xəno əxo ɐstro is a constellation-reinstallation of four works by Simo Kellokumpu, created between 2019 and 2024. The choreographic installation is exhibited in MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Space at the Cable Factory, as a part of the Side Step Festival 2025.
The Andromeda galaxy is visible from the corner of the eye
and so does the Orion Nebula
"Here I am. (Breathing heavily.)
I don’t know how much I have time. Input: Am I here? Before arriving (have I arrived?) during this journey I have ridden with a meteor and danced pas-de-deux’s with the artificial moons, rubbed the toxic soil on my skin, and gasped the airless air in the orbit while locating the body into the multitemporal history of the Universe. I’ve been chasing the light of the star and the space that goes beyond my human understanding. How the lasting starlight and expanding space keep me moving. This story is that of the choreoreader that I have become. My job is to sense the tectonic plates and move with the lightspeed. Did you know that one of the best ways to get connected with Andromeda in the dark night is to couple with it with the corner of the eye? There are people whose lives are filled with Andromedas and everyday nebulas. I am one of them. The corner of the eye is loud. Has always been. Log in."
xəno əxo ɐstro is a constellation-reinstallation of four works by Simo Kellokumpu, created between 2019 and 2024. This open-format exhibition invites visitors to engage with Kellokumpu's choreoreading practice, which expands site- and place-responsive choreography by exploring these concepts and their relations on the scale of outer space. The project aims to reimagine place- and site-responsive practices, generating artworks that engage with the critical material of hyper-reading research, astrobiology, astronomical data and queer speculative fiction.
As a retrospective, xəno əxo ɐstro concludes the four-year postdoctoral artistic research xeno/exo/astro –choreoreadings, which Kellokumpu has been carrying out as a visiting artist researcher in the Performing Arts Research Center in the Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.
Bio
Simo Kellokumpu is a Helsinki-based choreographer and researcher working in the fields of choreography, performing arts and contemporary art. Kellokumpu's work explores the interplay between corporeality and materiality, choreography, movement and space/place, influenced by post-internet hyper-reading practices, queer speculative fiction and site responsiveness. His recent works has been shown at Toaster Festival in Copenhagen, Tokyo Arts and Space, Mad House Helsinki / Kohta Gallery in Helsinki and Konstmuseet i Norr in Kiruna.
From 2013 to 2019, he conducted the doctoral artistic research project Choreography as Reading Practice at the Performing Arts Research Centrem TUTKE, at the University of the Arts,, after which he worked as a visiting researcher at Tutke on the artistic research project xeno/exo/astro -choreadings. In addition to his artistic work, Kellokumpu currently works as a lecturer at the Theatre Academy and as a curator-facilitator at the Pengerkatu 7 - Työhuone art space in Helsinki.
Web: simokellokumpu.org/
Choreographer: Simo Kellokumpu
Visual artist: Thomas Westphal
Space philosopher: Tuukka Perhoniemi
Manga: Nao Yazawa
Video: Vincent Roumagnac
Installation in co-operation: Vincent Roumagnac
The work is supported by Taike, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Performing Arts Research Centre TUTKE and Konstmuseet I Norr, Norrbotten’s County Art Museum
