February 10 was the first anniversary of the #TheRightToLife movement that raised awareness and concern over Finland’s asylum policy. The date aimed to host a lecture-performance at the Kiasma Finnish national gallery of Helsinki by Riikka Theresa Innanen called Touch and Revolution.
The plan of the performance was, however, changed 24 hours before it debuted. All the sudden, Innanen was the only artist allowed to go on stage due to an unclear security threat.
“We even planned to invite the audience to come on stage for tea and conversation,” said a statement by the organizers of the lecture-performance. “Considering the presence of asylum-seekers in our team and their vulnerability, it was a shock for us to be confronted with consequences such as arrest, if we did not comply. We felt that not only our artistic freedom but also our safety is being jeopardized.”
According to the artists, Kiasma, which was instrumental in helping the #RightToLife movement, did not at any moment make clear what the security threat was.
And here lies the problem, according to Hami Bahadori, a local artist who was part of the artist group. He said that he is not the representative of al migrant communities in Helsinki and was simply a part of the lecture-performance group.
“The fact that our group was diverse and made by artists with different backgrounds, privileges, and roles, brings this issue more into attention,” he said. “We were simply a group of artists trying to do our job in an art museum”
“Instead of exposing the sources of these [far-right] threats,” he continued. “Kiasma is outsourcing its responsibility to companies to hide the threats. If there is a threat, it’s the job of a democratic society like Finland to stand up to such intimidation.”
The #RightToLife movement helped asylum seekers to have a say in their dire situation.
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