Non Grata at Finland's leading performance festival Aletheia'26

The most modern and experimental Aletheia performance festival in recent times, held in early July for the seventh time, transformed the small Finnish village of Fiskars, which put the world on the map with its world-famous scissors factory, into a meeting place for collective experience. The festival's interdisciplinary program combined performance, music, installation, poetry, performance, video, and environmental art.

The theme of Aletheia Fest '26 was Roots. Artists approached the topic through nature, memory, identity, ancestors, community, and cultural layers, shaping our relationship with place and each other. The theme invited visitors to reflect on where we come from, what connects us, and how the past lives on in the present. This year's festival featured nearly 30 artists and groups from Finland and abroad: NON GRATA, Iiro Komulainen, VAINAJA, Ismo Heinonen / Googfelloes, TotenTanzKult, ASA, Metsä M, Ella Tahkolahti, Tomasz Szrama, Anni Leppänen, Wörther, MEAS & Alan Schacher, Roi Vaara, Helinä Hukkataival, Cajaste, Five penny black magic, ALOES, John Graham Oraculum, Huotra, Bobi de Oro, Mari Helisevä, Numa Hirtz, Ilari Vanhatalo, Odd Johan Bang, Jani Ryikkönen, Jasu Salmi, Coloniza & KH Krohn, Liisa Silvennoinen, Kaisu Kurki, Laura Timonen, Kristina Laine, Akie Doi.  Curators Ilkka Pitkänen, Kalle Ahonen, Ilari Edelmann. Instead of separating artistic disciplines, Aletheia encourages encounters between different forms of expression, creating a space where art, landscape and audience become part of the same living work. Aletheia Fest offers an intimate alternative to large commercial festivals – it is a place of discovery, dialogue and change, a temporary gathering place where art is not only viewed but also experienced.

The Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale, which takes place simultaneously with the festival, also added an exhibition format to performance art. Participants, artists and audience all arrive at the festival site at the same time, the program starts upon arrival and there is no opportunity to do, for example, a sound check or other preparations – in this respect, Alteheia is particularly experimental. Festival originally meant a meeting place, a party. The word comes from the Latin root festivs, which means party. This in turn comes from the word festum, which means holiday, feast or feast. The Latin word festivalis developed into the Old French word festival. It was originally used as an adjective to describe something related to a party or holiday. In late 14th century England, the word festival dai, or festival day, was used to denote mainly religious church holidays. At the end of the 16th century (around 1589), the word was adopted as a noun in its modern meaning – to denote a grand celebration or a series of organized cultural events.

As the legendary Roi Vaara, the gift of Finnish performing arts to the world and a member of Black Market International, said: "Performing artists are the fringes of the art world – the margins of the margins – it is a tribe that is scattered all over the world and it is important for us to meet each other, to talk to each other – about art, life, society and the universe. We are just visitors, passers-by on planet Earth, we combine our experience, ideas and alternative practice, to maintain a stance outside of power games and to show the world the opposite of commercialism, an experimental creative process."
Supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Media cover:

Vastra Nyland 
https://www.vastranyland.fi/kultur/tolv-timmar-konst-i-gumnas/

Etelä-Uusimaa
"Aletheia-Taidefestivaali Gümnasissa" 

GoodNews Estonia
https://goodnews.ee/non-grata-soome-juhtival-performance-festivalil-aletheia26/