Virve Sutinen, President of IETM and Artistic director of Dansens Hus, talks about PAMS 2009.

Every visit has a beginning, a middle and and an end, very much like all performances, plays or concerts do. For me PAMS, had a nearly poetic beginning,  since I arrivived in the early morning, drived through the landscape of a waking city while the sun arised and the mist began to disappear. I have never before seen people play football at six in the morning. It made me feel very happy, since I love not only arts , but some too sports, and especially the art of football.
PAMS is a performing arts market which is also a meeting place for international professionals from all over the world. It is a priviledge meeting with collegues, artists and local operators. The landscape of our cultural practice is widening and our collaboration is deepening and diversifying to accommondate the needs  rising from our constantly changing environment. It is important to develope our practices  through networking and dialogue in a global context.

It is a challenge to realize a meeting which is both a market place and a networking opportunity. That is a challenge that PAMS has taken seriously. The success of any gathering lies at having a strong identity as a meeting. The bright colors  and visual identity of PAMS  is greeting us when coming in. It wakes me up after a long travel from the other side of the world: it is fresh, and joyful, and the feeling also present in bright t-shirts of the helpers.

The simple things are usually the most difficult ones to master. How to communicate the different activities, and how to make sure that oversea visitors, whose brains are still on the way to Seoul, find their way to approriate places at exact times. After being cramped in an airlplane for hours, it is a pleasure to be surrounded by air, light and open architecture of the National Theatre. The National Theatre is a wonderfull  scene for a meeting, with plenty of  space and room around. The great big windows gave the sense of light and surroudings present all the time.

The opening performances were suprising. The welcome song was especially hilarious and striped away the official nature of the opening. There is a strong sense of tradition in Korea, but the charming performance set the tone for the whole happening. For a first time visitor, it is always good to have a strong local context to intepret the work.

The traditional music has its own circuits, and so does contemporary dance. The international cotenxt and the market is not for everyone, but it can operate as a platform for competence building, mutual learning and spereading of good practices. All that is the pre-condition of any ”take-over” in the international market. Anyone working with contemporary performing arts knows that international collaboration and eschange is based on trust and longterm commitment. This is base for any sustainable business.

PAMS plus gave not only an added sense of artistic value, but also gave us a chance to see different neighborhoods and audiences. It was especially delightfull to whitness the young audiences ethusiasm at the University campus. There is the future of our business. 

My passion is to work internationally with other dedicated people,  who see a value in arts and culture, and who see networking as an necessary way of expanding the undertanding of this value. The efficiency of our production, presentation and distribution is not in conflict with these values. My favorite part of the seminar was when Lindy Hume talked about healthy competition. It is a great term for our business, which, in the end,  is ” a kind of a business. In the days of so much of unhealthy competition, the cultural sector can set a standard for sustainable healthy competetiveness. . In the end,  our common goal is to arrive at a deeper understanding of our practice.

The end of PAMS is not lacking of drama in harmonious courtyard of Korea house. There was a sense of divine intervention, when the dancers movements were punctuated by thunder and lightning, and the pouring rain gave away to the farewells and hopes for many happy returns.