Ptarmigan is no longer operating in Helsinki.

We are looking for elephants and performers to take part in a new art work by British artist Amelia Beavis-Harrison on Friday 18th October 2013. The performance is part of the Dimanche Rouge Estonia-Finland-France festival which will take place in Helsinki from 17-20 October. The new piece called The Elephant Dance will see six people take on the roles of elephant and hunter as a durational performance plays out around the Helsinki Art Museum. The performance uses movement as a way of interpreting traditional tribal dance to create a re-worked performance but is not a choreographed piece.

Who we are looking for:

- People prepared to give their time to a workshop to develop the work and a subsequent performance. 

- You can be an artist, dancer, student or someone with a general interest, 18 years or over

- There is no requirement to come from a dance or performance background, there will be no set dance steps to learn

What you will be asked to do:

- Take part in a day workshop led by the artist that will incorporate learning performance techniques which will lead into development of the performance. Workshop is Friday 18th October from 11am

- Take part in the durational performance around the Helsinki Art Museum. Performance is on Friday 18th October from 4pm

- Wear a costume for the duration of the performance

Overall this aims to be an enjoyable experience where you become a part of a new and evolving piece and get to meet other new like minded people.

For more about Amelia’s art practice see: www.ameliabeavisharrison.com

Ptarmigan Tallinn's current artist in residence, Camilla Graff Junior, will perform My Mom is a Wolf, My Dad... at XL Art Space on Tuesday, 26 November at 18:00. The performance is free and lasts about 80 minutes.

‘Kontaining13: Traces’ was a one week takeover of a shipping container turned art container in the centre of Helsinki. The programme was coordinated by Ptarmigan directors (Amal Laala, James Andean, Marek Pluciennik and Sari T.M. Kivinen) in collaboration with Outi Korhonen (regional artist on cultural diversity of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland).

This was the second time we were invited to present a programme for the art container. In 2012 we focused on presenting the work of selected artists who responded to an open-call in a programme simply called Kontaining. This year we decided to shift the focus and to develop the programme more in accord to our collective and individual artistic interests. Subsequently each director oversaw one day of the programme, during which we developed both solo and collaborative work. We also included a day of improvised collaboration at the conclusion of the week, in which all of us bought in aspects explored in the previous days.

The red string that ran through the entire programme was that we all explored various ways to engage our activities with the site of a busy urban space and the random people walking past. For example Marek invited people to look inside the container through a peep-hole in which they could see themselves looking into the container via a live video feed; Amal collaborated with Karim Galenius to present an open workshop and discussion about the role of protest in society; Sari worked with artist Hannah Harkes to develop a collective narrative (drawn and written) about the container, the people passing by were drawn and written into their narrative in real-time; and James explored the site with the Tuesday group – a group who normally explores improvisation together on Tuesdays (this time on a Saturday).

In addition Alejandro Olarte presented a sonic workshop, Rank Ensemble presented live improvised sound evening, Catalysti spent a day promoting their activities as a new association supporting transcultural artists in Finland, and Rebecca Clamp performed a dynamic concert as the final event of the week. 

Check out linked photo evidence of our activities.