Practicing Hope

We are really proud to be hosting this year's Open Out Festival, a queer art festival taking place once a year in Tromsø since 2017

Find more information about each event on Open Out Festival's webpage or download a pdf here

This year's festival title PRACTICING HOPE comes from an urge to address, face, disturb or react to the sense of hopelessness that feels so pressing in the light of the repression of voices, identities and bodies we see around us in several different contexts. The relevance and meaning can be questioned from different points of views and Open Out explores together with the invited artists as well as the audience and participants what this title can mean/ do.

What does hope look like if it is a practice? What if hope is something we do? What does it mean to practice something? Who teaches us/ you? Is hope a form of denial? Can hope manifest materially? Is there hope within anger or grief or a pop song? Love?

Through an open call the Open Out team have invited artists to relate to the title in the way that makes sense to them; the title is meant more as a point of departure for resonance and association rather than a prescription of content within the works, discussions and events happening during the festival.

Program overview

Saturday 7th

18.00
Opening night<3
DJ S.N.R.I (CZ)

Sunday 8th

13 - 15.00
Talk and workshop: Queering Bash
with Winnie Soon (HK/UK) and Mara Karagianni (GR)
**Participants are asked to sign up in advance - use this link **

16 - 17.00
Guided tour of the festival exhibition: PRACTISING HOPE

17 - 17.30
Performance: A dog with a poem inside
by Anna Bierler (NL)

Monday 9th

14 - 16.00
Workshop: Assemble, force, restore and give back
Wood workshop with Hanna Una Holmquist (SE)

19.00 *at Verdensteatret Kino*
Queer cinema: Short film programme
curated by Išgirsti, SAQMI, Flat Earth Cinema and Open Out: Practising Hope

Tuesday 10th

15 - 15.30
Performance: Silmänisku / FLIRT
By Ida Isak Westerberg (SE) with Eva Svaneblom (SE)

16 - 18.00
Workshop and ritual: Collective Motion as Collective Hope
With Marie Cole (NO/GN)

18.30
Sound performance: A ceremony to reconcile memory with imagination / حفل صلح الذاكرة مع الخيال
by Omarleen (SY/NL)

Wednesday 11th

14 - 17.00
Food workshop: A Guttering
with Sal Reis Trouxa (PT/SE), Sarasvati Shrestha (SE/NP) and Ar Utke Ács (DK/SE)

17 - 19.00
Workshop: Collective Hope: Listening and Reflecting through making
with Careen Koleilat (LE/PS)

Thursday 12th

14 - 17.00
Workshop: THESE CARDS ARE NOT MAGIC
With Bek Berger (AUS/LV)

19 - 20.00
Performance: House of Cardamom
By BolBola (EG/DE) and Hassandra (LB/DE)

21.00
FESTIVAL BAR & DJ tArab

Friday 13th

13 - 15.00
Workshop: Riso printing
With Mondo Books

16 - 16.30
Performance: Artemis Sleeping
By Nanna Amstrup, Jonathan August Lengali and Hilde Heggstad

17 - 20.00
Dinner performance and collective cooking: a guttering
with Sal Reis Trouxa (PT/SE), Sarasvati Shrestha (SE/NP) and Ar Utke Ács (DK/SE)

20.00
Karaoke night & festival bar

Saturday 14th

13 - 16.00
Workshop: THESE CARDS ARE NOT MAGIC
With Bek Berger (AUS/LV)

16 - 16.45
Performance lecture: Finding hope in a dumpster fire
By Tine Adler (DK/NO) and Nayara Leite (BR/NO)

20.00
Closing night: Open Stage
Hosted by Open Out

Participating artists: Bek Berger (AUS/LV) Aleya and Omar (EG/DE) Hanna Una Holmquist (SE) Anna Bierler (NL) Careen Koleilat (LE/PS) Viola Solberg (NO) Louisa Palmi (NO/SE) Ida Isak Westerberg (SE) Nayara Leite (BR/NO) & Tine Adler (DK/NO) Sal Reis Trouxa (PT/SE), Sarasvati Shrestha (SE/NP) and Ar Utke Ács (DK/SE) S.N.R.I. (CZ) BolBola (EG/DE) & Hassandra (LB/DE) Omarleen (SY/NL) Esse McChesney (SE) Winnie Soon (HK/UK) and Mara Karagianni (GR) Marie Cole (NO/GN) Oda Balke Fjellang (NO) Nanna Amstrup (DK/NO), Jonathan August Lengali (NO) and Hilde Heggstad (NO) Io Sivertsen (NO)
Contributors: Flat Earth Cinema (IS) MONDO Books (NO) SAQMI (SE) Išgirsti (LTU)

Open Out Festival 2024 is generously supported by: Bergensenstiftelsen, Kulturrådet, Tromsø Kommune, Troms og Finnmark Fylkeskommune, Sparebank 1 NordNorge, Coop Extra

About Open Out

Open Out Festival is a queer art festival taking place once a year in Tromsø, Norway since 2017. Open Out are dedicated to host and show queer artists for a week-long festival, aiming to create a sense of community: Coming together with a shared responsibility of taking care of the queer, the alive, each other and the works and inputs we bring. The festival program consists of a main exhibition, performances, workshops, social activities, parties and more. Open Out Festival thinks of itself as a temporary collective, a shared experience created by everyone who participates; art also as lived experiences. Open Out puts forward queer artists and aim to create a space for the queer, the unlimited, the funny, the brave, the birds and the eggs and the shy, the sad, the safer.