The URB 13 program includes performances, exhibitions,lectures, seminars and workshops. The festival brings together artists working along different premises, and it encourages the audience to transcend their normal habits. As before, the focus is on young artists and audiences.
URB 13 presents a Finnish-Australian co-production, Sloap. Performed in an urban site, Sloap combines dance and street styles such as BMX and skating. The Finnish cast is directed by a Sydney-based group called Branch Nebula. The same cultural exchange is presented in young Finnish filmmaker Martta Tuomaala’s movie, I Am A Spider, which will also premiere at the festival. Mainly filmed in Sydney and Helsinki, the movie follows Finnish and Australian skaters hanging together.
Finnish experimental theatre group Other Spaces (Toisissa tiloissa) will premiere their new production, Car Park, on the opening day of the festival. Their performance concentrates on a fundamental creature of the modern culture: the car. This participatory performance promises to take the audience for a trip to an unusual underground world.
The URB 13 program also includes dance performances at Stoa. Taking the stage will be kids and youngsters participating in a workshop provided by 09 Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, and ten-performer urban dance collective Free Time. On the same evening, a group of dancers put together by Saara Töyrylä will present a homage to the recently departed Matt Mattox, a legend of jazz dance.
The international program includes a surprising lecture performance titled A Lecture for Every One by Sarah Vanhee from Belgium. The Finnish version of this intervention will be performed by Elina Pirinen.
In the field of visual arts, URB presents Kiasma Wall, a wall of both curated and “open wall” urban art outside Kiasma that will stand for six weeks. Artist Brad Downey takes to SIC-gallery to present his original and comprehensive way of using urban surroundings in his art. Several Russian artists will attend workshops and art happenings in a project called RE-PUBLIC.
A summer job project for young people will continue its third edition as a part of the festival. This yearthe project is led by Elina Izarra and Tatu Engeström.