KIILAKLUBI

Kiilaklubi is a traditional poetry club organized by Kiila ry. It presents stage poetry, video art and music.
"Courageous poetics" is a celebration of courage through the prism of contemporary leftist poets and artists, where we can collectively build strength with words while holding space for us, our communities, nuanced lives, and multiplicitous identities.
We hold this poetic togetherness honouring the resistance of Kiila’s traditions, Kiilaklubi and Kiilaalbum, while striving to expand our understanding of courage, how it may look, and its intersecting points. So that we can not only push back the institutional violence and increasing extreme right  but also dare to share our humanity, love, vulnerability, and care for each other and the land."

As in Kiila's self-definition, we want to " (...) engage in imagining another kind of world and creating images of it with artistic means." How brave it is to take the time to do it in today's society indicates its importance. Because when doing so, we also find inspiration, regain inner power and ignite each other to fight for our shared values.

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KIILAN ALBUM

In the 17th Kiila Album reflections on leftism are exceptionally approached from a feminist perspective. Our aim is to update the task of the leftist movement to better respond to the characteristics of labour today and the constantly evolving forms of capitalist exploitation. The multi-artistic Kiila Album explores feminist takes on leftism in history and the present, in the art field and grassroots movements, and unpacks the practices of knowledge and power, as well as representations of the Other.

Founded in 1936 as a non-aligned group of leftist writers, Kiila has grown throughout its history into an association for art workers of all fields. The association brings together artists, writers, critics, researchers, and other creative professionals, regardless of language or citizenship. In addition to its other publishing activities, Kiila has been publishing the Kiila Albums since the 1930s. They have been the key mouthpieces of Finnish left-wing and working-class art.

The contributions in this Kiila Album take the reader to different contexts, places and spaces, pasts and futures. The contributors of the publication are poet and cultural producer Roxana Crisólogo Correa; historian and comic artist Ainur Elmgren; writer and photographer Sadia Khatri; visual artist and PhD researcher Karolina Kucia; graphic designer and PhD researcher Kaisa Lassinaro; filmmaker and media artist Azar Saiyar; librarian and PhD researcher Tuukka Salonen; artist-poet Vidha Saumya; visual artist and filmmaker Shubhangi Singh.

The publication is edited by curator and art historian Christine Langinauer, and visual artists Minna Henriksson and Martta Tuomaala. Kiila album is funded by Yrjö Sirola Foundation, the KSL Study Centre, and the People's Culture Foundation's crowdfunding campaign.