Screaming Duende

'El duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought.'
Federico García Lorca, "Theory and Play of the Duende", Buenos Aires, 1933

On 3 June 2023, the AaltoSiilo witnessed something extraordinary. In a world-premiere event, maverick Spanish bailaor Israel Galván and the famous Screaming Men's Choir (Mieskuoro Huutajat) of Oulu, directed by Petri Sirviö, challenged and inspired each other in an astounding performance, witnessed by audiences both online and offline.

Organised by AaltoSiilo Ry and presented by Factum Foundation and Oulu 2026 Capital of Culture as a free-to-access event, Screaming Duende demonstrated how live performance can exceed all expectations and generate powerful and long-lasting creative energy.

Introduced by a series of performances by vinyl DJs Malsson, Tenko, and Matti Aikio, followed by an audiovisual concert by Veera Neva & Arttu Nieminen, the evening's main event paired Spain's most radical flamenco master with Finland's acclaimed and innovative choir without words. The unprecedented, powerfully raw artistic dialogue perfectly incarnated Federico García Lorca's concept of duende.

Duende is far more than mere artistic inspiration – it is what García Lorca called "a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought." This mysterious force, rooted in Andalusian folklore as an earth spirit, represents the raw, authentic soul of artistic expression that emerges not from technical skill alone, but from a visceral confrontation with mortality and suffering. As Lorca explained in his 1933 lecture "Theory and Play of the Duende", delivered in Buenos Aires coincidentally just two years after the AaltoSiilo's completion in Oulu, duende is "an ecstasy inspired by tragedy, an uncontrollable poetic emotion."

Unlike the angel, which gives and protects, or the muse, which dictates and inspires, duende must be wrestled with.

"The artist doesn't simply surrender to the duende; they have to battle it skilfully, on the rim of the well, in hand-to-hand combat. [...] It climbs up from the soles of the feet, through the entire being, demanding authenticity and rejecting superficiality. [...] The duende is not in the throat," Lorca insisted, emphasising that this force originates from the deepest, most primal parts of human experience.

In the context of Screaming Duende, this concept found perfect expression in the meeting of two art forms that embody precisely this struggle with elemental forces. Galván's flamenco, with flamenco’s roots in the pain and passion of marginalised communities, and the Huutajat's raw, unvarnished vocal expression, transformed the AaltoSiilo itself into the "rim of the well" where this battle took place – a space where industrial heritage met contemporary expression, where Finnish and Spanish cultures grappled with their shared humanity.

The event's impact extended far beyond Oulu's borders. A simultaneous performance took place at the Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia in Madrid, featuring Sudanese singer Wafir Gibril, who performed flamenco songs in Arabic accompanied by lute. Dressed in a Syrian sash and singing the heartfelt quejío songs characteristic of flamenco, Gibril's performance served as a powerful bridge to Oulu's growing Syrian and Iraqi refugee communities, highlighting the multicultural richness embedded within flamenco's very essence.

This dual-city celebration demonstrated how the spirit of duende truly knows no borders – it is, as Lorca understood, a universal artistic concept that transcends specific cultural forms. The duende that emerged was neither purely Spanish nor Finnish, but something more fundamental. Both Galván's flamenco and the Screaming Men's singing reject the comfortable and familiar, demanding instead a confrontation with the raw essence of human expression – the very quality that makes duende so powerful and transformative.

Screaming Duende represented a significant milestone in the AaltoSiilo project's transformation from industrial heritage site to dynamic performance and exhibition space. Following the success of 2022's Transistori performance, where the collective "played" the Silo building as a vast urban instrument, this event further established the venue as a place where innovative art breathes new life into architectural history.

After 2023, the artistic partnership between Israel Galván and Mieskuoro Huutajat continued to evolve and flourish. On 6 October 2024, an innovative version of Bizet's Carmen debuted at the prestigious Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville – Galván's home city. Described as "the most independent Carmen," this collaboration received critical acclaim in El País and other major publications, and its success speaks to the transformative power of the AaltoSiilo project and demonstrates how far the tremendous energy generated in and around it can travel.

Galván's own words after the Seville performance capture the profound artistic connection forged in Oulu: "Petri Sirviö's Screaming Men are flamenco. With them, I dance at my best."