LOCAL & DECENTRALISED
Pixelache Festival happens in and around Oranssi’s Valvomo building, in Suvilahti cultural complex Helsinki, 22nd-24th September 2017. The festival activities aim to reflect on the decentralisation of power by collectively designing the programme and venue in 2018.
After the 2015 festival that travelled through public and private Living Spaces, and the 2016 festival delving deep into Interfaces for Empathy, Pixelache Helsinki festival 2017 gathers stories of local & decentralised governance. Tapping into the shift from centralised-capital based economies to decentralised peer-based resource distribution, we offer the festival as a meeting point for local initiatives working on similar experiences, as well as a forum to plan a future together. In this way we build and expand upon our experience of Camp Pixelache past events, where the festival content was shaped together, and Open Source Festivals project, where knowledge about production was shared.
The 2017 festival edition is titled Local & Decentralised and it hosts an assembly to reflect on decentralisation of power in different fields. Local and decentralised governance seems to happen when collective design and a tangible group effort come together. In order to materialize the festival theme itself, reflecting perhaps on the current construction of Helsinki city and how buildings relate with their environment and the needs of inhabitants, during the festival in 2017 we aim to form an assembly inviting the local community into the collective design of a public venue and the content for the 2018 edition of the festival.
In 2017 the festival activities will happen in and next to Oranssi premises from 22.9 to 24.9. The role of Oranssi organisation, of Suvilahti permanent tenants, and of Pixelache members’ contributions is an important as part of the main program in 2017, for the identity of Local & Decentralised, and as a trigger for the activities in 2018.
The 2018 iteration of Pixelache Festival is also committed to take place again in Suvilahti, featuring a collaboratively-built venue next to existing DIY areas such as the skate-park. The new spatial and conceptual configurations, made together with the festival participants over two festival editions, aim to create fluid places where collaborative knowledge is applied, and where new ideas emerge for future cooperations.
Major developments of decentralization can and do occur: currency, energy, resources, and feelings are being decentralised and distributed. These developments bring about problems that cannot be solved on a purely conceptual level; they need to be embodied and lived through for a shift to yet different models. Thus fear of the unforeseen and unpredictable must also be addressed. From the festival activities stories emerge that depict how governance functions between civil society, individual initiatives and government, and also how citizens themselves connect into structures where governance happens locally, and where we can come to terms with inefficiencies, passivity, interests, time, jargon.
How is it possible to express a multiplicity of will, is the present practice of a State effective enough to convey it? Often the movements towards local and decentralised structures are related to privatisation in economical models, how can diverse collective interest meet on economical terms? Can we be local and decentralised and yet be connected globally, micro-organisms breathing within a vast complex macro system?
Local & Decentralised festival does not let you down, it will be your local event to differentiate consensus from silence: talking of ecological issues, promoting visual culture as a shield against pessimism, presenting how democracy benefits from digital media -or not, playing games to prove that we are as connected as we are, offering workshops to learn again the pleasure of learning things together, finding music and contemporary art that make sense more than science, and divulging science as creative as drama.
The festival is free entrance and suitable for families, you are welcome to share food and bring your towel for sauna.
VENUES, PLACES AND SCHEDULE
Local & Decentralised festival program at Suvilahti and MUU Galleria in 2017
From 22.9 to 24.9.2017 - Festival and Public Assembly at Oranssi, Valvomo building in Suvilahti.
From 21.9. To 26.9.2017 - Exhibition ‘Pixelache and Koelse 15 years’ curated by Antti Ahonen, at MUU Galleria, Lönnrotinkatu 33, Helsinki.
Pixelache Helsinki 2018 festival preliminary program at Suvilahti
From 13.9 to 19.9.2018 - Construction site for the Decentralised venue at skate-park, next to Valvomo building in Suvilahti.
From 21.9 to 23.9.2018 - Festival activities both at Oranssi, Valvomo building, and at the Decentralised venue, close to skate park next to Valvomo.
Consult map of Suvilahti area.
CONTACT FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
Egle Oddo, egle [-ät-] pixelache.ac
Local & Decentralised festival is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the City of Helsinki Cultural Office, and Svenska kulturfonden.