Opening Ceremony
Veni, vidi, voice & My Body the Earth
Venusmusic – Giving Voice to Our Temperamental Sister Planet
Mareike Dobewall, director, musician and composer
Opening remarks
Marjo Kaartinen, Rector, University of Turku
The Layer of Sharing
Vertti Luostarinen, creative technologist & AI researcher
Iina Taijonlahti, choreographer
Venusmusic – Giving Voice to Our Temperamental Sister Planet
Begin the day with Venusmusic – a 15-minute vocal performance powered by 100 female voices. Inspired by Venus, our only female-named planet, this piece challenges the “evil twin” narrative. Venusmusic reclaims Venus as a symbol of powerful femininity and resistance.
Through experimental vocal music informed by science, mythology, and feminist thought, women and female-identifying singers from Turku summon the planet’s voice – earthly, otherworldly, and unapologetically unique.
The Layer of Sharing
Vertti Luostarinen and Iina Taijonlahti from Ekho Collective will showcase the virtual part of the ”Layers in the Peace Machine” called ”The Layer of Sharing”. “Layers in the Peace Machine” is a part of the 2026 Cultural Capital Year programme and will displayed in Oulu city hall in 2026.
”The Layer of Sharing” participants can share their peace related memories and view them it in relation to the memories shared by others. The memories will travel throughout the various layers of the work, and transform through interactions with the visitors.
Photo: Venus by Mareike Dobewall
Performers
Dr. Mareike Dobewall is a Stockholm-based director, scenographer, composer, and educator whose interdisciplinary work bridges the arts and sciences. For the 2025 symposium, she has developed a new vocal piece bringing singers from in and around Turku together to present a powerful experience of our only sister planet – highlighting the need to attune ourselves to other voices, both planetary and human.
Vertti Luostarinen is a creative technologist and AI reseacher with a background in screenwriting. He specializes in designing rhetorical and narrative systems.
Photo: Pinja Rauhamäki
Iina Taijonlahti is a choreographer who works in the field of dance and interactive art. She explores the relationship between technology, humanity and corporeality in the era of posthumanism.
Photo: Vesa-Pekka Grönfors
ABOUT EKHO COLLECTIVE
Ekho Collective is a Helsinki based group of artists, designers and technology professionals, who specialise in immersive experiences. The group’s works include Ahto, an installation at the Lahti Museum of Visual Arts Malva that changes according to the flow of visitors. Ekho Collective also created interactive and award-winning piece Laila for Finnish National Opera and Ballet.