ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival
The name "ANTI" means "gift" in Finnish, which reflects the festival's policy to make art accessible to all, artworks that are presented in the festival are free of charge, allowing people who may not typically engage with art to become accidental participants and viewers, which leads to most audiences often experience the disruptive potential of the works profoundly.
2004 The international program included artists from many countries such as Great Britain, Canada, United States of America, Germany, Japan and Netherlands.
2006 There were 17 artists from all over the world giving their performances in Kuopio City Hall, Väinölänniemi Tennis Court, Youth Center 44, Hotel Puijonsarvi, Huuhanmäki Observatory, Cinema Maxim, an empty property on Tasavallankatu, balcony of the Carlson department store, Kuopio airport, Savonia University of Applied Sciences, Health Professions Kuopio, an apartment mediated by the real estate agency Huoneistokeskus and the office of Reijo Kela.
2007 For the 2007 edition of the festival a community college, a skateboarding park, the pages of a city newspaper, a late-night grill, a children's playground and an entire island were negotiated by an international program of artists.
Claire Blundell Jones's work Introducing Tumbleweed to the Finnish Landscape, was noticed by media press.
2008 For the 2008 edition Kuopio's residents opened their homes to audiences and host works made for domestic space.
Other projects took place in a sports stadium, on a public stage, across the network of city streets and on, and under, the Rönö bridge.
2010 This edition of ANTI concentrated on how artists working with writing and language navigate, read and inhabit the city.
For the 11th time, The festival took over public spaces in Kuopio, the Luonnon ANTI program set up a camp on the island of Karhusaari.
During its twelfth year, the international festival of contemporary art spread to other locations, such as Lapinlahti, Hietasalo island and the smoke sauna in Rauhalahti.
