortunately the restored film print of Tony Conrad's film Coming Attractions could not be completed in time, forcing us to remove the film from Avanto programme. Instead of Coming Attractions, the Tony Conrad 2 screening in Orion will feature Mary Jordan's film Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006), in which Tony Conrad also appears.
10 November 2006
Avanto artists lecture at The Academy of Fine Arts
In addition to their screenings, performances and installations, Avanto guests Tony Conrad and Frédérique Devaux will also give lectures at a two-day seminar entitled Artistic Research and The Use of Moving Image & Sound arranged by The Academy of Fine Arts on 15–16 November. The seminar also features presentations by Sami van Ingen and Janine Marchessault.
For more information, see the announcement at The Academy of Fine Arts.
30 October 2006
Avanto box office opens
Tickets for Avanto films and concerts are available for purchase from November 1st, 2006. Read more about tickets here.
Avanto festival passes are also available from the beginning of November. The 60 euro pass grants entry to all festival events as well as all exhibitions at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. The festival pass also includes Avanto 2006 CD with previously unreleased compositions by Tony Conrad, Ralf Wehowsky and Jim O'Rourke. Wehowsky’s and O’Rourke’s pieces will premiere at Avanto in the tape music concert in Sibelius Academy on Saturday 18 November at 12:00.