Performances: Under the bridge of Hakaniemi. Helsinki. 2017
Ksenos was a two week long performance installation taking place in Helsinki, under the bridge of Hakaniemi, inside and next to a parked caravan in August 2017.
Ksenos was: resting, taking care, idling and dreaming about possible feminist future visions. It gave space for lavishing and resting for worn-out, fossil-capitalist bodies. Ksenos was a dream and a proposal of a future. It inhabited a caravan: a surplus of heteronormative and capitalist family narrative.
Ksenos is a word that stems from Greek word Xenos, that refers to a ”stranger” and a ”guest friend”. Stranger refers to something unknown, whereas guest is something that is an expected visitor who is being treated with hospitality. Ksenos thus combines love of the uncanny and expectation towards the unknown.
The performance installation consisted of two parts: the other was a durational and daily performance taking place inside the caravan, and the other a one-hour-long performance taking place outside the caravan, on seven evenings. The performance inside the caravan included two human bodies resting and humming, a video, texts and plants. The performance outside the caravan was a manifest for a future, performed by two performers.
Ksenos performance installation preceded a year and half -long research period focusing on questions around resource thinking and post-fossil speculations. This research period included a reading group and a workshop for public.
Credits:
Working group and production: Venla Helenius and Teo Ala-Ruona
Supported by: Niilo Helanderin Säätiö and Helsinki University of Arts
Vimeo-link to KSENOS documentation: https://vimeo.com/306561928