IPAF presents the Danish premiere and re-working of: how to host something as a cloud by Kid Kokko, Tari Doris, Meri Ekola & H Ouramo

I have considered the weather and momentary states of queerness that appear and evaporate here and there, on the streets and subways and everywhere. Moments where everything changes yet nothing much can be seen. I have considered knowing, and different ways of knowing. Whose knowledge has access to the canons of knowledges, whose to their outskirts? Mainstreams don’t always have access to the sidestreams. Some bodies of knowledge stay in the sidestreams to be on their own terms, and this is good. This is also good. My attention is on the sidestreams. I listen to Tami T. I think of the wind. It is somewhat windy here.

It is as if nothing is happening.

I am not sure what this performance is about. This has now something more to do with than the beyondness of gender structures. This is about something else as well. Clouds. Or I don’t know. Something. How to host something as a cloud? How to host something as something? How to notice something? How to let things be as they are? All the time things are slowly changing and changing. All the time things are clearing out and distancing. They are not localized. Things do not become defined. There is something all the time. And now something else, already. Or I don’t know. Something else is happening. There is something else. Landscapes beyond landscapes.

Something, something, something.

About the artists:

Kid Kokko (they/them):

I am a performance artist, actor, and writer. I am a non-binary trans queer. I am interested in fragile structures, soft conditions, social justice, survival, suggestion, making space, and transcontinua. I try to take care of fragile structures and soft conditions. My thinking is based on intersectional transfeminism. I try to understand continuities of knowing. I try to understand the kinds of continuums I am part of.

I want to make space for ambiguities and impossibilities, obscurity and incomprehensibilities. I want to make space. Yes, that is the most important thing for me. I am interested in areas of dimness and the behinds of structures, the vast landscapes that open behind the hard structures, the areas of something else. Fragile structures exist (I try to remember it, I try to remember it), miracles happen, everything changes all the time. Changes and changes.

In 2021-25 my work is supported by a five-year artist grant from Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Tari Doris (they/them):

I am a performance artist, composer, sound designer, and musician. I am a non-binary trans person.

I want to imagine the reality without structures as we see them now – what kind of qualities are there when they can exist as they are and not in relation to power structures. How would different kinds of qualities be beautiful and useful if being beautiful and useful would mean something else than what the power structures suggest? What would it mean to be you in a world that doesn’t have standardized expectations of what one should do in life? Would there be a word for being exactly who you are? What would that word be? Would there be many words? Or any? What exactly would they refer to and why? What would be their meaning and purpose?

Things can change. Things change.

Meri Ekola (she/her):

I am a light designer and artist, I use light as my main medium of expression. Often it is in close connection with activities of organic elements like water, wind or smoke. I’m intrigued by the borderlands between light and dark, what is between them and existing in them, breaking down recognised forms and reshaping them.

Every situation has a potential to become a state of wonder, and I see wondering as a practice to connect with our surroundings, to acknowledge and give space to the existing, without forcing it to change.

H Ouramo (they/them):

I am a non-binary trans person, an artist, and performer who works with spaces, movement, words, translations, mixed media sculpture and direct intervention. My work questions and revolves around asymmetries of power, gender, toxicity and dominant economies and narratives of extraction. Central to my work is the question of what is recognised and what makes recognition possible. I often explore matter and objects in relation to the marginalised body and its proportions, its everyday life, and given meaning, and I keep asking how these bodies sustain themselves and share knowledge. I work with and study feminist organising and learning.

Access:

The venue has step-free access, a gravel road leading up to the water tower, and a large metal ramp with a railing leading into the space. The venue is cold and we encourage wearing warm clothes to the event. It is possible to sit down during the performance. The nearest toilets are located at Pilehuset, 200 meters from the water tower, on the 1st floor which can be accessed by lift. All toilets are gender-neutral and one is certified accessible to wheelchair users.

The performance will involve loud sounds and smoke.

General access info:

We encourage people to take a covid test before showing up to any event. We will provide masks and hand sanitizer at all venues.

Concession tickets are available to all performances in an attempt to make our festival accessible regardless of income. We do not have any set rules as to who the concession applies to and there will be no questions asked.

It will be possible to buy tickets at the door granted the event is not sold out. To ensure a ticket, please make sure to book in advance via Eventbrite.

Credits:

Working group

Tari Doris: sound

Meri Ekola: light, smoke, and wind

Kid Kokko: text, performing, performance dramaturgy

H Ouramo: translating, visualisation of the text

E. L. Karhu: text dramaturg

Visit www.warehouse9.dk for more info