A new art festival in Helsinki – Helsinki Flamenco Bienal announces its program
Helsinki Flamenco Bienal is a new high-level art festival where world stars of flamenco meet new generation artists.
The artist group Compañía Kaari & Roni Martin is implementing and curating a new international art festival in Helsinki, with a program that is a mix of contemporary flamenco, living legends and young artists. The festival, held at the Dance House Helsinki from 22 to 26 April 2025, explores what flamenco is today and how its various styles intertwine tradition with contemporary art.
– The first Helsinki Flamenco Bienal looks at flamenco through its multi-generational history to the present day: how the art form, born from the fusion of different Andalusian cultures and enriched by the mental landscape of the avant-garde artists of the 1930s, has survived dictatorship, persecution and the stranglehold of capitalism as a distinctive, raw and ever-changing art form, says Kaari Martin, artistic director of Compañía Kaari & Roni Martin.
Grounded in History, Focused on the Present
Spanish dancer-choreographer Israel Galván is a leading avant-garde figure and world star of flamenco, whose works question and break all possible boundaries of flamenco. He is also a technical virtuoso who dares to delve deeply into irony and carnivalism, a level of expression never seen before in Spanish flamenco. In his work La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age), Galván combines tradition and contemporary flamenco expression in an exceptional way, with sophistication and intimacy.
Living flamenco legend Carmen Linares, recent Premio Nacional de Danza winner Rafaela Carrasco, flamenco piano master Pablo Suárez, and Compañía Kaari & Roni Martin meet in the room of Spain's national poet Federico García Lorca, outside whose walls the world is driven to madness. In ¡LORCA!, we hear Lorca's 1931 flamenco poems, whose roots are deep in the Romani, Jewish and Arab cultures of Andalusia. It took only five years between the recording of these poems and Lorca's murder and Picasso's Guernica.
The work Après Vous, Madame by Paula Comitre, a rising star of the younger flamenco generation featured at the Helsinki Flamenco Bienal, explores the deep impact of culture on human identity. At the same time, it pays tribute to the legendary dancer La Argentina, a key figure of the 1920s and 1930s. The music is composed by French concert pianist and contemporary composer Orlando Bass, who brings a fresh, organic approach to accompanying flamenco dance.
The festival program also features Compañía Kaari & Roni Martin’s punk-flamenco piece KILL Carmen, where the traditional Carmen stereotype is boldly challenged with Tarantino-like intensity. Inspired by the theme of otherness in Prosper Mérimée’s original novel, the work returns to the stage ten years after its premiere. Having toured internationally, it has sparked both admiration and lively debate.
In addition, the Helsinki Flamenco Bienal offers a rare opportunity to experience a piece called Screaming Duende by Israel Galván and the Screaming Men’s Choir. In this performance, flamenco world star Galván joins forces with the internationally acclaimed choir from Oulu, embodying the spirit of García Lorca's concept of duende. The duo's previous collaboration, Carmen Opera, was the main performance of the Seville Flamenco Biennale at the Teatro de la Maestranza in October 2024. The choir is conducted by Petri Sirviö.
The festival also offers a unique opportunity to meet Carmen Linares in a lecture and an intimate recital.
Each evening of the festival concludes at the Sauna Club, a lively gathering where attendees can reflect on the day’s performances while savoring Spanish delicacies. The club features music and dance performed by festival artists, who embrace flamenco’s tradition of improvisation in a vibrant, cross-artistic spirit.
In addition to its main performances, the festival offers a rich array of activities, including flamenco master classes, panel discussions, and film screenings. The full program will be announced closer to the festival date.