Pontus Pettersson: Pancor Poetics

7.11. - 10.11.2024

In November, Kunsthalle Helsinki will transform into a miniature golf course lined with green. We warmly welcome you for a round – but don’t be surprised if a cat is roaming around your feet!

The surprising and experience-driven Pancor Poetics is an interactive piece created with dance artists, where dancers wander around the miniature golf course embodying the essence of a cat – rather than merely performing it. The piece is part of the joint programme between Kunsthalle Helsinki and the Moving in November festival.

Embodying the cat, Cat Practice, requires dancers to be alert, adaptable, and constantly attuned to their surroundings. The cat wanders and meows according to its own desires, living much of its life out of sight, yet strangely close to us humans. What bodily, social, and choreographic insights does embodying a cat bring to the surface?

The piece is shaped using a typeface developed by Pettersson, called Pancor. The Pancor typeface explores the similarities shared by poetry and choreographic work; like dance, poetry has the ability to produce and transform meanings through subtle shifts and imprecisions. At Kunsthalle Helsinki, poetry spreads onto walls, floors, and bodies.

Pontus Pettersson’s Pancor Poetics is aimed at audiences of all ages and serves as an invitation to a world where art and life meet on a continuous journey of discovery. You are welcome to stay for as long as you wish!

Pontus Pettersson is a Swedish choreographer, artist, dancer, and curator. Pancor Poetics is part of the joint programme between Kunsthalle Helsinki and the Moving in November festival. 

Performances from the festival programme have been featured at Kunsthalle Helsinki over several editions, but this year the collaboration is more extensive: Kunsthalle Helsinki has invited the Moving in November festival to take over its entire exhibition space.

Dancers: Sofia Charifi, Anni Koskinen, Vilma Mankonen, Robert Malmborg, Pontus Pettersson, Escarleth Romo Pozo, Jaakko Toivonen.

Please note that this exhibition is shoe-free. You can wear socks, borrow slippers or use you own indoor shoes.