x-risk: Johanna Tuukkanen, Tim Humphrey, Maija Eränen & Madeleine Flynn. Photography @ Pekka Mäkinen.

x-risk asks questions of human identity and responsibility in the face of existential risk. The world will end with a bang, crunch, shriek or whimper. We will face it together. We feel the urge to act.

In the process of making x-risk, we have been, in multiple forms and methods, considering and trying to comprehend the four categories of existential risks both as concepts and real scenarios of the world’s end. From the ideas of the Fermi paradox and extraterrestrial civilisations to asteroids, artificial intelligence, deliberate misuse of nanotechnology and pandemics, existential risks can be classified as bangs, crunches, shrieks and whimpers. x-risk (for cemetery and theater) includes ideas, concepts, scenes and elements that deal especially with whimper; concepts of diminution, gradual decrease and decay. At the centre of the work sits the impossibility of fully grasping the scale of existential risks because they often involve astronomical time-scales. So we are not intending to demonstrate anything, let alone teach our audience about existential risks or scenarios of the end of the world, but through sound, photography and body, we are creating scenes that arise from our investigation and research.

Along the journey into x-risks, since we are dealing with scenarios of the extinction of humanity, we have also been thinking of life and death. On our first research residency which took the form of an existential bus tour in and around Cambridge, UK, in 2017, we visited sites related to exotic, anthropological and natural existential risks such as Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory where Jocelyn Bell discovered the first pulsar in 1967, Rendlesham Forest where several UFO landings were reported in 1980, AWRE Orford Ness which was one of only a few sites in the the world where purpose-built facilities were created for testing the components of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and The Leper Chapel, dating back to 1125, which was originally the chapel of an isolation hospital caring for people with leprosy.

Following the initial residency with researchers and various risk experts, we have undertaken several residencies between 2017-19. We spent two weeks in residency in the Melbourne General Cemetery, learning how different cultures and communities negotiate and navigate human death and commemorate the deceased. At the extremes of the world – Finland, Australia and Tasmania, we have been imagining the sensation of the world’s end creating a series of visual, sonic and performative responses to existential risks. The performance x-risk (for cemetery and theater) that we will present in Kuopio, is one of the outcomes of this long term collaborative process. In 2018, We contain multitudes installation was presented at the Arts House Melbourne, and x-risk performance continues to explore the human identity and responsibility in the face of existential risk, whatever the risk x will be.

Thank you:
John Ash, Sophie Weeks, Simon Spain & Victoria Ryle, Jude Gunn, Tara Prowse, Sunita Varlarmos, Celestina Sagazio, Eugene Jee, Rebecca Elliot, Erin Milne, Aki ja Sanna Roukala, Aino ja Yrjö Tuukkanen, Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge UK)

Concept: Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey, Pekka Mäkinen, Johanna Tuukkanen
Choreography: Johanna Tuukkanen
Performers: Madeleine Flynn, Jen Hector, Tim Humphrey, Johanna Tuukkanen
Sound design & composition: Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey
Space & lighting design: Jen Hector
Images: Pekka Mäkinen
Existential risk expert: John Ash
Existential risk bus ride producer: Sophie Weeks
Producer: Maija Eränen

Production: Flynn & Humphrey, Live Umbrella, Itä-Suomen tanssin aluekeskus

Residencies: All that we are (Tasmania, Australia), Arts House Melbourne, Melbourne General Cemetery – Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, Peter Doherty Institute (Melbourne, Australia), Incheon Art Platform (Incheon, Etelä-Korea), Kulttuuritalo Päiväkoti (Hailuoto)

Supporters: Koneen Säätiö, Taiteen edistämiskeskus, Pohjois-Savon taidetoimikunta, Jenny ja Antti Wihurin rahasto, Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Asialink, Arts House Melbourne, Dark MOFO

Thursday 14.11. 2019 at 5pm (premiere) at 7pm (second performance), buy your ticket here.
Friday 15.11.2019 performances at 5pm and 7pm, buy your ticket here. 
Saturday 16.11.2019 performances at 5pm and 7pm, buy your ticket here. 

Performance starts from Kuopio Cemetery, gate at Karjalankatu.
From graveyard the performance continues to Sotku Theatre by foot. The walk is about 500 meters.

Ticket stand is located at the cemetery gate. Please be there in time before the performance starts. There is no parking space at the cemetery, please leave your car near Sotku Theatre.

There is limited amount of tickets available in each performance. Buy your tickets now!

Tickets 18 / 10 €
Tickets in advance from ITAK online shop.
Tickets are also sold at the ticket stand 30 minutes before the performance.