EVA NEKLYAEVA IS VIERNULVIER’S NEW PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMMER

In September, Eva Neklyaeva becomes the new performing arts programmer of VIERNULVIER Arts Centre in Ghent. She is no stranger to VIERNULVIER, having guest curated ‘With Pleasure’ (2019) for us, “the only art programme that improves your sex life”.

Eva Neklyaeva is a curator with a rather anti-disciplinary practice - finding moments of freedom and meaning in the intersections of multiple forms of artistic expression, writing practice and research. Or, in simpler words, she weaves stories and hosts spaces - the kind that makes pleasure linger.

“My deep joy roots itself in so many shared values: the ones of working together, of understanding programming work as one of service, of opening up and making access tangible and real. Not sticking to one narrative, but telling stories that matter, for different reasons, for various audiences. I am looking forward to adding my eclectic experience of working and living in many international contexts to this amazing house that never stops learning.”
- Eva Neklyaeva

"Eva Neklyaeva is no stranger to VIERNULVIER and Ghent, having guest curated the ‘With Pleasure’ focus programme here in 2019. We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Eva and look forward to her bringing a unique perspective and energy to our team and podium Programme."
- Róise Goan, artistic coordinator.

At the moment, she is co-curating ‘Samara Editions – performances by post’; organises ‘Afterglow’ - a series of workshops on pleasure in Milan, as well as serves as a co-curator for SPIELART Theaterfestival in Munich. Additionally, Eva teaches curating in the performing arts field at IUAV University in Venice, and writes about the practice. You can read her latest texts on various-artists.com.

In 2017-2019 Eva curated Santarcangelo Festival, the oldest Italian festival dedicated to the contemporary performing arts, presenting and producing an immersive, loud, radically anti- disciplinary program in a small town between the hills and the sea.

Her other positions included Director of a contemporary art organisation Checkpoint Helsinki, an institution with a passion for finding new ways of producing, presenting and communicating art for the city and its residents. Before that, she had been running Baltic Circle International Contemporary Theatre Festival for six years (2009-2014). Under her leadership, the festival became an acclaimed international platform and laboratory for emerging multidisciplinary performance. In 2014, Neklyaeva co-founded ‘Wonderlust’ – a festival of diverse and creative sexuality that took place every June in Helsinki from 2014 till 2019.

For her work, Neklyaeva received two TINFO awards for innovation in the theatre field, Finnish PEN’s Freedom of Speech award as well as Finnish Sexologists Association’s award for promotion of sexual wellbeing.