The Planets: Venus
In 2025, ABOAGORA continued the thematic series, The Planets. The second Planet to take the center stage was Venus, the Bringer of Peace.
The second movement of The Planets suite is Venus, the Bri, and ABOAGORA 10–12.9.2025 took on the theme of peace from a broad cultural and scientific perspective. The event started by exploring Venusian mythologies and sensual ways of knowing. Being the only planet named after a female god, the workshops and performances aimed to study our interactions with the more-than-human world through the planetary, mythological, and symbolic agency of Venus. In the second and third day the event explored various aspects of peace, détente, reconciliation, public memory in post-conflict societies and peace in biodiversity. The event featured a photographic exhibition “Glimmers of Hope, Pieces of Peace”, curated by doctoral researcher Juulia Niiniranta, and the event ended in hopeful tunes played by pianist Sallamari Keinänen.
In 2024, ABOAGORA kicked off a new thematic series, The Planets. This theme is based on the orchestral suite of the same name by the composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934), composed between 1914 and 1917. Each of the composition’s seven movements represent a planet in our solar system, bringing forth various ideas, myths, and dreams connected to the celestial bodies and the astrological characters associated with them. Musically innovative at the time of its publication, Gustav Holst’s suite still continues to capture modern audiences over 100 years after its debut, inspiring an endless stream of adaptations and influencing numerous musical and other works of art.
Each year, a different movement of the suite – a planet – will serve as the theme of ABOAGORA, functioning as an inspiration and setting the stage for exploring challenging current questions with the help of scientific and artistic creativity.
The parts of the suite and the annual themes for the upcoming seven ABOAGORA events are: Mars, the Bringer of War (2024), Venus, the Bringer of Peace (2025), Mercury, the Winged Messenger (2026), Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (2027), Saturn, the bringer of old age (2028), Uranus, the Magician (2029) and Neptune, the Mystic (2030).
Venus
Venus, the Bringer of Peace, “has to try and bring the right answer” to its predecessor Mars, the Bringer of War, according to Imogen Holst, a composer and the daughter of Gustav Holst. Thus, the calm blue Venus follows the reddened fury of Mars. In Holst’s piece, Venusian music is slower and beautifully eerie, complete with calming tunes played on harps and flutes, shimmering strings, and ethereal solo violin passages.
Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky, known as the “Morning star” in Old English and by the ancient Greeks. Much like the planet Venus, ABOAGORA also strived to bring hope and light to our gloomy contemporary times.
Two out three Agora lectures from ABOAGORA 2025 are going to be available on ABOAGORA’s YouTube channel:
Erkki Tuomioja
Ph.D., Docent, author, chair of the Historians Without Borders
The Role of History in War and Peace
Natalia Djandjgava
Values of Peace: Communicating Dialogue and Inclusion through Lived Experience