ANTI Live Art Prize: Meet the Artists
Meet three artists at Kiasma Theatre.
About
The three live artists, Chiara Bersani (IT), Harold Offeh (UK) and SJ Norman (AU), shortlisted for the biannual ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art Prize will join us at the Kiasma Theatre to respond to this season’s theme – materialism.
The Prize will be awarded in Kuopio during the ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival 9.-14.9.2025.
Schedule
17.00 Opening words: Elisa Itkonen, Director of the ANTI Festival & Season Butler, Co-Curator of the ANTI Live Art Prize 2025
17.10 Keynote by Brian Lobel
17.30 Artist Talk by Chiara Bersani
17.50 Artist Talk by Harold Offeh
18.10 Artist Talk by SJ Norman
18.30 Q&A
19.00 Closing the event
Speakers
Brian Lobel is a performer, teacher and curator whose work has shown work internationally, from Harvard Medical School to Sydney Opera House and from London’s National Theatre to the Lagos Theatre Festival. His books include Theatre & Cancer, BALL & Other Stories About Cancer, and Purge. Live performances include 24 Italian Songs & Arias (with Gweneth-Ann Rand), A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer (with Bryony Kimmings), Binge, Sex with Cancer (with Joon Lynn Goh) and Cruising for Art. Brian has received commissions and grants from the Wellcome Trust, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Complicité, Jerwood and Arts Council England, among others. Brian is a Professor of Theatre & Performance at Rose Bruford College and the co-founder of The Sick of the Fringe. Brian is a Come Dine with Me winner, on an episode where he tried to showcase/shovel all of his Live Art performances inside the framework of a British reality show. Currently, Brian is also a member of the International Guild of Professional Toastmasters, as well as a celebrant creating and facilitating funerals, weddings and other ceremonies. Brian is a member of the 2025 ANTI Live Art Prize jury. www.blobelwarming.com
Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of histories. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including: Tate Modern; South London Gallery; Studio Museum Harlem, New York; MAC VAL, France; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark; and Art Tower Mito, Japan.
He lives in Cambridge and is currently Head of Programme for MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, London. In 2019, he was a winner of Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists. The largest award of its kind in the UK. Read more: harolfoffeh.com
Chiara Bersani is an Italian performing artist and choreographer exploring the politics of the body and how the images we create interact with society’s narratives. Her research is based on the concept of the “Political Body” and the creation of practices aimed at training its presence and action. As an activist Chiara works on the accessibility of disabled artists in the performing arts scene. Her “manifesto” work of this research is Gentle Unicorn, a performance included in the Aerowaves circuit. In 2018 she won the Ubu Award as best performer under 35. Her new creation, Sottobosco (undergrowth) explores the relationship between disabled bodies and natural landscapes. Chiara Bersani has been an artist of apap – Advancing Performing arts project – Feminist Future, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In 2023 the Kunsthaus Baselland, hosted Deserters, Bersani’s first solo exhibition in a European institution in collaboration with Gamec in Bergamo and with the support of the 11th edition of the Italian Council, promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture. For the three-year period 2025-2027, she is an associate artist of Triennale di Milano. Read more: chiarabersani.it
SJ Norman (b. 1984) is an artist and writer. His practice is counter-disciplinary and formally promiscuous. His body of work to date has included more than 20 works of performance, 1 full length work of fiction, and a significant body of other experimental work spanning sculpture, installation, photography, textiles, drawing and sound.
His awards for art include: the 67th Blake Prize, a 2018 Sidney Myer Fellowship and a 2019 Australia Council Fellowship. Recent exhibitions include the 22nd Biennale of Sydney and the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial. His acquisition history includes major public collections, such as the National Gallery of Australia.
His first book, Permafrost (UQP, 2020) was shortlisted for 7 major literary prizes in Australia, including the Australian Society for Literature Gold Medal and the Stella Prize, and won the fiction category in the 2024 South Australian Premier’s Prize. His other awards for literature include: the 2017 Kill Your Darlings Prize, the 2022 Peter Blazey Prize for Non-Fiction, and numerous placements in the Judith Wright Prize for Poetry.
He is a Wiradjuri Brotherboy (Trans Man) born on Gadigal country, to an Aboriginal mother and a British father. He currently lives and works in Lenapehoking/New York City. Read more: sjnorman.net
ANTI-festival
ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival is an international contemporary arts festival presenting site-specific works annually in September in Kuopio, Finland. Read more: antifestival.com