UrbanApa

Friends, times are extremely tough. Crises such as war, the escalation of the climate crisis, the rise of extreme right, authoritarian, and nationalist politics as well as the intensifying funding cuts in arts and culture among many other major disasters, make us ask:

What possibilities or potentials could art have in these times? What could we do, or should we do with art? How can we practice movement as bodily motion, as collective action, as social and political force? What currents are shaping how we move, gather and act? How can we make space for joint action, community, joy and resistance?

UrbanApa is a striving to be antiracist and intersectionality feminist platform. Since our foundation we have aimed to question and challenge existing oppressive structures by creating space for diversity, multiplicity, and joy. In 2026 the festival returns to Stoa with a current, multidisciplinary and compelling program – would you want to contribute? Keep reading!

The festival will be held 25–29 August 2026 at Stoa in eastern Helsinki. The thematic landscape is movements & currents.

UrbanApa’s hope is to be an enabler and a platform for a variety of ways of making and being around artistic making, thinking and being together.

What moves you right now? What brings us into motion, towards others, towards change?What currents are you part of, what currents are you resisting? What kinds of movements feel necessary now? How can movement become a shared practice – bodily, collective, social, political? 

How can we begin to imagine new ways of working, creating and collaborating that centre movement in ways that are radical, pleasurable, sustainable and collective?How are you moving with or against the currents that shape our realities?

And can movements and currents be many things at once, communal, pleasurable, light, subversive? Playful, feminist and communal? Or utopian?

We are looking for a diverse group of artists and makers from different backgrounds.

We ask what kind of opportunities, needs, ideas, strategies, ways of working, methods, aesthetics, the theme movements & currents and the context of Stoa proposes right now?

And what do you need? What would you like to do? What are you interested in?

During the festival we have several locations available (more information on locations at Stoa’s website)

•  the library
• the theater
• the music hall
• the square in front of Stoa
• the outdoor area
• the small workshop space at Stoa’s foyer

The proposal does not need to be directly related to the theme of the year, but the theme as well as Stoa’s different spaces can be used as a starting point, landscape or inspiration.

You can propose

• Demo, lecture, performance, speech, concept, work-in-progress, site specific work. etc. / max. 40min
• Choreographic relation, working method, workshop, score, etc.
• Something else! What?

Apply by filling the application form by Thursday 23.4.2026 at 23:59 (UTC+03:00).

Email application

If you are not able to submit through the application form, you can also send us an application via email. Same deadline! Name your email message “OPEN CALL 2026” and send your proposal via email to producer@urbanapa.fi AND sonya@urbanapa.fi.

In your message, include your CV or bio + free-form application (max. A4 or link to max. 3min. video) stating at least

1. Who are you 🙂
2. What do you do / project plan (what, how, why)?
3. Possible relationship with the festival theme?
4. Spatial and technical needs (e.g. a specific space you are dreaming of)?
5. Are you / how are you free and available between 25–29 August 2026 (time of the festival)?
6. Other wishes or needs? Access needs?
7. Please please remember to equip all attachments with your name and contact information.
8. NB! that all participants are required to commit to the platform’s ethical guidelines.

We will send a reply message to all proposals once the application period has ended. There is a fee for all selected proposals.

Photo on top: Aman Askarizad