Past events

FinnAgora wants to wish everyone a wonderful summer. FinnAgoras office has had to be temporarily closed, like many others, due to the pandemic. But our work has continued at home both in Finland and in Hungary. For fall we have planned a photography exhibition “Women Rock”, stand-up event “We Stand Up” and jazz evening “New Jazz from Finland”. We also have many other ideas that we are still spinning and we will keep you up to date on any other plans or events. We are looking forward to fall but before that we will go on summer break and will return to work in August. We wish you all a warm

The Finnish institute in Budapest has appointed Eero Yrjö-Koskinen as its new Director from January 1 st , 2021. He will succeed Cita Högnabba-Lumikero, who has been leading the institute since 2015. Yrjö-Koskinen has been appointed for an initial three years, which may be extended by another two years. The appointment was made by the FinnAgora Foundation, which has representatives from Finnish municipalities, universities, ministries, culture, civil society and corporate sector. The chairman of FinnAgora is Metropolitan Ambrosius. “I am truly excited about this appointment, as the institute

On March 23rd, The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes network launched the Together Alone project: a fast progressing open call for artists and creatives, many of whose projects were cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19. Nine weeks and 437 applications later, we have now commissioned 20 artists, creatives and collectives around the globe to reflect upon the current situation through diverse artistic practices. We are incredibly thankful for every application and extremely moved by how creatives have mirrored the major social upheavals of our times through the arts, and most

The second selection round of Together Alone is now completed! We were thrilled to receive (once again!) no less than 142 applications from homebound artists and collectives around the world. For this second round, seven projects were selected, employing bravely and widely the potentialities of digital culture and taking new paths to create connections between isolated artists and audiences worldwide. The selected projects from the second round are: - Care Practice: Recipes for Resilience by Ceci Moss & Jenni Nurmenniemi - Constructing a specialist network to produce knowledge and act as

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic FinnAgoras activities have been reduced significantly and many events had to be postponed and some even cancelled. Because of this it has been decided that the personnel only work part-time from the first of May. You can still reach us on firstname.lastname@finnagora.hu and info@finnagora.hu . Our response time might be longer due to the personnel only working part-time. We apologize for this and thank you for your understanding. We will inform you as soon as the office is open again full-time.

We were happy to receive (and read!) an overall of 129 applications for the first Together Alone round! We've gone through amazing applications by artists and collectives from across the globe - from Finland to Burkina Faso, from Japan to India and Australia. Five projects have now been selected, taking us on an exploration of artistic practices in times of physical isolation: artists weaving futurology and contemporary dance practices, studying fresh-water polyps and creating algorithms based on Covid-19 data, and others focusing on collaborative practices via soundscapes and online reading

The current crisis is severely affecting the cultural sector. Many artists and creatives whose work is project-based have lost months worth of income. Amongst the crisis, the mission of the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes remains unchanged. We exist to promote international mobility, visibility and collaboration of Finnish art, culture and science. That is why we are launching a new and fast progressing open call for Finnish and Finland-based artists and artist groups. TOGETHER ALONE - OPEN CALL The Institutes are seeking artistic proposals related to the following themes: state of

FinnAgora is following the regulations given by the Finnish Government regarding the Coronavirus outbreak. According to these rules public events and travelling should be avoided until the 31.5. Because of this many of FinnAgoras events are cancelled and to avoid unecessary risk of spreading or receiving the virus we will close our office for the time being. We will inform you when there will be changes in this situation. Our work continues planning autumn events, and you can reach us on email on info@finnagora.hu and firstname.lastname@finnagora.hu . We hope you stay safe!

The Hungarian government declared the country to be in a state of emergency the 11th of March. This means special regulations must be followed. These regulations do not affect FinnAgoras future events at the moment. The following regulations must be followed due to the state of emergency declaration: - People who arrive from the areas of the epidemic (China, Iran, Italy, South-Korea) will not be let into Hungary. Only Hungarian citizens may enter Hungary traveling from these areas and they will be put into quaranteen for 14 days. - Flights, buses and trains from Hungary to the areas mentioned

FinnAgora is proudly showing Finnish and Hungarian collaboration during Finn Filmnapok. Finnish and Hungarian students have collaborated and made short films just for the festival. The Hungarian students study at Budapest Metropolitan University. The short films are shown the 7 th of February at Premier Kultcafé at 16.00 . The event is free and we hope to see many there to show support for the future Finnish and Hungarian filmmakers. You can read more of the collaboration in Hungarian here: https://www.metropolitan.hu/csere-filmek-a-finn-filmnapokon?fbclid=

The 9th Finnish Film Days takes place on the 5-9th of February 2020 at Toldi Cinema! Finnish Film Days offers eight first-class Finnish films and two shortfilm collections presenting some of the brightest talents of Finnish film making. All movies are spoken in Finnish and subtitled in English and Hungarian, unless mentioned otherwise. Tickets: 1550 / 1200 HUF Pre-sale starts the 23rd of January. Buy tickets at Toldi Cinema (Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 36-38.) or at http://toldimozi.hu/programok/ Organized by FinnAgora co-operation with TOLDI mozi, Suomen elokuvasäätiö - Finnish Film Foundation ,

This years opening film at Finn Filmnapok is Aurora. Directed by Miia Tervon the movie has received 13 nominations in the Finnish movie awards Jussi. The film has been critically acclaimed and very popular with audiences both in Finland and abroad. The film tells the story of a young woman named Aurora. She works in a beauty salon and has plans of moving to Norway where there is more money to be made. Aurora has a difficult relationship with an alcoholic father and struggles with her own problems with alcohol. During one night at a hot-dog stand Aurora meets iranian asylum seeker Darian who

Finnish visual artist and musician Hannu Karjalainen is bringing his video installation Towards An Architect and a live audiovisual performance Nightfall to Finnish Film Days festival in collaboration with Let it Be! art agency . The video work portrays a fictional architect, who is being covered in Le Corbusier paints in different colours - experiencing the response of the people forced to live in the structures he has created. Nightfall is based on 16mm film footage of a woman walking in a park at night, shot by the artist himself. The viewer is transported on a dreamlike voyage through

FinnAgora is on Christmas break from the 20.12 to the 5.1. We have already started planning next years events and are very much looking forward to them. In February from the 5.2 to the 9.2 the popular Finnish movie festival Finn Filmnapok is being held in Budapest. In spring the popular restaurant day Taste Finland will also be back which will give an opportunity to taste Finnish delicacies in Hungary. There are a lot of interesting events coming up next year and to keep up to date please follow us on social media. FinnAgora wishes everyone a peaceful Christmas Time and a Happy New Year.

Timo Lassy and Teppo Mäkynen are performing at New Jazz from Finland at Budapest Music Center the 30th of November at 20.00. Both artists are household names of Finnish Jazz, Timo Lassy plays the saxophone and Teppo Mäkynen plays the drums. For more information on the event and on Timo Lassy and Teppo Mäkynen visit: https://opusjazzclub.hu/en/concerts/new-jazz-from-finland-timo-lassy-teppo-maekynen Jazz Finland has given their expert opinion during the event and has collaborated with New Jazz from Finland and FinnAgora.

Ilmiliekki Quartet is one of the most beloved ensembles of Finnish Jazz. Consisting of trumpet player Verneri Pohjola, pianist Tuomo Prättälä, bassist Antti Lötjönen and drummer Olavi Louhivuori. Stylistically Ilmiliekki Quartet range from the delicate end of the sparse contemporary jazz sound to the depths of Nordic fire music. Ilimiliekki Quartet will play at Budapest Music Center the 29th of November at 20.00. For more information on the event and how to buy tickets visit https://opusjazzclub.hu/en/concerts/new-jazz-from-finland-ilmiliekki-quartet Jazz Finland has given their expert

This year, the Council of Europe celebrates its 70 th birthday. One of the priority goals of the Council of Europe is to defend human rights, and this drawing contest is linked to that. We expect secondary school students (age group: 14-18) to send in drawings, photos, videos or computer graphics about human rights via ET70.rajzverseny@gmail.com . Deadline: 3 rd December 2019. Please read more about the values the CoE promotes: https://www.coe.int/hu/web/about-us/values 1 st prize: A trip to Strasbourg for 2 persons (return air tickets, hotel room for 2 nights, per diem) including a visit to

Join us for an evening talk hosted by the Finnish Ambassador's wife, Terttu Virri and learn her secrets about using Finnish design in diplomatic representation! You get a chance to hear more in depth about Finnish design and see the Wild at Heart -exhibition. Time: 29th of October, 18:00 Place: Hybridart Space, Budapest, Galamb utca 6. Facebook event can be found here .

Stories of Modern Finnish Design and Art – a guided tour by curator Tero Kuitunen. The guided tour takes you behind the scenes and offers insight into the exhibition’s context and development process. The eleven designers and their artistic works are introduced in depth and the central themes of the exhibition further explained. Tero Kuitunen is a spatial and product designer based in Helsinki, Finland. He has graduated as a designer from the Applied Arts MA programme at the Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture. Currently he is working as a freelance designer in several

Wild at Heart – A Collection of Modern Finnish Design and Art is curated by young designer Tero Kuitunen , that offers its viewers a look into the protean world of contemporary Finnish design. Finnish design is known abroad for its high quality and distinct silhouettes. Often, the design pieces that come to mind are somewhat subdued with clean lines and natural colours. There is also often an egalitarian side to them as Finns consider the ability to address societal problems and offer solutions to them a hallmark of good design. However, there is more to Finnish design than that. The name

The finnish stringquartet Briosa is coming to Budapest for the tenth Quartettissimo String Quartet Festival at Károlyi Castle. Performing at Károlyi the 29th of September will be Aino Yamaguchi, Ida Westerlund, Julie Svacinova and Siiri Nieminen. All group members are students at the Sibelius Academy's Junior Academy and are between 15-17 years old. They have also been students at the East Helsinki Music Institute. Come and see young finnish talents. You can find more information of the event on this website .

Conductor maestro Jorma Panula is back in Budapest for the 5th time for his Masterclass for Conductors. The Masterclass is held between the 21.8-26.8. The Masterclass is open for all applicants from all age ranges and the participants for the class have been chosen based on their applications. A selected few from the class will be chosen to perform on the final concert the 26.8 at Vigadó, one of Budapests historical concert venues. You can purchase tickets for the final concert from here and read more about the masterclass from here .

FinnAgora is back from a summer break, well rested and full of energy! We have started working and have a lot of different and exciting events for this fall. We attended this years Sziget Festival and supported finnish artists like Alma. This weekend the finnish illustrator JP Ahonen will be at Fekete Zaj festival. L1 Dancefest will take place in Budapest from the 1-4 of September, where the finnish dancer Taneli Törmä will be performing his piece LOCATION X/ Distortion. To keep up to date of our events order our newsletter available in Finnish or Hungarian. Also you can follow us on social

TelepArt mobility support platform promotes opportunities for performing artists to travel and perform internationally. TelepArt is a light micro-funding format aimed for emerging and semi-established professional artists traveling from Finland to Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic and Romania and vice versa. You can read more about the program and apply on http://www.applytelepart.com/apply/ TelepArt is open for applications most of the year, with exceptions during winter holidays and summerbreaks.

FinnAgora 15 celebrations continue at Zsolnay Light Festival in Pécs 27.–30.6. Installations, AV live-sets, films about light art, and discussions are part of the Finnish focus program of the festival: the art by the Finnish guests of the festival reflects Nordic way of thinking through symbolism of light. Finnish ambassadors of light are brought to Zsolnay Light Festival together Let it Be! Art agency . Zsolnay Light Festival, organized for the fourth time this summer, is the first and only light festival in Hungary. Last year, the festival attracted more than 70 000 visitors. FINNISH FOCUS

FinnAgora’s FINNOVATION Business Conference on 1 2 June 2019 brings the latest news of the Finnish innovative field to Budapest. We have invited Finnish experts and business specialists to speak about what is behind ’the Finnish Miracle’: how do startups work in Finland and in the Nordic countries and how innovations are born in Finnish companies. During the day-long conference, we will learn, for example, how to utilize ’sisu’ – the inner courage and fortitude – in entrepreneurship and what kind of possibilities human-centred data economy creates for future businesses. We will get insights

Our popular pop up restaurant event is here: enjoy Saturday afternoon in the courtyard of the Finnish Embassy on 11th May ! Organized for the 8th time, our popular food event renewed its image last year: we are presenting our visitors new and exciting Finnish street food flavours and integrating more Finnish and local entrepreneurs to the event. This year, visitors have a unique chance to taste pulled oats, a delicious plant-based protein that beats meat. Behind this Finnish food innovation is Gold&Green Foods who have kindly sponsored TASTE Finland event this year! The food is prepared

Finnish synthesizer musician Sebastian Teir, known as Kebu , starts his European tour from Budapest on Saturday May 4 th , 2019. Kebu will perform in the legendary A38 Ship, a former stone-carrier ship in Danube. In addition to the gig in the evening, there is a unique chance to participate in a workshop by Kebu. Making Music with Analogue Synths workshop is mainly aimed at music professionals and composers. Kebu’s music is instrumental and melodic and it is created by using analogue synthesizers only. The artist is not only known for his unique music but also his energetic live performances

Budapest Park’s summer program kicks off with Rapcirkusz concert on April 25. This year the event has a Finnish focus: beatboxer Felix Zenger , break dancer Eetu Mäkinen , graffiti artist Acton and musician Sampo Hiukkanen will join the Hungarian rap and hiphop legends on the stage. Rapcirkusz is a new and unique mega outdoor-concert where Hungarian hip hop icons perform with a live orchestra. The event was first arranged last year and sold out its 10 000 tickets quickly. This year FinnAgora is proud to be part of this new Budapest based festival by bringing special guests from Finland! The

Kaija Saariaho is an internationally acclaimed Finnish composer, opera performer, who is visiting Hungary for the first time and will teach at the conductor master course organized by Péter Eötvös Foundation. Kaija Saariaho is currently one of the most popular contemporary composers, recently awarded the prestigious Frontiers of Knowledge Award of the BBVA Foundation which was previously awarded to György Kurtág. The public has a unique chance to hear Saariaho’s music in two occasions at Budapest Music Center (Mátyás u. 8., Budapest, 1093): Mini-concert 8 April 2019 18:00 @ BMC Library

Pirkko Saisio’s novel The Smallest Shared Dividend (1998) presents modern Finnish literature in Literature Night in Budapest on March 28th. For the fourth year in a row, EUNIC organizes the Night of Literature in cooperation with the excellent Radnóti Theater. The event will take place in various – and often unusual – locations around district VI. The actors of Radnóti Theater will be reading hand-picked works of European authors in Hungarian for the audience. This year, for the first time, the event will also be organized in Debrecen, together with the Csokonai Theater. Thus, in both cities

The TelepART Mobility Support Platform supports emerging and semi-established artists in showcasing their work internationally. At the core of this project is a new style of rapid-access funding. This funding is designed to support travel costs for performances between Finland and Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia and Romania. The aim of TelepART is to promote cultural exchange between Finland and the countries involved. The platform is permanently open to applications. Applications can be submitted by performers and their representatives or event organisers. Applicants

Kira Poutanen’s first novel Ihana Meri (trans. Wonderful Sea ) was published as the next edition in the POKET series at the end of February in Hungary. POKET is a community building and reading popularization nonprofit project. The colorful POKET-books are available in book vending machines around Budapest. Poutanen’s novel touches the topic of anorexia and tells the story of a 15-year-old girl, Julia. FinnAgora has supported the new publishing of the novel. FinnAgora met the ambassador of the book, the Hungarian swimmer and multiple Olympic gold metalist Katinka Hosszú, at the book launch

Barlast is releasing their second album in 2019 and is playing a concert at the Opus Jazz Club as a part of the record release tour. Barlast (Swedish for ballast) creates spacious new music. The silence can be heard between the notes. Everything unnecessary is stripped away. Only the name remains as ballast. The Finnish group Barlast released their debut album Ihantola (LLS03/Texicalli Digital) in February 2017. Most of the album was recorded in the round attic tower of the 110 year old Ihantola building in Helsinki. If you listen closely, you can sometimes hear the soundscape of the hip

The 8th Finnish Film Days takes place on the 6-10th of February 2019 at Toldi Cinema! Finnish Film Days offers ten first-class film screenings and more special program, such as festival sauna and heavy metal concert, than before. The festival´s curator András Horváth says that this year´s program consists of ”movies with all sorts of rhythm, colour and pace, so that everybody could find their favourite ones. Sometimes these movies can be a bit witty or sour humoured, sometimes just simply strange but also hilarious, full of life and thought-provoking. And often all this in one!” TOLDI MOZI

The TelepART Mobility Support Platform supports emerging and semi-established artists in showcasing their work internationally. At the core of this project is a new style of rapid-access funding. This funding is designed to support travel costs for performances between Finland and Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania. The aim of TelepART is to promote cultural exchange between Finland and the countries involved. The platform is permanently open to applications. Applications can be submitted by performers and their representatives or event organisers. Applicants will be notified of